Milestones of Science Books

HAUKSBEE, Francis.

Physico-Mechanical Experiments on Various Subjects. Containing an Account of several Surprizing Phenomena touching Light and Electricity.

London: R. Brugis for the author, 1709.

1st Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. Item #004177

4to (203 x 155 mm). [32], 194 pp. Small engraved plate inserted between p. 160 and 161; woodcut text illustration, 7 folding engraved plates bound at the end; first blank present. Bound without blanks. Contemporary panelled calf, marbled endpapers, red-sprinkled edges (hinges restored, extremities rubbed, corners worn). Text slightly browned, occasional minor spotting, weak pale dampstaining to plates and a few text pages at the end, some plates with tears at blank margins (two of which touching border of engravings). Provenance: Samuel Blackwell (bookplate to front pastedown); Ric. Waller (inscription on first flyleaf). A very good copy in contemporary binding. ----

RARE FIRST EDITION OF 'ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT EARLY WORKS ON ELECTRICITY' (Duveen). Hauksbee was indebted to Isaac Newton for some of his theoretical ideas, while the results of his important experiments in electroluminescence, static electricity and capillarity in turn influenced Newton's revisions and additions to the new editions of his Principia and Opticks. Hauksbee was the first to demonstrate the optical effects produced by the passage of electricity through rarified air. "His demonstration of the efficacy of glass in producing frictional electricity opened the way for the work of Gray, Dufay and Franklin, and his discoveries in capillarity influenced Laplace nearly one hundred years later" (Norman). The improved airpump which Hauksbee described and illustrated was based on his discovery of the lateral communication of motion in air. His illustration of the optical effects of the passage of electricity through air was, in Duveen's view, "the starting point of modern researches, X-rays and the constitution of the atom."
References & Bibliography: Norman 1020; Wheeler Gift 232; Duveen p.282; Gedeon pp. 92-93. - Visit our website to see more images!

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