Lot 1034: BECQUEREL, HENRI. 1852-1908.

"La radio-activité de la matière." In: Le Radium. Paris: Paul Dupont, January 1904. Volume 1, issue 1. 16 pp. Photographic illustrations. 4to. Original front wrapper inlaid in modern wrappers, solander box. Light toning at extremities and to front wrapper.

First edition of the first number of the earliest journal focusing solely on the study of radium. The front wrapper and title reproduce a photograph of Marie and Pierre Curie together with Becquerel in their laboratory on rue Lhomond, while an article reports on the Nobel Prize shared by the three - Becquerel for his work on rays emitted by uranium, and the Curies for their discoveries relating to quartz and electricity. This issue also contains an abridgment of Becquerel's 1902 paper reviewing research into radioactivity since his discovery of the phenomenon in 1896.