Über die Entwickelung unserer Anschauungen iiber das Wesen und die Konstitution der Strahlung.

Braunschweig, Friedrich Vieweg und Sohn, 1909. 8vo. Bound in contemporary half calf with gilt lettering to spine. In ""Verhandlungen der Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft"", 11 Jahrgang, 1909. (Reprinted same year in ""Physikalische Zeitschrift 10""). Bound with ""Berichte der Deutschen Physikalischen Gesellschaft"", 7 Jahrgang, 1909. Capitals and hindges with wear. Internally very fine and clean. Pp. 482-500. [Entire volume: (2), 749, (3), VII, 450 pp.].

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First printing of Einstein's famous lecture in which he anticipated the discovery of black-body radiation and famously stated that: ""the next phase in the development of theoretical physics will bring us a theory of light, which may be regarded as a sort of fusion of the undulatory and emission theories of light"" (The present paper, Pp. 482-3). He furthermore stated that the electromagnetic fields that constitute light will no longer appear to be states of a hypothetical medium, but rather independent entities emitted by the sources of light, exactly as in the Newtonian emission theory of light. The paper was delivered as a lecture before the 81st assembly of the 'Gesellschaft Deutscher Naturforscher' in Salzburg on 21st September 1909.The occasion was important for Einstein since he for years had been working in scientific exile. Among those who attended Einstein's lecture were some of the world's foremost physicists such as" Max von Laue, Max Born, Arnold Sommerfeld. All published papers of their own in the present volume. Weil No. 30.