James Prescott Joule's copy bearing his signature

PRIESTLEY, Joseph.

James Prescott Joule's copy bearing his signature: The History and Present State of Electricity, with Original Experiments. The fourth edition, corrected and enlarged.

London: Printed for C. Bathurst, and T. Lowndes, J. Rivington, and J. Johnson, etc. 1775.

4th Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. Item #002735

4to (262 x 205 mm). [4], xxxii, 691 [1], iii, [9] pp., including index, catalogue of books by Priestley, and 8 folding engraved plates. Late 19th-century green cloth library binding, gilt shelf mark stamp '537 P2' on lower spine (boards spotted and soiled, some wear to spine ends and corners, upper hinge split at head, hole in cloth at upper board). Text and plates with minor occasional spotting, some marginal dust-soiling, otherwise quite crisp and clean. Closed tear in blank lower margin of leaves D2 and P4. Provenances: James Prescott Joule (his signature and ink stamp 'Prof. Dr. J. P. Joule Collection' to title page and preface leaf i; Manchester Municipal School of Technology Library (old ink stamps to title-page, verso of plates and a few text pages elsewhere). Deaccessioned as doublet from the library. A fine, unmarked and wide-margined copy. ----

Wheeler-Gift 453 (this edition); Norman 1748; Crook, p.157; Gartrell 443; Mottelay, p. 227 (for first edition 1767). - THE VERY RARE FOURTH EDITION and an interesting association copy linking two prominent British Scientists. Books bearing Joule's signature are exceedingly rare on the market.
Priestley's first scientific work was the first extensive history of previous electrical discoveries as well as being an assessment of contemporary electrical studies. During his lifetime it went through five English editions and was translated into Dutch, French and German. Priestley's "account favored Franklin's one-fluid theory, but was otherwise fairly impartial... Priestley was also the first historian of electricity. He was encouraged to write the History by his friend Benjamin Franklin, who helped corrects its proofs". (Norman 1748).
It is little surprising to see a copy of Priestley's book as having been part of Joules library. Priestley's text became the standard history of electricity for over a century; Alessandro Volta (who would go on to invent the battery), William Herschel (who discovered infrared radiation), Henry Cavendish (who discovered hydrogen) and certainly also Joule relied upon it. Joule is best remembered for his thermodynamical studies, where he analysed the nature of heat and established its relationship to mechanical energy. His efforts had great influence on the theory of the conversation of energy (the first law of thermodynamics). He collaborated with Lord Kelvin on the formulation of the absolute scale of temperature, and conducted extensive research on magnetostriction; a property of ferromagnetic materials that makes them modify their shapes when exposed to a magnetic field. He was the first scientist to identify this property in 1842. He established the relationship between the flow of current through a resistance and the heat dissipated, which was later termed as Joule's law. He is also credited with the first-ever calculation of the velocity of a gas molecule. The derived unit of energy or work, the Joule, is named after him. Joule was given the Copley Medal, an award that Priestley received almost 100 years before. - Visit our website for additional images and information.

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