The Neutrino
London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd. 1956. First Edition. [4], 1484, iii-cix (index) pages. 4to. Blue buckram gilt. Ex-library copy with the usual markings. Volume contains Nature, A Weekly Journal of Science, Volume 178, July 7, 1956 to December 29, 1956. Occasional stamps of corporate research library (Caterpillar Tractor Co Research Library) and later Peoria Public Library (properly withdrawn). Good. Cloth. [26512]
The Nobel Prize in Physics 1995 was awarded jointly "for pioneering experimental contributions to lepton physics" to Martin L. Perl "for the discovery of the tau lepton" and Frederick Reines "for the detection of the neutrino."
In 1953 Reines and Cowan published "Detection of the Free Neutrino" (Physical Review 92, p830) where they noted "An experiment has been performed to detect the free neutrino. It appears probable that this aim has been accomplished although further confirmatory work is in progress." The further work took three years, when in 1956, Cowan, et al published "Detection of the Free Neutrino: A Confirmation" in Science (124).
The volume offered here contains the article "The Neutrino" on pages 446-449, which contains a review of the properties of the neutrino, including the results of some important new experiments by the authors. Ezhela notes that this is the "First detection of the free neutrino" but it actually contains experiments confirming the initial discovery which was announced with some reservations in 1953. It post-dates the Science article publication by just one month.
See Ezhela, Particle Physics One Hundred Years of Discoveries, "Reines 1956" p146-7. See also The Physical Review - the First Hundred Years, pp 807-8 for a brief discussion of the discovery and it's importance.
Price: $450.00