London: Peter Short, 1600. First edition of “the first major English scientific treatise based on experimental methods of research. Gilbert was chiefly concerned with magnetism; but as a digression he discusses in his second book the attractive effect of amber (electrum), and thus may be regarded as the founder of..... More
Item #4577
[Leyden]: in bibliopolio Commeliniano sumptibus viduae Joannis Comelini, 1620. First edition, extremely rare, of one of the earliest modern works on atomism. “Gorlaeus is counted among the founders of modern atomism, which he proposed as an alternative to Aristotelian matter theory. Because of his notion of atomic compounds, he is..... More
Item #4573
Nottingham: Printed for the author, by T. Wheelhouse, 1828. First edition, “excessively rare” (Wheeler Gift), of “one of the major publications in the mathematics of the 19th century” (Landmark Writings, p. 403), in which Green revolutionized the study of potential theory as we now understand it (and coined the term..... More
Item #5637
Amsterdam: Johanned Jansson Waesberge, 1672. First edition, and a fine copy, of one of the great classics of science. “A book of prime importance in electrical discovery, air-pressure and the vacuum pump” (Dibner). Guericke proved the existence of a vacuum through his famous experiment, illustrated by one of the double-page..... More
Item #3763
Amsterdam: Johanned Jansson Waesberge, 1672. First edition of one of the great classics of science. “A book of prime importance in electrical discovery, air-pressure and the vacuum pump” (Dibner). Guericke proved the existence of a vacuum through his famous experiment, illustrated by one of the double-page plates. “At Ratisbon in..... More
Item #5796
Paris: de l'imprimerie nationale exécutive du Louvre, An II [1794]. First edition of the work that introduced the decimal system of measurement, “one of the few permanent social reforms that stemmed from the violent French Revolution.” “In 1788 the French Academy of Sciences, at the suggestion of Talleyrand, proposed the..... More
Item #5506
Berlin: Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1882-1883. First edition, extremely rare author’s presentation offprints, of all three parts of one of the founding paper of chemical thermodynamics, along with Josiah Willard Gibbs’s 1876 paper ‘On the Equilibrium of Heterogeneous Substances.’ In these papers, Helmholtz introduced the concept of ‘free energy’ and proved..... More
Item #5192
Leipzig: Leopold Voss, 1856-60-66-67. First edition, and the only recorded copy in the original parts, of “the most important book on the physiology and physics of vision” (Grolier/Horblit), and “one of the greatest books on physiological optics” (Garrison-Morton). This work encompassed all previous research in the field, including the results..... More
Item #5275
Berlin: Georg Reimer, 1847. First edition, rare, of “the first comprehensive statement of the first law of thermodynamics: that all modes of energy, heat, light, electricity, and all chemical phenomena, are capable of transformation from one to the other but are indestructible and cannot be created” (PMM). “On the basis..... More
Item #4842
Philadelphia: Printed by James Kay, Jun. & Brothers, 1839. First edition, author’s presentation offprint, of the third and most important part of Henry’s Contributions to Electricity and Magnetism. Following on from his discovery of electromagnetic self-induction in 1832, in the present paper Henry extends his results on ‘galvanic’ electricity (current..... More
Item #4282
London: R. & J. E. Taylor, 1842. First edition, extremely rare offprint, of this seminal early work of photography, the invention of the world’s first photocopying process, ‘cyanotype,’ later called ‘blue-printing’; this remained by far the most important reprographic process for more than a century after the publication of Herschel’s..... More
Item #4782
[1813-1850]. An extraordinary collection of works by Sir John Herschel (1792-1871), the outstanding astronomer and physical scientist of his day, assembled for presentation to his son William James Herschel (not to be confused with John’s father, the astronomer Frederick William). The collection includes offprints of Herschel’s three most important publications..... More
Item #4321
Berlin: Königlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1888. First edition, complete journal issue in original printed wrappers, of one of the two most important papers of Hertz’s on electromagnetic waves, in which he demonstrates for the first time that electromagnetic effects propagate at the speed of light (it was only a month later..... More
