"An elementary derivation of the equivalence of mass and energy" IN Technion Journal, Volume 5, June 1946
New York, NY: American Society for the Advancement of The Hebrew Institute of Technology in Haifa, Palestine, Inc. 1946. First Edition. 148 pages. 11 x 8 3/8 inches. Publisher's printed wrappers. The entire issue offered, with the article by Einstein found on pages 16-17. Front wrapper detached with evidence of old cellotape repairs. Front wrapper with several chips missing but no loss of text. First leaf missing section roughly 2 1/2 x 1 1/2 inches at spine affecting the advertisement on verso. Paper lightly browned throughout.
Laid in are:
- A four page folded circular with a quote on the front by Karl J. Compton, President of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology noting how important the Hebrew Institute of Technology is in the educational world.
- A brochure for TECHNION. Good. Wraps. [28909]
Printed by the Parish Press, Inc. New York. The Technion Journal was "A YEARBOOK devoted to the advancement of technological training and research in Palestine and the Middle East." The wrapper cover title is "Technion ASAHIT Yearbook 1946" noting "First publication: Elementary Proof of the Equivalence of Mass and Energy by Albert Einstein." Also published in Hebrew in the following year. Einstein was the founder of the first Technion Society and was a supporter throughout his life.
The importance of Einstein's e=mc^2 showing the equivalency of mass and energy needs no real introduction. Although the concept was first published in 1905, he derived it twice more during his lifetime. "In 1934 [Einstein] gave the Gibbs lecture in Pittsburgh and deduced [e=mc^2] from the validity in all inertial frames of energy and momentum conservation for a system of point particles. In 1946 [as here] he gave an elementary derivation in which the equation for the aberration of light and the radiation of pressure are assumed given." (Pais, p148)
While many years after the discovery, the present paper is interesting in that it may be the first appearance in an Einstein paper of his famous equation e=mc^2 in that form. It is not printed this way in either the 1905 paper nor in the 1934 lecture. That aside, it is a very uncommonly found item in the trade - this is the first example we have handled. This paper was also reprinted in "Science and Technion", a 1959 collection edited by Bern Dibner of important papers from Technion which helped influence the mid-twentieth century.
LITERATURE:
Pais, Subtle is the Lord, The Science and Life of Albert Einstein (Oxford University Press: 1982)
Weil, Albert Einstein, A Bibliography of his Scientific Papers 1901-1954 (London:1960), #218
Boni, Russ, and Laurence, A Bibliographical Checklist and Index to the Published Writings of Albert Einstein, (Pageant Books, Inc: Paterson New Jersey: 1960), #253
ITEM SOLD