Mathematics & Physical Science

DAVY, HUMPHRY (1812).  Elements of Chemical Philosophy, Part I., Vol. I. (all published). London: for J. Johnson and Co. 8½" x 5½", full calf, rebacked with raised bands, gilt morocco title label and gilt decoration. xiv, [2, errata], 511 pp. + 12 plates at end (misnumbered as 10). Some wear and rubbing to the original calf covers, some light foxing to prelims and plates, faint owner's name on t.p. Overall Very Good copy.  $1500

Davy's most comprehensive account of his discoveries and theories. Originally intended to be the first of several volumes, the remaining volumes were never completed. This work stands as the epitome of his scientific contributions.

An early treatise on physical chemistry. Following an historical account of chemistry, Davy (1778-1829) discusses the laws of chemical change and how "undecompounded bodies" (elements) combine. This is followed by an account of the "powers and properties of matter" and of "radiant or ethereal matter." Subsequent chapters deal mainly with elemental substances, many of which Davy himself had first isolated -- chlorine, potassium, sodium, iodine, and others. The unpublished second part was to cover the compounds.

Best remembered for his discoveries, his theoretical account of the role of electricity in chemistry is his most fundamental contribution. The exemplar of Romanticism in science (Coleridge claimed he could have been as good a poet as he was a scientist), Davy wrote exceptionally well, and this book is a testimony to the fact — far from dry, it possesses the spark and imagination of the best scientific writing of its — or any — time.

An attractive copy of an important book!

Fullmer, 1812.6, Duveen, pp. 160-161

FARADAY, MICHAEL.  Experimental Researches in Electricity. Sixteenth Series: On the Source of power in the voltaic pile: together with: Experimental Researches in Electricity. Seventeenth Series: On the source of power in the voltaic pile. - (Continued).  Extracts from Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, 1840. First Editions. Modern quarter-morocco binding, raised bands, morocco label, gilt-titled, marbled paper boards. 11" x 8 ½", [61] - 127 pp., one plate. Some very slight yellowing of the paper, but overall a Fine copy.  $900.

Following his discovery of electromagnetic induction in 1831, his elaboration of electrolysis, and of the nature of electrostatic lines of force, Faraday in these two series, present here as recently bound extracts, attacked the " contact theory" of the generation of electricity in a voltaic battery. These brilliantly conceived experiments showed that, in fact, there was no current generated in the absence of chemical action. While few could quite grasp his notion of forces, he had dealt the final blow against the view that currents were generated by the mere contact of two substances.

FARADAY, MICHAEL.  Experimental Researches in Electricity. A bound collection of eight extracts from the Philosophical Transactions, including Series 22 through 29, 1848 -1852.  First Editions. Modern tan cloth, paper label on front. 11½" x 8½", 41 pp., illus. (including two notes added after the paper was read); [171-] 188 pp., illus.; 6 pp., illus.; [7-] 28 pp., illus.; [29-] 84 pp., illus., tables, 1 plate; [85-] 122 pp., illus., tables, 1 folding plate; [25-] 56, illus.; [137-] 159 pp., illus., 1 plate. Extremely light foxing in just a few places, but overall a Fine copy.  $2500.

An exceptional long run of Faraday's Experimental Researches in Electricity, covering many of his researches on the nature of the magnetic field. While he had previously discovered the optical effects of a magnetic field, and the phenomenon of diamagnetism, in this series one can follow "The final steps to the field theory" (see the article of that title by David Gooding in Historical Studies in the Physical Sciences, 1981).

Series 22 contains his first report of the "magnecrystallic force" (his term), in which a crystal of bismuth exhibits polarity in a strong magnetic field. Plücker had previously shown that crystals would set along the optic axis in a magnetic field, but Faraday showed that bismuth crystals set axially, rather than equatorially. This paper is an important extension of his earlier discovery of diamagnetism. Series 23 continues with an extremely precise attempt to determine whether (as Plücker and others had argued) diamagnetic forces were polar; Faraday concluded that they were not, so far as he could ascertain.

The 24th series tackled a very different problem; "The relation of gravity to electricity." Having found the interconvertibility of electricity and magnetism, and an effect of magnetism upon light, Faraday here sought (entirely unsuccessfully) a relation to gravity, partly using a modified version of the apparatus used in the previous series.

Series 25 returned to the issue of the nature of diamagnetism. By testing gases in a magnetic field, Faraday confirmed that oxygen was paramagnetic, and further strengthened the claim that a true vacuum was at zero on a scale between paramagnetic substances and diamagnetic.

In Series 26, Faraday develops one of his most important theoretical notions; the claim that diamagnetic and paramagnetic substances differ in their ability to conduct magnetic field lines. Hinted at in Series 25, he here elaborates on the consequences. First, he shows that the theory accounts also for magnecrystallic action. Second, he applies the theory to the case of the earth's magnetism and its atmospheric effects. Series 27 then continues the account of atmospheric effects.

