Beschreibung:

GIBBS, Josiah Willard (1839-1903). Elementary principles in statistical mechanics developed with especial reference to the rational foundation of thermodynamics . New York: Scribners; London: E. Arnold, 1902. 8 o (223 x 148 mm). Original blue cloth, gilt-lettered spine, gilt Yale seal on front cover, printed dust-jacket. Provenance : Jules-Henri Poincar (1854-1912), mathematical physicist (presentation inscription "M.J.-H. Poincar with the respects of the author"). FIRST EDITION, PRESENTATION COPY. A dissertation on "the analogy ... between the average behaviour of a canonical ensemble of systems and the behaviour of a physical system obeying the laws of thermodynamics" (DSB), representing a more general approach to statistical mechanics than those of Boltzmann or Maxwell, and a major advance in the subject. This difficult work gave Einstein the highest respect for Gibbs and his achievments. In 1918, Einstein wrote that Gibbs' book was a masterpiece "even though it is hard to read and the main points are found between the lines." Pais, in Subtle is the Lord (1983) records that "a year before his death, Einstein paid Gibbs the highest compliment. When asked who were the greatest men, the most powerful thinkers he had known, he replied "Lorentz", and added "I never met Willard Gibbs; perhaps, had I done so, I might have placed him beside Lorentz." Wheeler, in Josiah Willard Gibbs (1952) does not include Einstein on the list of recipients of offprints of this work (though Poincar is included). This suggests that Gibbs and Einstein did not correspond directly, and that Einstein may only have known of Gibbs' work through Ernest Zermelo's translation (Leipzig, 1905). Norman 900.