Berlin, Springer, 1931. Royal8vo. Bound in contemporary half cloth with black leather title label to spine with gilt lettering. In ""Die Naturwissenschaften"", 19 Jahrgang, 1931. Pp. 1-7 with a nick to upper corner, not affecting text.. Otherwise a very fine and clean copy. P. 39. [Entire volume: XXII, 1048 pp.].
First printing of Bethe's famous paper. Bethe was known for his sense of humor, and once published a parody in 1931, On the Quantum Theory of the Temperature of Absolute Zerowhere [the present paper] he calculated the fine structure constant from the absolute zero temperature in Celsius units, causing a scandal in the scientific world.