Reference Manual AO Series Forty Stereoscopic Teaching Microscope by [ American Optical Company ] - 1967

New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc, 1956. First American Edition. Cloth. Near Fine. First American Edition. x, 305 pages. 8vo. Publisher's blue cloth. Lacks the dust jacket. SIGNED by author Wilkes on the title page. Scarce thus. Previous owner's name (KH Westlake) on front flyleaf. Cloth. "An early book on the principles underlying the construction and use of automatic digital computers. The first chapter contains a brief survey of computer development from Babbage's time onward; other chapters focus primarily on logical design and programming. The book includes much detailed information on ENIAC, EDVAC, EDSAC, the Harvard Mark I and Mark II machines, and the Bell Laboratories Relay Computer Models V and VI." (Origins of Cyberspace 1040). Wilkes was a British computer scientist of some note. In 1945, Wilkes was appointed as the second director of the University of Cambridge Mathematical Laboratory (later known as the Computer Laboratory), was a founding member of the British Computing Society, a… Read More

[London]: [C. Davis, Printer to the Royal Society], 1753. First Edition. Extract. Very Good. First Edition. 565-568 pages. 4to. 19 x 24 cm. (7 1/4 x 9 1/4 inches). An extract from "Philosophical Transactions Giving some Account of the Present Undertakings, Studies, and Labours, of the Ingenious in Many Considerable Parts of the World ... Vol. XLVII For the Years 1751 and 1752...London: Printed for C. Davis, MDCCLIII" The article offered here, "A Letter of Benjamin Franklin, Esq; to Mr. Peter Collinson, F. R. S. concerning an electrical Kite" is found on pages 565-567 and is complete. Browned at the edges, leaves separated. Extract. "Until the middle of the eighteenth century electricity was known only in its static form, [often experimentally collected in Leiden jars]...The most dramatic result of [Benjamin Franklin]'s researches was the proof that lightening is really an electrical phenomenon. Others had made such a suggestion before him - even Newton himself - but it was [Franklin] who provided… Read More

Rouen: Chez Raphael du Petit Val, 1588. Boards. Good. 32mo. [approximately 4.5 (tall) x 3 inches]; pp. 911, [81]; old calf rubbed and lightly worn at tips, recently rebacked in morocco retaining earlier boards; contemporary endpapers spotted and stained; title page with wood engraved device; some text leaves shave at top edge with slight loss of lettering at headers; worming to margins and text with scattered loss of letters, though not entire words, in portions of the text; else generally clean throughout; a good, sound copy overall. Boards. Revised, corrected and enlarged edition. (There were more than one hundred editions of this book in at least six languages to the late eighteenth century.) Illustrated with six woodcuts in the text (from pp. 850-863) showing an alchemist's workshop with various instruments, including the "Balneum Marie" or "Mary's Bath" a type of double boiler used by alchemists. The engraved device at the title page is of interest for the Hermetic legend "Deo Duce" ("God as my… Read More

[no place of publication stated]: [no publisher stated], [no date stated]. Wraps. Good. [1]-5 pages. 10 7/8 x 8 3/8 inches. Typescript on thin typewriter paper typed on recto only. Stapled upper left. Stained. Two penciled corrections in an unknown hand (one typo, one number correction). The typewriter paper is watermarked "75% Cotton Fibre | Old Badger Bond | by Fox River" on several sheets. Wraps. Apparently published only in the Sloane and Wyner bibliography, this paper describes at a high level what THROBAC I is (THROBAC stands for THrifty ROman-numeral BAckward looking Computer) and what it can do. "Throbac...is a relay desk calculator operating entirely in the Roman numeral system. It performs the four operations addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. The controls and method of operation are very similar to the Marchant desk calculator." (first paragraph) THROBAC I was constructed and currently resides in the MIT Museum collection. (item 2007.030.011). "Over the years,… Read More

New York City: Bell Telephone Laboratories, [no date stated]. Wraps. Very Good. [1]-5 pages. 10 7/8 x 8 3/8 inches. Typescript carbon on thin paper printed recto only. Paperclip affixed upper left with older rust stains visible. Provided WITH the final paper in offprint form: 90-93 pages. 10 x 7 1/8 inches. Publisher's original printed blue wrappers. Stapled. Wraps. First published in American Mathematical Monthly, Vol 57, (Feb. 1950), pp 90-93. Offered here is an undated typescript carbon of that paper. While we don't understand the mathematics here, one comment is fun: "If we were using this notation, department stores would find it much more difficult to camouflage the price of goods with $.98 labels." The typescript carbon in Shannon's files finishes there. But the final paper [ as offered here ] includes additional material, including a final paragraph explaining one reason for this notation: "Symmetrical notation offers attractive possibilities for general-purpose computing machines of the… Read More

