[Rarebooks] fa: Hooper's RATIONAL RECREATIONS 1794 - Conjuring, Optics. Electricity, Card Tricks, etc. - 65 PLATES

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, auction ending Sunday, Jan. 31. Details and images can be  
found at the URL below or by searching under the seller name arch_in_la.

http://shop.ebay.com/arch_in_la/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=&_trksid=p4340

Thanks,
Ardwight Chamberlain
L.A., CA USA

William Hooper: Rational Recreations in which the Principles of  
Numbers and Natural Philosophy are Clearly and Copiously Elucidated by  
a Series of Easy, Entertaining, Interesting Experiments. Among which  
are All Those Commonly Performed with the Cards. By. W. Hooper, M.D.  
London: Printed for B. Law and Son, Ave-Maria-Lane ; and G.G. and J.  
Robinson, Pater-Noster-Row, 1794. Fourth edition, corrected. Four  
volumes, 8vos (21.5 x 13.5 cm), in full period tree calf, gilt-stamped  
spines and morocco spine labels; [4], xvi, 267; [4], xii, 280; [4],  
xii, 296; [4], xii, 367 pp.; with a number of in-text woodcuts and 65  
copper-engraved folding plates. ESTC T72969.

Fourth edition (first published 1774), but the first to contain an  
accurate depiction of "Hooper's Paradox" (see below). A delightful,  
fascinating and copiously illustrated "how-to" compendium of  
experiments, including many card tricks and conjuring effects as well  
as demonstrations of magnetism, electricity, hydraulic pressure, etc.,  
etc. The contents are as follows: Vol.I: Mathematical and Mechanical  
Experiments; Vol.II: Experiments in Optics, Chromatics and Acoustics.;  
Vol.III: Electrical and Magnetic Experiments; Vol.IV: Experiments in  
Pneumatics, Hydrology, and Pyrotechnics; with an Appendix of  
Miscellaneous Recreations.

Among the many curious wonders explained and depicted are magic  
lanterns, magic tricks based on mathematical and scientific  
principles, optical phenomena with mirrors and lenses (including an  
early incarnation of the "Pepper's Ghost" effect used today in  
theatrical productions and such thrill rides as Disneyland's "Haunted  
Mansion"), ciphers, prestidigitation (card tricks and other  
"recreations of address and dexterity"), camera obscura and primitive  
cinematic devices, and such mechanical marvels and effects as "The  
Hydraulic Dancer", "The Dextrous Painter", "The Boundless Gallery", a  
mechanically driven coach, and a land yacht ("a sailing chariot, or  
boat fixed on four wheels ... to sail as fast, with a fair wind, by  
land as by water"). On a less fanciful note, Hooper also describes  
experiments in electricity (such as "The electrical kite"), with  
references to Benjamin Franklin, Joseph Priestley's electrical  
battery, Edmund Halley's diving bell (illustrated here for the first  
time), and numerous other significant scientific achievements.

Besides explaining scientific principles to the lay-person in a  
"delightful, alluring, captivating" manner, Hooper was also aiming to  
expose the con men, charlatans and phony "spiritualists" of his day.  
"The social threat of charlatanism gave rise to a new breed of  
scientists—'natural philosophers'—who sought to combat the world of  
sneaks and shams by exposing the secrets of visual illusion in the  
pages of optical treatises. William Hooper epitomized the type. In  
1774, Hooper published Rational Recreations... Delivering a backhanded  
compliment to his audience, he predicted that the reader would  
'unavoidably acquire a knowledge of his own ignorance; and by finding  
the fallacy of what he thought most certain, the evidence of his  
senses, he will learn to determine with caution on the seeming  
convictions of the mind, and divest himself of those prepossessions  
from whence so many of the evils of life proceed.' At the same time,  
however, Hooper ably stoked the very intrigue with magic and  
invisibility that probably led many readers to pick up his book in the  
first place..." (Wendy Bellion, "Pleasing Deceptions: The Material  
Culture of Optical Illusion," Common-place, 2002).