Leipzig: Johann Ambrosius Barth, 1860. 8vo. (207x124mm). Entire volume offered here in contemporary card board binding with hand written paper label to spine. A fine copy.
First edition of the paper which marks the beginning of spectrum analysis. In this work Kirchhoff and Bunsen announced their discovery of the two alkali metals, cesium and rubidium, with the aid of the spectroscope they had invented the year before. These discoveries inaugurated a new era in the means used to find new elements.