July 2021 Auction Ends Thursday, July 29th, 5pm Pacific
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 7/29/2021
Johannes Stark autograph letter signed, written by the Nobel Prize winning physicist in 1901 regarding canal ray experiments, the science for which he'd win the Nobel Prize 10 years later. Stark writes to fellow Nobel laureate Wilhelm Wien from Aachen, Germany on 29 July 1909, translated in part, ''...Regretfully, I can only follow your suggestion regarding [Joseph John] Thomson's work only in a limited way. / Furthermore, I must contradict all of your remarks. / If the current is suppressed by a magnetic field, it obviously does not matter what material the Faraday cup is made of; given that under these circumstances the current equals zero, it may just as well be concluded that no channel rays [aka 'Kanalstrahlen'] were present at all. You do not mention whether or not you observed the Doppler Effect ('changing intensity') on the line spectrum.
As far as the attenuation of the moving light emission of a channel beam is concerned, your previous experiment (Ann. d. Phys. 8, 260, 1902) has nothing to do with it. This is because it does not talk about moving line intensity in the gas space, but rather about the intensity of the fluorescence of the glass wall. / In that paper you touched on the question of the carriers of air emissions; you concluded from your experiment that 'not a significant part, not even the third part of the 5 mm thick luminous rays consists of positively charged simple atoms.' / Your concluding remark, that it is unnecessary to elaborate on my observations, prompts me to make a similar statement about your experiments. / You will receive the revision of my statement, modified or supplemented in accordance with your comments, in due time...J. Stark.'' Two page letter on bifolium stationery measures 5.675'' x 8.75''. Very good to near fine condition.
Johannes Stark Autograph Letter Signed on the Science for Which He won the Nobel Prize -- ''...You do not mention whether or not you observed the Doppler Effect...on the line spectrum...''
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