Boris Podolsky 1962

BORIS PODOLSKY MEMORABILIA

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LIST OF PUBLICATIONS

 

 


 

CATALOG of PODOLSKY MEMORABILIA

 

PLEASE NOTE: Scanned images or photos (as appropriate) of all items below are available on request. Provenances of all items, by Podolsky's son and heir, are also available.
 

  1. BOOKS, PERSONALLY OWNED
    1. "A Short Table of Integrals" by B. O. Pierce — Ginn & Co., 2nd edition, 1910 — 152 pages, 5.75" x 8.25", with a few handwritten notes by Podolsky following the last page.
    2. "An Introduction to Quantum Statistics" by William Band — Van Nostrand, 1955, edition unknown. 342 pages, 6.5" x 9.25". Podolsky's signature appears on the title page.
    3. SOLD "Essays on Wave Mechanics" (German) by E. Schrödinger — J. A. Barth, 1928 — 2nd edition. Approx. 200 pages, 6.25" x 9.25". Podolsky's signature appears on the title page.
    4. SOLD "Group Theory" by Eugene Wigner — Academic Press, 1959 — 2nd English Edition — 372 pages, 6.5" x 9.25". Nobel laureate, Wigner, was one of the principal participants in the Conference on the Foundations of Quantum Mechanics hosted by Podolsky in 1962. Podolsky's signature appears on the title page.
    5. "Handbook for Electrical Engineers" by Pender — John Wiley, 2nd Edition, 1922, 2,263 pages, 4.5" x 7.25", gilt-edged pages. Note that Podolsky's first degree was in this field.
    6. "Introduction to Fourier Analysis and Generalised Functions" by M. J. Lighthill — Cambridge U. Press, 1958. 79 pages, 5.75" x 8.625". Podolsky's signature appears on the title page.
    7. "Introduction to Quantum Mechanics" by Linus Pauling and E. Bright Wilson — McGraw Hill, 1935 — 1st Edition, 3rd Printing. 468 pages, 6.5" x 9.25". The book has two pages of printed Errata taped inside the front cover and Podolsky's signature on the title page. Podolsky and Pauling were friends and had published a paper together in 1929.
    8. "Introduction to Theoretical Physics" by John Slater and Nathaniel Frank — McGraw Hill, 1st edition, 3rd printing, 1933. 576 pages, 6.5" x 9.25", with Podolsky's signature on the page facing the front cover and former owner's signature crossed out.
    9. "Introductory Quantum Mechanics" by Vladimir Rojansky — Prentice-Hall, 1938, edition unknown. 544 pages, 6.25" x 9.25". Podolsky's signature appears on the title page.
    10. "Invariants of Quadratic Differential Forms" by Oswald Veblen, Cambridge U. Press, 1933. 102 pages, Paper bound, 5.5" x 8.5".
    11. "Mechanical Engineers' Handbook" by William Kent and Robert T. Kent — John Wiley, 10th edition, 1923. 2,247 pages, 4.5" x 7.25". Podolsky's signature appears on the title page.
    12. "Methods of Mathematical Physics" by Courant and Hilbert — Julius Springer Press — 1931 — Paper bound - 2nd Edition, revised — 469 pages — 6.5" x 9.5" with Podolsky's signature on the title page.
    13. "National Research Fellowships 1919 - 1944" by Neva Reynolds — National Research Council, 1944. 142 pages — 6.5" x 9.5", green paper cover. Podolsky is listed on page 34, along with Robert Oppenheimer; and on the next page are listed Vladimir Rojansky and Nathan Rosen, with both of whom Podolsky published papers.
    14. "Nuclear Physics" by Alex E. S. Green — McGraw Hill, 1955. 535 pages, 6.5" x 9.25" with an inscription by the author in appreciation of Boris Podolsky, his teacher and thesis advisor.
    15. "Pocket Companion" by Carnegie Steel Co. — 19th edition, 1917, 440 pages, 5" x 7.75". For this book Podolsky created a set of 25 thumb tabs allowing him to reference all the various cross-sections and the relevant data, without resorting to the index or table of contents. For each tab he drew a tiny picture of the cross section and taped it to the relevant page.
    16. "Popular Scientific Lectures" by Ernst Mach — Open Court Publishing, 1910 — 4th Edition. 411 pages, paper bound, 5.25" x 7.75" — a gift to Podolsky from E. F. Farnau.
    17. "Principles of Quantum Mechanics, The" by P. A. M. Dirac — Oxford Press, 1930 — Edition not known — 257 pages, 6.5" x 9.5". Podolsky's signature appears on the title page and 4 lines of quantum mechanical equations written on the back of the last page.
    18. Proceedings of the "Conference on the Foundations of Quantum Mechanics" — October 1-5, 1962. (Paper bound — Approx. 500 pages, 8.5" x 11")
    19. "Quantum Mechanics" by Landau and Lifshitz — Addison-Wesley, 1958. 515 pages, 6.5" x 9.25". Podolsky's
      signature appears on the title page.
    20. "Quantum Mechanics" by Leonard I. Schiff — McGraw Hill, 1955. 417 pages, 6.5" x 9.25" with Podolsky's signature on the title page.
    21. "Relativity" by J. Rice — Longmans, Green, and Co., 1923. 397 pages, 6" x  8.75" — Edition not known.
    22. "Science of Mechanics, The" by Ernst Mach — Open Court Publishing, 1893 — translated from the 2nd German edition. Leather bound, fragile, 534 pages, 6" x8" — inscribed gift from Morris Halparin 1/4/1926.
    23. "Theory of Rays and Particles" — Imprimerie Gauthier-Villars, Paris — 1912 —  in French — Conference held by Langevin and de Broglie in Brussels, October-November 1911 — Leather-bound, 6.5" x 9.75", 461 pages. This book was purchased by Earl Frederick Farnau in 1917 and given to Boris Podolsky, his long-time friend, as a gift.
    24. "Vector Analysis and the Theory of Relativity" by Francis D. Murnaghan — John Hopkins Press, 1922 — Edition not known — 125 pages, 6.25" x 9.25" — Podolsky's signature appears on the title page plus some of his hand written marginal corrections and notes.
       

