Hutchie
The Life and Works of Edward Hutchinson Synge (1890–1957)
ISBN 978-3-901585-17-3 (softcover; English)
first edition, April 19, 2012; 168 pages; 11 Fig.; 235×165 mm (H×W); 320 g;
€ 22.00 (fixed selling price, Austria, incl. 10% VAT)
“Can you tell me more about this father of near-field optics? Can I get copies of his correspondence with Einstein? Is there more to the story of the sad last years of his life? Does a biography of Synge exist? Is his brother still alive? Perhaps you are not aware of the respect which most of us in near-field optics have for Synge. His description of a near-field microscope is incredibly accurate. Indeed as far as I can tell, many of the ideas patented by IBM, AT&T an d others were completely described by Synge 50 years before the patents were issued. It could not have been luck, since his descriptions are quantitatively accurate and exhibit a knowledge of the technologies necessary to implement his correct notions of how a near-field instrument might work.”
(From a letter written in 1994 by Michael Paesler of North Carolina State University to Dennis McMullan, author of a review of the prehistory of scanning microscopy published in 1990.)
If the present book on Edward Hutchinson ‘Hutchie’ Synge—nephew of the playwright John Milligton Synge and elder brother of John Lighton Synge, who edited the collected works by Sir William Rowan Hamilton following the urging initiative from Hutchie—the authors/editors will be satisfied.