Haarlem, Les Héritiers Loosjes, 1891. 8vo (23.7 x 15.0 cm). vii, 442 pp.; 15 engraved plates. Original printed wrappers.

A ground-breaking work by the Dutch physicist and Nobel Prize winner Johannes Diderik van der Waals (1837-1923). "In 1890, van der Waals published a treatise on the Theory of Binary Solutions in the Archives Néerlandaises. By relating his equation of state with the Second Law of Thermodynamics, in the form first proposed by Willard Gibbs, he was able to arrive at a graphical representation of his mathematical formulations in the form of a surface which he called Psi surface following Gibbs, who used this Greek letter for the free energy of a system with different phases in equilibrium." (Wikipedia). This is an uncut and unmarked copy of the "Archives", with the 'van der Waals contribution on pp. 1-56. Uncut, with the widest possible margins. Rear wrapper very lightly spotted, otherwise a fine copy. Very rare in this state.