  1. CERTIFICATES

    1. SOLD Bachelor of Science Diploma  — U.S.C. — Electrical Engineering — 1918
    2. Los Angeles Civil Service Eligibility Notices - Seeking employment with the city of Los Angeles, Podolsky took a series of eligibility exams, all of which he passed with flying colors. These included:
      a. Senior Accountant - October 10, 1922
           b. Senior Cost Accountant - October 20, 1922
           c. Mechanical & Electrical Draftsman - January 16, 1923
           d. Electrical Engineer - March 13, 1923
           e. City Planning Director - April 10, 1923
           f. Engineer, Accountant - February 11, 1924
           g. Structural Engineer - March 11, 1924
           f. Junior Electrical Engineer - June 17, 1924       <">">/div>
    3. Honorable Discharge from the U.S. Army — March 1919
    4. Master of Arts Diploma — U.S.C. — Mathematics — 1926
    5. University of S. California certificate accepting Boris's high school report card, translated fromt the Russian, including a list of his last year's courses and grades.
    6. Miscellaneous ID cards: 
           a.      Driver's License

                         b.      Social Security Card

                         c.      Social Security Health Insurance Card

                         d.      American Express Credit Card

                         e.      Shell Oil Credit Card

                         f.      New York Academy of Sciences membership card

                         g.      Ohio Academy of Science membership card

                         h.      Sigma Pi Sigma Physics Honor Society membership card

                         i.      Sigma Xi membership card

                         j.      10 "calling" cards: Mr. Boris Podolsky

  1. National Research Fellowship Certificate — 1928 — 12.25" x 16"
     
  2. SOLD Naturalization Certificate — November 1918
     
  3. Passports: Russia 1913, US 1933, 1949, and 1961
     
  4. Patents & Patent Applications

                         a. Patent — Electrolytic Acceleration Sensing Device (Accelerometer)

                         b. Patent and Application — Electric Phone Answering device — this was the first ever electric phone answering device. Podolsky attempted to sell it to Western Electric, who at that time (1926) had a monopoly on phone-related technology. The company studied it carefully and then decided to simply wait seventeen years till the patent expired. In 1943 they began manufacturing a similar device.

                         c. Patent — Apparatus for Starting Heaters

                         d. Patent Applications — Toy Cat and Toy Clown — each designed to land on its feet when dropped from whatever position.

       9. PhD Diploma — Cal-Tech — Physics — Magna Cum Laude — 1928 (On real parchment)

 

  1. MANUSCRIPTS

    1. SOLD "Atomic Physics" — Incomplete manuscript (Unpublished) of intended book for "laymen" begun in 1945.  17 pages typed, 38 pages hand written.
    2. "Fundamentals of Electrodynamics" — Typed manuscript of book published by Marcel Dekker in 1969. The book was published posthumously after completion by Dr. Kaiser Kunz. End of chapter problems were written by the author's son, Robert Podolsky. This item includes some revisions and hand-written notes as the manuscript was developed — some typed originals and some carbon copies. Also included is a book proposal written in 1959 (and never published) containing a table of contents, a few sample chapters, and a cover letter addressed to prospective publishers.
    3. "On Interactions of Electromagnetic Fields" — Original typed manuscript of paper published by Philosophical Magazine, Issue 22, 1936. 4 pages, 8.5" x 11".
    4. "Quantum Mechanics" Hand-written (some notes typed on file-cards) Manuscript (Unpublished) of course taught at U. of Cincinnati — ready to be written as a textbook. This manuscript is not just an outline. All of the content of the course Podolsky taught for twenty years is included as it was taught, updated, and improved over the years. Only some bridging text would be required to complete the book.
    5. "What Is Science" — Carbon copy of article manuscript published by Physics Teacher, 1965. 7 pages, 8.5" x 11"
    6. "Modern Alchemy" — No Known Publisher, dated October 1947 — 8.5" x 11" 13 pages typed original + 13 pages carbon copy + 5 pages of typed corrections.

