[Rarebooks] FS: Ure's 1868 Manufactures & Arts Dictionary

[Joslin Hall Rare Books]

TITLE: “A Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures and Mines; containing a Clear
Exposition of their Principles and Practice”

By Andrew Ure.
Published in New York by D. Appleton in 1868. Corrected and Greatly
Enlarged edition.

DISCUSSION: One of the great compendiums of manufacture of the 19th
century, first published in 1839 and enlarged and updated a number of
times. From amber and alabaster through brass, brick and bread, calico
printing, cutlery, gas-light, glass-making, gunpowder, ice production,
leather, pickles, silver, soap and tea, to white lead, wheeled carriages
and wine, almost everything you can think of, any many things you wouldn't
have thought of, are here.

"Andrew Ure [1778-1857] was a Scottish doctor, scholar and chemist. He
received an M.D. from Glasgow University in 1801, and served briefly as an
army surgeon before settling in Glasgow, where he became a member of the
Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons in 1803. He replaced Dr. George
Birkbeck as Professor of Natural Philosophy (specializing in chemistry and
physics) at the recently formed Andersonian Institution in 1804. His
evening lectures on chemistry and mechanics enjoyed considerable success
and inspired the foundation of a number of mechanical institutions in
Britain and the École des Arts et Métiers in Paris. Ure founded the Garnet
Hill observatory in 1808. He was put in charge and resided in it for
several years, leaving it second only to Greenwich in reputation at that
time. Whilst in residence he was visited by Sir William Herschel, the
Astronomer Royal, who gave some lectures to the local Astronomical Society
and helped him to install a fourteen-foot reflecting telescope of his own
[Ure's] design and manufacture. He was elected Fellow of the Royal
Astronomical Society in 1811. He [also] achieved considerable reputation
for his practical chemistry. In 1821 he published his first major book,
Dictionary of Chemistry, a replacement for William Nicholson's outdated
Dictionary. In 1822 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. "

"By 1830, Ure's outside interests led him to resign first from his chair
and then from the Institution. He moved to London and set himself up as a
consulting chemist (probably the first such in Britain). His work included
acting as an expert witness, government commissions and industrial tours
of England, Belgium and France. His visits to English textile mills led to
his publication of The Philosophy of Manufactures (1835) and Account of
the Cotton Industry (1836), dealing with the textile industry. In 1840 he
helped found the Pharmaceutical Society. "

"The great Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures and Mines, Ure's chief and
most encyclopedic work, was published in 1837 for which he received 1,000
guineas. Further enlarged editions were rapidly called for in 1840, 1843
and 1853. After his death four further editions appeared, the last in
1878. This work was translated into almost every European language,
including Russian and Spanish. The Times review said: 'This is a book of
vast research, and the variety of subjects embraced in it may be estimated
by the fact that on the French translation it was thought advisable to
employ nineteen collaborators, all regarded as experts in their special
subjects.' Ure died in 1857 in London. Michael Faraday's posthumous
description of him was: 'His skill and accuracy were well known as well as
the ingenuity of the methods employed in his researches
 and it has been
stated that no one of his results has ever been impugned. His extensive
knowledge enabled him to arrive at conclusions, and to demonstrate facts
considered impossible by his compeers in science'."

DESCRIPTION: Hardcover. 2 volumes. 7.5"x10", xiv + 1,118 + 998 pages;
"with nearly 1600 engravings on wood"; publisher's pink pebbled cloth.

CONDITION NOTES: Rebacked and with new endpapers; spines sunned; faint
name stamps on the title pages; otherwise a nice, clean, tight and fresh
set.

PRICE:  $400 -

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