HALL, Edwin Herbert (1855-1938) - photo 1
HALL, Edwin Herbert (1855-1938) - photo 2
HALL, Edwin Herbert (1855-1938) - photo 3
HALL, Edwin Herbert (1855-1938) - photo 4
HALL, Edwin Herbert (1855-1938) - photo 5
HALL, Edwin Herbert (1855-1938) - photo 6
HALL, Edwin Herbert (1855-1938) - photo 7
HALL, Edwin Herbert (1855-1938) - photo 8
HALL, Edwin Herbert (1855-1938) - photo 9
HALL, Edwin Herbert (1855-1938) - photo 10
HALL, Edwin Herbert (1855-1938) - photo 11

HALL, Edwin Herbert (1855-1938)

Lot 55
13.12.2023 11:00UTC +00:00
Classic
Sold
£ 882
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
Buyer Premiumsee on Website%
Archive
The auction is completed. No bids can be placed anymore.
Archive
ID 1105618
Lot 55 | HALL, Edwin Herbert (1855-1938)
Estimate value
£ 3 000 – 5 000
HALL, Edwin Herbert (1855-1938)

‘On a New Action of the Magnet on Electric Currents.’ Offprint from: American Journal of Mathematics, vol. II. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 22 November 1879.

Extremely rare offprint, the first appearance in print of the publication of Edwin Hall’s discovery of The Hall Effect, ‘termed by Kelvin as comparable with the greatest ever made by Michael Faraday’ (DSB). The Hall Effect occurs when an electric current is placed in a magnetic field, causing a potential difference and a transverse field is created. By measuring the potential one can calculate the strength of the magnetic field.



The current lot is the first published notice of Hall’s initial results from preliminary experiments undertaken while a graduate student working on his doctoral thesis. Hall opens his paper by noting that he questioned Maxwell's statement in his Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism: ‘It must be carefully remembered, that the mechanical force which urges a conductor carrying a current across lines of magnetic force, acts, not on the electric current, but on the conductor which carries it.’



In Halls’ opinion, ‘This statement seemed … to be contrary to the most natural supposition … taking into account the fact that a wire not bearing a current is in general not affected by a magnet and that a wire bearing a current is affected directly in proportion to the strength of the current'.



Consequently, Hall, began a series of experiments that would lead to the discovery of the effect that bears his name. Passing a current through a gold leaf conductor in a magnetic field, he found that he produced an electric potential perpendicular to both the current and field. Published some 15 years before George Johnstone Stoney’s description and naming of the electron, Hall’s paper has led to extremely important and wide-ranging applications in the 20th and 21st centuries. These include understanding the behaviour of semiconductors, and the deployment of Hall Effect sensors in current sensing and voltage sensing, motion sensors and motion limitation devices, engine management systems, anti-lock braking mechanisms, in joysticks used to control hydraulic values, and even the development of Hall Effect Thrusters in spacecraft. No offprints or other works by Hall have seemingly appeared at auction (RBH).



Quarto (307 x 238mm). 6pp., 287-292. Original wrappers (worn, upper wrapper detached, extremities frayed with short marginal tears and soiling, corners dogeared, small 20mm marginal chip at fore-edge, the whole loose and sometime folded with faint horizontal creasefold). Provenance: faint mathematical notation in pencil on rear wrapper, author’s name inscribed in pencil on upper wrapper).

Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
8 King Street, St. James's
SW1Y 6QT London
United Kingdom
Preview
09.12.2023 12:00 – 17:00
10.12.2023 12:00 – 17:00
11.12.2023 09:00 – 18:00
12.12.2023 09:00 – 17:00
Phone +44 (0)20 7839 9060
Email
4FQ.AYGKAGLUQ@FO3G@
Buyer Premium see on Website
Conditions of purchaseConditions of purchase

Frequently asked questions

First of all, you should register to be able to purchase at auction. After confirming your email address, enter your personal information in your user profile, such as your first name, last name, and mail address. Choose a lot from the upcoming auction and the maximum amount you want to place on it. After confirmation of your choice, we will send your application by e-mail to the appropriate auction house. If the auction house accepts a request, it will participate in the auction. You can view the current status of a bid at any time in your personal account in the "Bids" section.
Auctions are performed by auction houses and each of the auction houses describes their terms of auction. You can see the texts in the section "Auction information".
The results of the auction are published within a few days after the end of the auction. In the top menu of the site, find the tab "Auctions". Click on it and you will be on the auction catalog page, where you can easily find the category "Results". After opening it, select the desired auction from the list, enter and view the current status of the interested lot.
The information about the auction winners is confidential. The auction winner will receive a direct notification from the auction house responsible with instructions for further action: an invoice for payment and the manner in which the goods will be received.
Each of the auction houses has its own payment policy for the won lots. All auction houses accept bank transfers, most of them accept credit card payments. In the near future you will find detailed information for each case in the section "Auction information" on the page of the auction catalog and the lot.
Shipment of the won lot depends on its size. Small items can be delivered by post. Larger lots are sent by courier. Employees of the auction houses will offer you a wide range to choose from.
No. The archive serves as a reference for the study of auction prices, photographs and descriptions of works of art.