  1. OBJECTS
    1. Briefcase — Leather with "BP" imprinted in gold lettering.
    2. Cigarette Case — Clear Plexiglas — Podolsky made it in his basement as a present for his wife, a longtime smoker. Approx. 3.25" x 5.875" x 1.25".



    3. Digital clock — Made from a Stewart Warner chronometer (Elgin, Illinois), this cylindrical clock (5.5" tall x 3.5" diam.) flips pages mechanically to show the time. It kept time reliably on Podolsky's desk until he died in 1966. Thereafter it soon stopped. It has since been repaired several times — worked for a while — then stopped again. It's beautiful!


    4. Letter opener — Unknown metal with decorative handle.


    5. SOLD Office Nameplate — Marked Podolsky's office door throughout his career — Plastic, black with white lettering, 10" x 2".


    6. Ceramic Bust (hollow) — by C. H. France. Approx. 8" long x 3.5" wide x 8" tall. This figure depicts a young woman holding a bouquet of flowers (or perhaps a lei) against her shoulder. Podolsky kept it on his desk because of the resemblance he saw between the figure depicted and his beautiful young wife. (see photos)


   

  1. SOLD Etching of Albert Einstein with his violin by Henry Goode (5/16) - 9.75" x 13".  A gift to Podolsky from Albert Einstein during Podolsky's time at Princeton.

  2. Slide Rule — 12" Dietzgen, with case and instruction book. This item is known to be on the premises, but its location is as yet undetermined — so it is temporarily unavailable.

  3. Mechanical Drawing Instrument Set — by Rudolph Neuman — Leipzig. Includes unique Dotted Line Drawing Machine. Used by Podolsky for many projects, including his patent application drawings, the set was purchased in Leipzig circa 1933 where Podolsky had an international fellowship. The case locking mechanism was damaged by a burglar, but still works with some care. "Robert E. Podolsky" name-tag was sewn into the cover case lining by Podolsky's wife when their son borrowed the set to go off to college. In those days she seemed to sew nametags into almost everything.
      

 

          Dot-Dash Tool

 

  1. PAPERS, LETTERS, MISCELLANEOUS

    1. Hand-written letter to Albert Einstein (photocopy) dated July 25 1935 accompanying two typed pages (photocopied) letter to the editor of Physical Review: "a partial answer to Kemble's criticism" of the EPR paper.
    2. Personal Student Notes on Mathematics, Electrodynamics and Quantum Mechanics — 170 pages, 8.5" x 11" canvas-bound loose-leaf. Contains hand-written notes on math and physics during Podolsky's study for his PhD (Circa 1926 - 1928).
    3. Love letters and poetry: 4½ letters and 2 poems to Podolsky's future wife, on 6 sheets of paper of various sizes. Passionate stuff!
    4. Correspondence with Nathan Rosen: Four typed letters from Rosen (signed) and one hand written. One addressed to Boris and four addressed to his wife, Polly, who handled most of Podolsky's correspondence. The hand written letter to Polly is a letter of sympathy concerning Boris's fatal heart condition. It was written three months before Boris died. Stapled to each letter is  carbon copy of Polly's typed response.
    5. Hand-written letter from Felix Bloch on Stanford University stationery - expressing appreciation of Podolsky's recent hospitality and his elegant explanation of the existence of subharmonic oscillations.
    6. There remains a sizable stack of files, notes, calculations, and other papers, yet to be cataloged, including some technical reports that Podolsky wrote. These will be added to this catalog as they become available.
       
  1. PHOTOS
    A large collection of photographs exists, with pictures dating back to Podolsky's grandfather, and still more from 1937 on. Most are pictures of Podolsky's family life at home and on various vacation travels. As time permits, these photos will be scanned and listed herein. Some originals will be for sale — others not.
     

