On the Davisson-Germer experiment - photo 1
On the Davisson-Germer experiment - photo 2

On the Davisson-Germer experiment

Lot 13
16.07.2020 06:00UTC +00:00
Classic
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£ 5 000
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
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ID 370002
Lot 13 | On the Davisson-Germer experiment
Estimate value
£ 1 500 – 2 000
Erwin Schrödinger (1887-1961).

Typed letter signed (‘E. Schrödinger’) to [Wilhelm Wien: ‘Hochverehrter Herr Geheimrat!’], Berlin, 25 November 1927.

In German. 2 pages, 280 x 220mm, ink corrections (tear to upper right margin of first page repaired with tape). Provenance: by descent from the recipient.

On the Davisson-Germer experiment and Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle – Schrödinger at the coalface of wave mechanics. Opening with a couple of points of order, Schrödinger explains the appearance of a mysterious package with his friend: it contains a small first-aid kit that he left behind in Zurich, sent by his wife, and he will collect it when he next comes. He also notes that he has written to Schachenmeier [Richard Schachenmeir; an industrial physicist who wished to return to university] asking that he send him some of his earlier work, of which Schrödinger has no memory, to ensure he advises him correctly. He then turns to the latest from America on investigations into the reflection of electrons by a crystal of nickel; a piece of work by Davisson and Germer, sent to him in manuscript by the authors, re-stating earlier findings ‘that the locations of the maxima do not lie in the same places as they would for X-rays of the same wavelength. Here, the wavelength is taken to be h/mv, where ‘v’ is the velocity of the outer electrons’. Schrödinger has several criticisms of this approach, which he outlines for Wien’s benefit; he understands from Wien that it should be possible to give a convincing account of the true location of the maxima – ‘that would be very nice. But the exact theory [to predict its location] must be terribly complex, even more so than the Ewald-Darwin X-Ray theory’. If Wien succeeds, Schrödinger asks that it not be called a triumph of his own theory, but of [Louis] de Broglie’s rule; de Broglie’s work is quite sufficient for a primary understanding of the process. Reporting on his time in Brussels, he has praise for the lectures of Arthur Compton and Lawrence Bragg, while those of de Broglie, Born, and Heisenberg were of little interest, presenting little that was new; too much of the discussion was dominated by the visionary Niels Bohr, ‘linguistically and acoustically barely understandable’, talking on Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle. Again and again, the discussion returned to the idea of a finite energy transfer: ‘It may be right, but it doesn’t leave me any clearer, and I do not know how to apply the principle to really understand an actual experiment’.

A milestone in the formulation of quantum mechanics, the 1923-27 Davisson–Germer experiment undertaken at Western Electric by Clinton Davisson and Lester Germer demonstrated that electrons reflected by a crystal of nickel displayed a diffraction pattern, thus confirming the theory of wave-particle duality first put forward by Louis de Broglie and subsequently advanced by Schrödinger. Schrödinger also refers to the fampus 1927 Solvay Conference in Brussels, where attendees including Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr, Max Born and Werner Heisenberg gathered to discuss developments in the strange new field of quantum mechanics.
Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
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24.06.2020 – 16.07.2020
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