Series 28 is one of Faraday's most important theoretical accounts. It includes his first clear definition of "lines of force" as physically real entities, reviews a number of prior studies, and adds a crucial set of brilliant experiments to show that the lines of magnetic force exist within a magnet as well as in the space around the magnet. Further, his clever use of a small conducting loop connected to a galvanometer as a means of detecting and measuring the magnetic field allowed a quantification of magnetic forces beyond what had previously been achieved. The paper also contains Faraday's first public suggestion that "if there be an aether" it could also "have other uses than simply the conveyance of radiations" (p. 27). Some have taken this as the first statement of an electromagnetic theory of light (a bit of stretch, in our opinion).

Faraday's theory of the magnetic lines of force is brought to closure in Series 29. Using careful parametric measurements with the conducting loop, Faraday confirms and extends his earlier claims in Series 28, and relates his findings to the delineation of lines of magnetic force by iron filings. The plate shows a remarkable number of such filing patterns, prepared to show the field around magnets and current-carrying wires in a variety of simple and complex configurations.

FARADAY, MICHAEL. Experimental Researches in Electricity. - Thirtieth Series. [Containing § 38. Constancy of differential magnecrystallic force in different media. § 39. Action of heat on magnecrystals. § 40. Effect of heat upon absolute magnetic force of bodies.]  Extract from Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, 1856. First Edition. Modern quarter-cloth, gilt lettered spine, marbled paper boards. 11" x 8½", [159-] 180 pp., one folding plate. Very light foxing in places, overall Very Good. $400.

Faraday's "Experimental Researches in Electricity" ended with this paper, the only one not to be included in his 3-volume reprinted set, and hence the least known. The extreme sensitivity of both paramagnetic and diamagnetic substances (and of "magnecrystals") to heat is here extensively explored via careful parametric experiments.

HAHN, OTTO.   Applied Radiochemistry.  Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1936. First Edition, First Printing. Blue cloth, gilt spine (very slightly rubbed and bumped at spine ends and corners). 9" x 6", Frontispiece+ xi + 278 pp., illustrated + 1 pg. advert. Clean, unmarked copy, with only the slightest trace of yellowing to the paper, overall Very Good.  $1500.

The co-discoverer of nuclear fission, Otto Hahn (1879-1968) is also known as the "father of radiochemistry." This, his only book, is based on lectures given in 1933 at Cornell, and is regarded as the founding document of the field. Hahn received the Nobel Prize in 1944 for his discovery of nuclear fission in 1938, although it was his colleague Lise Meitner who recognized the discovery for what it was and related it theoretically to Einstein's mass-energy equivalence. The two had worked together on much of the science described in this book, perhaps most notably, the discovery of protactinium in 1917. Ironically, Meitner, who left Germany for Stockholm when the Nazis came into power, is here mentioned only twice in passing, although, today, she is regarded as the principle example of a woman overlooked for the Nobel Prize.

The book describes in detail the precise methods and results of the Berlin group that Hahn directed. It is distinguished by its careful chemical analyses and physical insight, and served as the inspiration to the later research of Glenn Seaborg and others. A scarce and desirable text from the earliest stages of the "Atomic Age"!

HUDSON, HILDA P.  Cremona Transformations in Plane and Space. Cambridge: At the University Press, 1927. First Edition. Blue cloth (small nick top of front board), dust jacket (slightly chipped). Large octavo, xx + 454 pp. Near-Fine.  $75.

Hudson (1881-1965) is best known for this work, which develops Cremona transformations as a means of dealing with singularities of curves and surfaces. "The main bulk of her work on Cremona transformations … was notable for the reason that the methods she employed were basically elementary—largely analytical geometry—but her success in their use was the result of a powerful, almost uncanny, geometrical intuition which enabled her to extract correct answers in her own way to quite formidable problems" (J. Semple, 1969, in Bulletin of the London Mathematical Society, Vol. 1, p. 358).

KOYRÉ, ALEXANDRE. A Documentary History of the Problem of Fall from Kepler to Newton. De Motu Gravium Naturaliter Cadentium in Hypothesi Terrae Motae. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1955. "Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, N. S. Vol. 45, part 4." pp. 329-355, illustrated. Brown wraps, an ex-lib copy with the usual markings.  $30.

Koyré (1892-1964) is well-known for his history and philosophy of science, and as an important precursor of Thomas Kuhn. The "problem of fall," detailed in this monograph, involves the question of whether a mass released above the surface of the moving earth would strike the surface to the east or to the west of its release point, and the question of whether it would in fact reach that center, if allowed to fall straight through to the center of the earth. This problem's long history is here detailed in meticulous fashion.