  1. REPRINTS of PODOLSKY PAPERS

    1. SOLD Classic EPR Paper: "Can Quantum Mechanical Description of Physical Reality Be Considered Complete?" — by Einstein, Podolsky, and Rosen, Physical Review, May 1935. 4 pages, 8" x 10.5", Green paper cover. 6 copies. Obtained shortly after the paper's publication, the reprints were originally a stack about a foot high. As the years passed, and Boris mailed them out to physicists around the world, the stack dwindled. These are the last six to have been in his possession.
    2. "A Generalized Electrodynamics — Part I — Non-Quantum" — by Boris Podolsky — Physical Review, July 1942. 4 pages, 8" x 10.5", no cover. 14 copies, 1 with two hand corrections in the margin.
    3. "A Generalized Electrodynamics — Part II — Quantum" — by Boris Podolsky and Chihiro Kikuchi — Physical Review, April 1944. 8 pages, 8" x 10.5", green paper cover on 2 of 3 copies (no cover on the third), 1 marked "Office Copy" on the cover and with 2 little equations hand written on the 5th page.
    4. "A Macroscopic Approach to Ohm's Law" by Boris Podolsky and Harry Denman — American Journal of Physics, September 1966. 3 pages, 8" x 10.5", no cover. 1 copy.
    5. "A Problem in Heat Conduction" by Boris Podolsky — Journal of Applied Physics, May 1951. 5 pages, 8" x 10.5", no cover. 1 copy.
    6. SOLD "An Interpretation of e2/mc2 and h/mc" by Boris Podolsky — Physical Review, October 1934. 5 pages, 7" x 10", green paper cover. 4 copies — 1 signed by Podolsky, 1 marked "Desk Copy", and 1 with author's address typed on front cover.
    7. "Auxiliary Conditions and Electrostatic Interaction in Generalized Quantum Electrodynamics" by Boris Podolsky and Chihiro Kikuchi — Physical Review, March 1945. 9 pages, 8" x 10.5", no cover. 2 copies.
    8. "Conditions on Minimization Criteria for Smoothing" by Boris Podolsky and Harry Denman, Mathematics of Computation, July 1964. 8 pages, 7" x 10", no cover. 2 copies.
    9. "Conservation of Angular Momentum" by Boris Podolsky — American Journal of Physics, January 1966. 4 pages, 8" x 10.5", no cover. 1 copy.
    10. "Derivation of Generalized Macroscopic Electrodynamic Equations" by Boris Podolsky and Harry Denman, Journal of Mathematics and Physics, October, 1955. 10 pages, 7" x 10", no cover. 1 copy.
    11. "Dispersion by Hydrogen-Like Atoms in Undulatory Mechanics" by Boris Podolsky — Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, March 1928. 5 pages, 7" x 10", Tan paper cover. 1 copy.
    12. "Isentropic One-Dimensional Magnetohydrodynamic Channel Flow" by Boris Podolsky and A. Sherman, Applied Science Research, Vol. 9, (1960?). 8 pages, 6" x 9.5", no cover. 1 copy.
    13. "On Eddington's Treatment of Dirac's Equation" by Boris Podolsky — Physical Review, April 1938. 4 pages, 8" x 10.5", Green paper cover. 21 copies.
    14. "On the Lorentz transformation of Charge and Current Densities" by Boris Podolsky — Physical Review, October 1947. 3 pages, 8" x 10.5", no cover. 2 copy.
    15. "On the Quantization of Mass" by Boris Podolsky and Herman Branson — Physical Review, March 1940. 7 pages, 8" x 10.5", no cover. 1 copy.
    16. "Review of a Generalized Electrodynamics" by Boris Podolsky and Philip Schwed — Reviews of Modern Physics, January 1948. 9 pages, 8" x 10.5", orange paper cover. 3 copies.
    17. "Tensor Form of Dirac's Equation" by Boris Podolsky — Physical Review, June 1931. 9 pages, 7" x 10", green paper cover. 1 copy.

  2. REPRINTS OF OTHERS' PAPERS

    1. SOLD "Relativistic Quantum Mechanics" by P. A. M. Dirac — Proceedings of the Royal Society, Vol. 136, 1932. 12 pages, 7" x 10", no cover. 1 copy with Podolsky's signature on the paper cover.
    2. "What Are Physical Dimensions?" by John Oxtoby — American Physics Teacher, September 1934. 6 pages, 8" x 10.5", no cover. 1 copy.
    3. "General Relativity and Flat Space, I and II" by Nathan Rosen — Physical Review, January 1940. Two documents, 4 pages each, 8" x 10.5", no covers. 1 copy each.
    4. "Note on Ether-Drift Experiments" by Nathan Rosen, Physical Review, January 1940. 2 pages, no cover. 1 copy, a bit tattered.
    5. "Groups of Motions in spaces Admitting Absolute Parallelism" by H. P. Robertson — Annals of Mathematics, July 1932. 26 pages, 7.25" x 10.25", paper cover. 1 copy.
    6. "The Concept of Reality in Physical Theory" by Victor Lenzen — The Philosophical Review, July 1945. 14 pages, 6.25" x 10", green paper cover. 1 copy.

For inquiries concerning the possible acquisition of the Podolsky Memorabilia Collection, or any portion thereof, contact Robert Podolsky at borisheir@yahoo.com.