[Rarebooks] fa: Journal de Physique 1801-06: VOLTA - HUMBOLDT - PRIESTLEY - GALVANISM -TECHNOLOGY - PHRENOLOGY &c.

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, auctions ending Sunday, May 6. More details and images can be found at the URL below or by searching under the seller name arch_in_la.

http://tinyurl.com/7pgngb4

Thanks again,
Ardwight Chamberlain
L.A.


Jean-Claude de la Méthérie (editor): Journal de Physique, de Chimie, d'Histoire Naturelle et des Arts. Tome LIII [53]; An IX [1800-1801]. Paris: Chez J.J. Fuchs, 1801. First edition, bound in period mottled calf; 4to (25.5 x 20 cm); 480 pp. + 6 leaves of copper-engraved plates (appears to be complete); in-text illustrations, tables and charts...
[ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT] Esquisse d'un Tableau Géologique de l'Amérique Méridionale, par F.A. Humboldt (30 pp.; illustrated). A study of South American geology by the great explorer and naturalist Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859). [WITH] Extrait d'une lettre de Humboldt à J.-C. Delamétherie (from Cumaná, 15 novembre 1800).
[ALESSANDRO VOLTA, GALVANISM & ELECTRICITY] Lettre du professeur Volta à J.-C. Delamétherie, sur les phénomènes galvaniques (pp. 309-316). Includes a diagram related to Volta's groundbreaking “artificial electric organ" or voltaic pile, an early form of battery. At this time (1800-01) Volta, having swallowed his political differences with the "Jacobins" who had occupied his homeland, was in Paris, dazzling Napoleon and the Academie with his revolutionary discoveries in electricity, including the voltaic pile. He left Paris a month after this letter was published. [WITH] Sur le movement du Fluide Galvanique, par [Jean-Baptiste] Biot (in 2 parts; illustrated). [WITH] Sur les phénomènes électrométriques de la Colonne de Volta, par M. Erman. [WITH] Notice des phénomènes d'attraction et de repulsion, dependent de la Pile Galvanique, observés par M. Ritter.
[WILLIAM CRUICKSHANK vs. JOSEPH PRIESTLEY] Some observations on different, etc. Observations sur les différentes combinaisons de l'oxygène avec le carbine, en réponse à quelques-uns des dernières objections du doctor Priestley, au nouveau système de chime; par M Cruikshank [sic] de Woolwich. First French translation of Cruickshank's reply to Priestley's response to Cruickshank's discovery of a new "gaseous oxide of carbine" (carbon monoxide). Around this time, Cruickshank, a Scottish surgeon and chemist, also conducted experiments in electricity leading to the invention of the "trough battery", which many considered an advance over Volta's pile (pp. 110-120; illustrated with a full-page table).
[GASOMETER] Description d'un nouveau Gazomètre, par Victor Michelotti, médecin à Turin (illustrated).
[BAROMETER] Description d'un Baromètre portatif, par J. Guérin (illustrated)...


Jean-Claude de la Méthérie (editor): Journal de Physique, de Chimie, d'Histoire Naturelle et des Arts. Tome LXII [62]; Janvier[-Juin] 1806. Paris: Chez Courcier, Imprim. Libraire pour les Mathématiques, [1806]. First edition, bound in period mottled calf; 4to (25.5 x 20 cm); 480 pp. + 8 leaves of copper-engraved plates, 5 folding (appears to be complete); tables and charts...
[FRANZ JOSEPH GALL & PHRENOLOGY] Exposition du Systême Cranologique de M. Gall (32 pp.; illustrated with a folding plate). "Cranioscopy," later known as phrenology, was a system developed by Franz Joseph Gall (1758–1828), a German physiologist and pioneer in the study of the localization of mental functions in the brain. Revolutionary at the time, though later discredited, Gall's system proposed that the shape of the skull revealed a person's intellectual and emotional characteristics.
[CALABRIAN EARTHQUAKE] Les effete géologiques du Tremblement de Terre de la Calabre en 1783; par M. Fleuriau de Bellevue (illustrated with 3 folding plates). An examination of the geological effects of a series of powerful earthquakes that struck Calabria, Italy in 1783.
[ELECTROMAGNETISM] Sur la propagation de l'Électricité; par le Docteur Oersted (illustrated). A pioneering treatise by Hans Christian Ørsted (1777-1851), Danish physicist and chemist, who was the first to propose that electric currents create magnetic fields.
[BRUGNATELLI ON GALVANISM] Observations chimico-galvaniques; par L. Brugnatelli (19 pp.; illustrated). By means of experiments such as those explained and illustrated here, the Italian chemist Luigi Brugnatelli invented the process of electroplating in 1805.
[EXPERIMENTS IN ELECTRICITY] Lettre de M. *** sur l'Électricité. The unnamed correspondent, a "savant estimable" according to the editor's note, describes 12 experiments. A second set of experiments, accompanied by 3 folding plates, is to be found in the next volume (vol. LXIII), which we will also be offering.)
[CLASSIFICATION OF MINERALS] Essai sur une nouvelle Classification des Substance volcaniques; (16 pp.) [AND] Tableau des analyse chimiques des Minéraux, et d'une nouvelle Classification de ses Substances, fondée sur ces analyses; (in two parts; 76 pp.) par J.C. Delamétherie...