First offprints of two papers by Einstein an Mayer on the Unified Field Theory, 1931-32

Albert EINSTEIN; Walther MAYER: EINHEITLICHE THEORIE VON GRAVITATION UND ELEKTRIZITÄT. [Unified Theory of Gravity and Electricity.] Sonderausgabe [Offprint] aus den Sitzungsberichten der Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, physikalisch-mathematischen Klasse, XXV (1931). And: Einheitliche Theorie von Gravitation und Elektrizität. [Unified Theory of Gravity and Electricity.] Zweite Abhandlung [2nd Treatise]. Sonderausgabe [Offprint] aus den Sitzungsberichten der Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, physikalisch-mathematischen Klasse, XII (1932). Berlin: Verlag der Akademie der Wissenschaften (in commission at Georg Reimer [Reichsdruckerei]), 2nd December 1931; 30th April 1932.

Imperial 8vo (25,4:18,2 cm). 19 [1] pages; 12 pages, numbered 235-245 [1]. Letterpress on machine paper, in original publisher’s brochures on salmon-coloured and orange stock with black title printing.

First offprints in the original wrappers and new pagination, of this important two-part paper by Einstein formulating new developments towards Unified Field Theories.

Content: Einstein made several attempts at a five-dimensional unified field theory, including this two-part collaboration with Austrian mathematician Walther Mayer (nicknamed „Einstein's calculator“), "in which a new unified field theory was proposed, one based on a four-dimensional space-time continuum with a five-dimensional tangent space attached at each point." (Pais, Subtle is the Lord, p. 492)

Condition: Very well preserved.

Reference: Boni-Russ-L. 207; Printing and the Mind of Man 416 („Principal Work“); Schilpp-Shields 251 and 261; Weil *182 and *185 (quotes the paginations of the first separate printings, p. 541-557 and 130-137).