Wegener, Alfred; Thermodynamik der Atmosphäre. J. A. Barth, Leipzig, 1911. Octavo, pp. viii, 331, 1 (ad), 17 plates, 143 figures.
The work is complete and in the original green cloth with black cover and spine titles. The binding is tight but scuffed with spine edge wear, Text is clean with owner’s signature and 1911/1912 class year date on title page corner. The first text book authored by Wegener, in very good condition.
Alfred Lothar Wegener (1880-1930) was a German meteorologist and geophysicist and best remembered as the first scientist to formulate a complete statement of the continental drift hypothesis.
He earned his Ph.D in astronomy and meteorology from the University of Berlin and became interested in paleoclimatology making four expeditions to Greenland between 1906 and 1930. He died during his last expedition in Greenland in 1930.
Wegener studied physics, meteorology and astronomy in Heidelberg, Berlin and Innsbruck, In Berlin, he studied thermodynamics under Max Planck and was influenced by Planck’s teaching and research methodology which he was to emulate.
Wegener earned his PhD in astronomy from the University of Berlin. While earning his Ph.D., Wegener also took an interest in meteorology and paleoclimatology and particularly polar weather systems. Shortly after receiving his Ph.D., Wegener began teaching at the University of Marburg in Germany. He lectured on astronomy, meteorology and what he termed “astronomic-geographic position-fitting for explorers”. Both students and professors were impressed by his thinking and ability to explain difficult concepts and especially by his ability to grasp complex ideas. In 1910 he collected his meteorology class notes and drafted his "Thermodynamics of the Atmosphere," which was published in 1911 and soon became the standard text throughout Germany. After reading the text a distinguished Russian meteorologist; in a review, wrote “a new star had risen in meteorology”.