Item #5310
Leiden: Pieter van der Aa, 1690. First edition of Huygens’ path-breaking exposition of his wave or pulse theory of light. Huygens had developed his theory of light in 1676 and 1677, and “completed the Traité in 1678, but left it unpublished for twelve years, until stimulated by the appearance of Isaac..... More
Item #5350
Paris: Gauthier-Villars, 1874-95. First edition, extremely rare offprint, of Janssen’s epoch-making description of his ‘photographic revolver’ and of its first results, “the first ‘film’” (Singer, A History of Technology V, p. 739). “The first practical device for sequential photography, invented to record the transit of Venus in 1874, was later..... More
Item #5495
Leiden: Eduard Ijdo, 1911. First printing of the first announcement of the discovery of superconductivity, the disappearance of electrical resistance in certain materials at very low temperatures. “Of all the discoveries in condensed matter physics during the 20th century, some might call superconductivity the “crown jewel”. Others might say that..... More
Item #3538
Frankfurt: Claudius Marnius & heirs of Johannes Aubrius, 1604. First edition, an excellent copy, of the foundation work of modern optics. “Working within the perspectivist tradition of Alhazen, Roger Bacon, Witelo, John Pecham, and others, Kepler accepts that sight is possible due to rays emitted from visible objects, with these..... More
Item #5230
London: Hazell, Watson and Viney, 1896. First edition, inscribed presentation copy, of this scarce early study on automobiles by the inventor and engineer John Henry Knight. “The development of the automobile is of great historic importance in the history of technology. Of all the early works written on the subject..... More
Item #5679
![Item #4300 Méchanique analitique. [Bound with:] Théorie des fonctions analytiques. Joseph Louis...](/pictures/thumb/4300.jpg?v=1592229068)
Paris; Paris: Veuve Desaint; de l’Imprimerie de la République, 1788; An V [1797]. An exceptional volume, in a fine contemporary binding, containing the first edition of Lagrange’s masterpiece, the Méchanique, “one of the outstanding landmarks in the history of both mathematics and mechanics” (Sarton, p. 470) and “perhaps the most..... More
Item #4300
The Hague: H. Scheurleer, 1758. First edition, extremely rare, of Lambert’s first published book, dealing with the path of light rays in air and other media. Lambert began working on aspects of refraction through the atmosphere in 1752, and from 1754 this work was carried out in parallel with his..... More
Item #5808
Augsburg: Christoph Peter Detleffsen for the widow of Eberhard Klett, 1760. First edition, very rare, of this cornerstone of modern optics, with applications which touch on astronomy and photography; this is one of the rarest of modern science books of this stature. Lambert’s discoveries “are of fundamental importance in astronomy..... More
Item #5810
Augsburg: Christoph Peter Detleffsen for the widow of Eberhard Klett, 1760. First edition, very rare, and the finest copy we have seen, of the foundation work of photometry, the measurement of the intensity of light, both objectively and as perceived by the eye; this is one of the rarest of..... More
Item #5873
[Vols. I & II:] Brescia; [Vol. III:] Parma: Brescia: G. M. Riccardi; H. Rosati, 1684-86; 1692. First editions of two important works from the library of the distinguished Riccati family of mathematicians and physicists. The Prodromo, Lana’s most famous work, contains his design for an air-ship kept aloft by means..... More
Item #5640
![Item #3866 Josse. Epitome compendiosaq[ue] introductio in libros arithmeticos divi Severini...](/pictures/thumb/3866.jpg?v=1592228756)
Paris: H. Estienne & W. Hopyl, 27 June 1503. First edition of this very rare collection of works, in an attractive Roger Payne binding. The individual works are all first editions with the exception of Lefèvre’s Epitome of Boethius’ De arithmetica (first, 1496) and an unattributed Opusculum de p[r]axi numerorum..... More
Item #3866
London: Printed by John Baskett … And by the Assigns of Thomas Newcomb and Henry Hills, 1714. First edition of the Act of 1714 establishing a reward for the discovery of a method of determining longitude at sea. “An early example of a means adopted by a government for encouraging scientific discovery and progress” (Grolier/Horblit)..... More
Item #5273