UPDATE: Click here to view PDF of Revue générale des sciences pures et appliquées. 1890.
French mathematician, physicist, and philosopher of science (1854-1912) who famously formulated the 'Poincare Conjecture,' which went unsolved for nearly a century. Handwritten scientific manuscript in French, titled and signed by Henri Poincare, "Sur la Théorie Cinétique des Gaz par H. Poincare," totaling 41 pages, circa 1894. Published in Volume 5 of the Revue Générale des Sciences Pures et Appliquées (1894), the paper contains Poincare's detailed exposition of Maxwell's kinetic theory of gases, written for the benefit of the French scientific community. Poincare observes that the French are far less familiar with Maxwell's ideas than their British counterparts ("cette théorie a été beaucoup moins cultivée par les physiciens francais que par les anglais"). James C. Maxwell, along with Rudolf Clausius, had been responsible for establishing the complex kinetic theory of gases in the 1860s, which even thirty years later were still being debated by the likes of Lord Kelvin. Poincare notes Kelvin's unspecified "objection" to Maxwell's theory in the first paragraph of this paper. The draft has approximately 100 small corrections, emendations or excisions, and printer's pencil marks throughout. In very good to fine condition, with scattered soiling, chipped edges, and small professional repairs, including silking to the back of the final page. Accompanied by a photocopy of the paper as printed in the Revue Générale.
Provenance: The Harvey Plotnick Library of Quantum Physics, Christie's, 3 October 2002.