LEYBOURN, THOMAS. The Mathematical Questions Proposed in the Ladies' Diary. And Their Original Answers, Together with Some New Solutions, From its Commencement in the Year 1704 to 1816.  London: J. Mawman, 1817. First Edition. Hardcover. Four Volumes. 9" x 5½". xi, 415pp. + [2] (errata leaf for Vols. 1-4); 415 pp.; 400 pp.; 460 pp. Each volume illustrated with numerous diagrams and tables. Publisher's red cloth (unevenly faded, and, except for Vol. 2 which is intact, the bindings worn, some covers loose, spines worn and torn, with loss, spines separating), handwritten labels. Text blocks solid. Vol. 3 with water stain affecting inner margin of endpapers and a few prelim leaves. Vol. 4 with three cancel leaves for Vol. 3 and one for Vol. 4 bound intermittently among the final index leaves. Each cancel leaf has a note instructing the binder to bind them in the appropriate places, but the instruction was not followed. Each volume has a bookplate ("Yale University Observatory, Bequest of Professor Elias Loomis, 1889" and with a very faint "Duplicate" stamp on each) and a cursive inscription ("Yale College Library, Presented by Prof. A.D. Stanley, 1851") which is partially erased or covered by the bookplate, except in Vol. 1. Stanley may be Anthony D. Stanley (1812-1853), Professor of Mathematics at Yale. Loomis (1811-1899) was Professor of Natural History at Yale and an important geologist.  $1500

The Ladies' Diary itself was begun in 1704 and published continuously until 1841. Initially, mathematical content was sparse, but this changed over the years. By the 1780s, while there were still many rebuses, enigmas, verse problems, and so on, mathematical problems had begun to be dominant. Readers would send in problems and solutions to published problems, frequently commented upon by the editor.

Oddly, women contributors were sparse even at the outset and became more so as the years wore on. As the problems became more sophisticated with time, so too did the contributions by distinguished mathematicians, including Emerson, Simpson, Hutton, and others. The history of the Ladies' Diary (and the role of women as contributors and readers) is well-covered by Teri Perl in an article in "Historia Mathematica," Volume 6 (1979), pp. 36-53. This set covers the entire range of mathematics, with many new solutions and notes, partly by the editor, up to 1816.

MAYER, J[ULIUS] R[OBERT].  Die Mechanik der Wärme in gesammelten Schriften. Zweite umgearbeitete und vermehrte Auflage. Stuttgart: Verlag der J.G. Cotta'schen Buchhandlung, 1874. Second Edition (First was 1867). Contemporary half-leather, brown cloth spine (board edges and corners rubbed and worn, spine faded from the original color which was, perhaps, purple), some very light pencil notes in the first part of the book, Berlin booksellers ticket on front end paper, library discard stamp on title page (no other library markings), viii + 396 pp., Very Good.  $275.

A collection of Mayer's important papers on the conservation of energy, greatly expanded from the 1867 first edition. Mayer (1814-1878) was the first to show the equivalence of mechanical work and heat, leading to Joule's experimental confirmation of the quantitative relation between the two.

[PROUT] Copeman, W.S.C., William Prout, M.D., F.R.S. Physician and Chemist (1785-1850. "Reprinted from Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London, Vol. 24, No. 2, April 1970." 10" x 6½", frontis. + [273 -] 280 pp. Stapled in stiff wrappers, author's initialed presentation and stamp of A.H.T. Ross-Smith on front wrapper, near Fine copy.  $10

Prout, a physician and chemist, is best remembered for "Prout's Hypothesis," that all atomic weights are integral multiples of the atomic weight of hydrogen or of half the atomic weight of hydrogen, differing because of the different numbers of hydrogens. While not strictly correct, it was an important idea that generated much controversy.

[TYTLER, JAMES]  "Chemistry," [Complete article from the Third Edition of C. Macfarquhar & G. Gleig, Eds., Encyclopædia Britannica; or, a Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and Miscellaneous Literature; constructed on a plan, by which the different sciences and arts are digested into the form, of distinct treatises or systems, comprehending the history, theory, and practice, of each, according to the latest discoveries and improvements.] Edinburgh: printed for A. Bell and C. Macfarquhar, 1797]. 10 3/8" x 8 1/4", Quarto, Disbound, pp. [373-] 635 pp., 3 plates, large folding table (22" x 14"). Removed from a larger volume, still tightly gathered, slight foxing to a few leaves and the plates. Overall a Very Good copy of a rare item.  $200.

Tytler (1745-1804) edited the second edition of the Britannica (1777-1784) and was the first balloonist in Britain (1784). Convicted for his reformist politics, he left for America in 1795. The attribution of this article to Tytler is based on that given in David Wilson's recent "Seeking Nature's Logic: Natural Philosophy in the Scottish Enlightenment" (2009, p. 243 n.38). The 261 page article offered here is a comprehensive treatise on all aspects of chemistry, with special attention given to nomenclatural details, following the revolutionary changes advanced by Lavoisier. Disbound articles from the Britannica appear now and again, but this is the first copy of this article that we have seen offered for sale.