Sämmtliche Physische und Chemische Werke, nach dem Tode des Verfassers gesamlet und in Deutscher Sprache herausgegeben von D. Sigismund Friedrich Hermbstädt by SCHEELE, Carl Wilhelm - 1793

Berlin: Heinrich August Rottman, 1793. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. 1st Edition. Hardcover. 8vo - over 7¾ - 9¾" tall. Two parts in two volumes. 8vo (190 x 117 mm). xxxii, 264; 446 pp., folding engraved plate at the end of the second part. Uniformly bound in contemporary sprinkled cardboard, each spine with hand-lettered paper label, red-sprinkled edges (minor rubbing and dust-soiling, original pastedowns, no free endpapers). Light uniform age-toning, some scattered spotting mostly to outer margins, a few dog-ears and creases. Provenance: from a private Swedish collection. A very good copy in original bindings. ----

FIRST COLLECTED EDITION, AND VERY RARE, of Scheele's works in German, which contains in vol. 1 his independently made discovery of oxygen in his famous chemical treatise on the air and fire (Chemische Abhandlung von der Luft und dem Feuer). The treatise includes accounts of the numerous chemical experiments Scheele performed to demonstrate that common air, when freed from "aerial acid" (carbon dioxide) and water vapor, consists of two gases: "fire air" (oxygen) which supports combustion, and "fire air" (nitrogen), which does not. Vol. 2 consists of essays from the Transactions of the Academy of Sciences at Stockholm. Grolier/Horblit summarizes his other achievements thus: "He was the discoverer of chlorine, barium, manganese . . . and many compounds" (Grolier/Horblit). "Scheele was an experimental genius; he made more discoveries of first-rate importance with fewer opportunities and scantier appliances than any one else, and his skill, insight and power of illuminating experimental results have never been surpassed, if, indeed, they have ever been equalled" (Ferguson). He also noted the action of light on chloride of silver and the insolubility of blackened silver chloride in ammonia - discoveries that would later prove significant for photography.
References: Ferguson 330-332; for first edition of the Chemische Abhandlungen, see Dibner 41; Grolier/Horblit 92 and Norman 1905. - Visit our website to see more images!