CURIE, PIERRE. 1859-1906; AND MARIE CURIE 1867-1934.


"Sur une nouvelle substance radio-active, contenue dans la pechblende." [In:] Comptes rendus hebdomadaires des séances de l'Académie des sciences, volume 127, number 3, pp 175-178, and number 26, pp 1215-1217. Paris: Gauthier-Villars, 1898. 4to. Contemporary marbled boards, paper spine label, untrimmed. Wear to covers, light browning.FIRST EDITION OF THE CURIE'S NOBEL-PRIZE-WINNING FINDINGS. "The Curies, studying the radioactivity of minerals containing uranium and thorium, isolated from pitchblend, a substance which they called radium which they showed to possess an astonishing degree of radioactivity. Since then radium has proved to be a valuable agent in the treatment of cancer. They shared the Nobel Prize for Physics with Becquerel in 1903" (Garrison-Morton). This volume also includes Demarcay's report that confirmed the presence of radium in pitchblend. Garrison-Morton 2003; Norman 545. WITH: CURE, MARIE. Rayons emis par les compose de l'uranium et du thorium. [In:] Comptes rendus hebdomadaires des séances de l'Académie des sciences, volume 126, pp 1101-1103, Paris: Guathier-Villars, 1898. 4to. Half-title, title page and pp 1059-1110 bound together (remainder of pages omitted). 20th century blue morocco and marbled boards. FIRST EDITION of this seminal paper by Marie Curie which coined the term "radioactivity" and identified it for the first time as a property of atoms. Garrison-Morton 2003.