[Rarebooks] fa:GEORGE BIDDELL AIRY Astronomer Royal - ON SOUND & MUSIC - 1868/1st Ed.

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, along with other 17th, 18th & 19th-Century English titles,  
auctions ending Sunday, September 25. More details and images can be  
found at the URL below or by searching under the seller name arch_in_la.

http://www.ebay.com/sch/arch_in_la/m.html?_trksid=p4340.l2562

Thanks again,
Ardwight Chamberlain
L.A.

George Biddell Airy: On Sound and Atmospheric Vibrations, with the  
Mathematical Elements of Music. London and Cambridge: Macmillan, 1868.  
FIRST EDITION. Original  publisher's cloth; 8vo; 263 pp.; with two  
fold-out plates and a 47-page publisher's catalogue (dated January,  
1868).
Uncommon first edition of this work on sound and music by Sir George  
Bidell Airy (1801-1892), English mathematician, Astronomer Royal, and  
de facto scientific adviser to the British government for decades. The  
binding with some bumps to the corners and spine ends, light rubbing  
to the boards, scuff marks to the spine; ink notation to the title- 
page, leaves lightly toned with a trace of dust-soiling to the top  
edges; one folding plate a bit worn and darkened at the fore-edge  
where it  protrudes from the text block due to misfolding; otherwise  
clean and sound. The text is largely unopened (meaning that many of  
the page-gatherings are still connected at the top or fore-edges),  
hence unread.

Section headings include: Properties of Air; Theory of Undulations;  
Investigation of the Motion of a Wave of Air through the Atmosphere  
Considered as of Two or Three Dimensions; On Musical Sounds, and the  
Manner of Producing Them; Elements of Musical Harmony and Melody; On  
Instrumental Music and the Adaptations of Music Required by Special  
Instruments; etc.