New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc, 1956. First American Edition. Cloth. Near Fine. First American Edition. x, 305 pages. 8vo. Publisher's blue cloth. Lacks the dust jacket. SIGNED by author Wilkes on the title page. Scarce thus. Previous owner's name (KH Westlake) on front flyleaf. Cloth. "An early book on the principles underlying the construction and use of automatic digital computers. The first chapter contains a brief survey of computer development from Babbage's time onward; other chapters focus primarily on logical design and programming. The book includes much detailed information on ENIAC, EDVAC, EDSAC, the Harvard Mark I and Mark II machines, and the Bell Laboratories Relay Computer Models V and VI." (Origins of Cyberspace 1040). Wilkes was a British computer scientist of some note. In 1945, Wilkes was appointed as the second director of the University of Cambridge Mathematical Laboratory (later known as the Computer Laboratory), was a founding member of the British Computing Society, a… Read More

[London]: [C. Davis, Printer to the Royal Society], 1753. First Edition. Extract. Very Good. First Edition. 565-568 pages. 4to. 19 x 24 cm. (7 1/4 x 9 1/4 inches). An extract from "Philosophical Transactions Giving some Account of the Present Undertakings, Studies, and Labours, of the Ingenious in Many Considerable Parts of the World ... Vol. XLVII For the Years 1751 and 1752...London: Printed for C. Davis, MDCCLIII" The article offered here, "A Letter of Benjamin Franklin, Esq; to Mr. Peter Collinson, F. R. S. concerning an electrical Kite" is found on pages 565-567 and is complete. Browned at the edges, leaves separated. Extract. "Until the middle of the eighteenth century electricity was known only in its static form, [often experimentally collected in Leiden jars]...The most dramatic result of [Benjamin Franklin]'s researches was the proof that lightening is really an electrical phenomenon. Others had made such a suggestion before him - even Newton himself - but it was [Franklin] who provided… Read More

Rouen: Chez Raphael du Petit Val, 1588. Boards. Good. 32mo. [approximately 4.5 (tall) x 3 inches]; pp. 911, [81]; old calf rubbed and lightly worn at tips, recently rebacked in morocco retaining earlier boards; contemporary endpapers spotted and stained; title page with wood engraved device; some text leaves shave at top edge with slight loss of lettering at headers; worming to margins and text with scattered loss of letters, though not entire words, in portions of the text; else generally clean throughout; a good, sound copy overall. Boards. Revised, corrected and enlarged edition. (There were more than one hundred editions of this book in at least six languages to the late eighteenth century.) Illustrated with six woodcuts in the text (from pp. 850-863) showing an alchemist's workshop with various instruments, including the "Balneum Marie" or "Mary's Bath" a type of double boiler used by alchemists. The engraved device at the title page is of interest for the Hermetic legend "Deo Duce" ("God as my… Read More

[no place of publication stated]: [no publisher stated], [no date stated]. Wraps. Good. [1]-5 pages. 10 7/8 x 8 3/8 inches. Typescript on thin typewriter paper typed on recto only. Stapled upper left. Stained. Two penciled corrections in an unknown hand (one typo, one number correction). The typewriter paper is watermarked "75% Cotton Fibre | Old Badger Bond | by Fox River" on several sheets. Wraps. Apparently published only in the Sloane and Wyner bibliography, this paper describes at a high level what THROBAC I is (THROBAC stands for THrifty ROman-numeral BAckward looking Computer) and what it can do. "Throbac...is a relay desk calculator operating entirely in the Roman numeral system. It performs the four operations addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. The controls and method of operation are very similar to the Marchant desk calculator." (first paragraph) THROBAC I was constructed and currently resides in the MIT Museum collection. (item 2007.030.011). "Over the years,… Read More

New York City: Bell Telephone Laboratories, [no date stated]. Wraps. Very Good. [1]-5 pages. 10 7/8 x 8 3/8 inches. Typescript carbon on thin paper printed recto only. Paperclip affixed upper left with older rust stains visible. Provided WITH the final paper in offprint form: 90-93 pages. 10 x 7 1/8 inches. Publisher's original printed blue wrappers. Stapled. Wraps. First published in American Mathematical Monthly, Vol 57, (Feb. 1950), pp 90-93. Offered here is an undated typescript carbon of that paper. While we don't understand the mathematics here, one comment is fun: "If we were using this notation, department stores would find it much more difficult to camouflage the price of goods with $.98 labels." The typescript carbon in Shannon's files finishes there. But the final paper [ as offered here ] includes additional material, including a final paragraph explaining one reason for this notation: "Symmetrical notation offers attractive possibilities for general-purpose computing machines of the… Read More