‎"CAYLEY, ARTHUR. - THE FOUR COLOUR THEOREM.‎
‎On the Colouring of Maps.‎

‎London, Edward Stanford, 1879. Without wrappers in ""Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society and monthly Record of Geography"", April issue with titlepage to vol. 1, 1879. Pp.(2), 225-288 a. 2 folded maps. Cayley's paper: pp. 259-261‎

Reference : 41917

‎Fitrst appearance of Cayley's famous paper on the Four-Colour-Problem""The four-colour map problem (to prove that on any map only four colours are needed to separate countries) is celebrated in mathematics. It resisted the attempts of able mathematicians for over a century and when it was successfully proved in 1976 the ‘computer proof’ was controversial: it did not allow scrutiny in the conventional way. At the height of his influence in 1878, Arthur Cayley had drawn attention to the problem at a meeting of the London Mathematical Society and it was duly ‘announced’ in print. (the paper offered). He made a short contribution himself and he encouraged the young A. B. Kempe to publish a paper on the subject. Though ultimately unsuccessful, the work of Cayley and Kempe in the late 1870s brought valuable insights..... Francis Galton is revealed as the ‘go-between’ in suggesting Cayley publish his observations in Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society."" (Tony Crilly).The Four-Colour-Theorem was proved in 1976 by Kenneth Appel and Wolfgang Haken. It was the first major mathematical theorem to be proved using a computer.‎