Search Results: Science from Aardvark Rare Books

Paris, France: Chez Jean-Thomas Herissant, 1761. Leather-bound. Fair. IN FRENCH. EN FRANCAIS. Quarto. Full mottled leather. Considerable wear to corners and edges, with missing leather. Spine shows five raised bands (six compartments) with gilt decorations to each compartment. Front board a little loose, but still holding nicely. Marbled endpapers. Tailpieces at chapters' ends. Full alphabetical index. Pages subtle and relatively bright. Four (out of 7) folding engravings, plus two-page fold-out index of Chemical Characters.

London, England: I (John) Okes, for Jasper Emory, 1639. First Edition. Pamphlet. Good. First book on Metallurgy in English. LACKS TITLE. Quarto. (6 3/4" x 5 1/2"). Disbound with leather remnants of spine. Woodcut initials and decorations. Our copy missing first unsigned signature : 4to: B-I , K² [$3 signed]; 34 leaves, pp. [8] 1-60 (ESTC Citation S100866. STC Citation 20000). Light browning to pages and trimming. One or two words underlined, and several corresponding manuscript marginalia - very scholarly citations, arguably, in 17th century hand. Some ancillary alternate hand numbering of higher (page?) numbers to top right corners, perhaps cross referencing information on the few hand-marked pages to another work. Doodles and ciphers in several hands to verso of last blank, but the dominant mark is a large elegant signature and note: "Jane Reynolds, her Hand & Pen; and [possibly], She will be Good." with "Jane", "Platt" and "Jane" below. Upside down, are ciphering perhaps in the same 17th… Read More

Paris, France: Chez Mequignon-Marvis, 1819. First French Edition. Leather-bound. Very Good. Octavo. Tree calf (8" x 5") , Once halfbound. Corners reinforced with green leather(?). Replacement label 5 7/8", along spine, in contrasting red, ruled and lettered in gilt). Light foxing throughout. Bears bookplate of Chandler Dymock Ingersoll to front pastedown, and inscription/signature to"__________July 1995, from B. Quaritch, London". Scarce first edition in French of the third part of Larbox i kemien, the earliest translation into any language of any part of this great textbook in chemistry. Jons Jacob Berzelius (1779 - 1848) was a Swedish chemist considered (along with others such as Boyle, Dalton and Lavoisier) to be one of the founders of modern chemistry, whose "enduring contributions were in the fields of electrochemistry, chemical bonding, and stoichiometry...he is noted for his determination of atomic weights and..." contributions to the field of stoichiomtry, the "branch of chemistry pertaining… Read More

New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1890. Early Reprint. Hardcover. Good. 12mo, 7.4 in. x 5 in., pp. 356, [6] (advertising). Dark red boards with black title on beige paper label to spine. Edgewear to top/bottom of spine. Spine label significantly chipped. Corners bumped. Rubbing to edges. Previous owner's name to dog-eared front free endpaper. Spine and hinges are tight. "Authorized Edition". Two pages (ONLY) of an apparently longer 19th century letter, bearing no logical connection to the book at hand, laid in at rear! Charles Grant Blairfindie Allen (February 24, 1848 - October 25, 1899) was a Canadian science writer and novelist, educated in England. He was a public promoter of evolution in the second half of the nineteenth century.

London: A. & C. Black. Ltd, 1917. Reprint. Hardcover. Good Plus. Octavo, 8 in. x 5 in., pp. viii, 199. Red cloth boards with gilt title to spine. Rubbing to extremities. Lower front corner bumped. Bubbling in cloth at edges of front board. Untrimmed fore- and bottom-edges. Repaired front and rear hinges. The 1917 reprint of the 1910 first edition.

London: William S. Orr & Co, 1846. Hardcover. Very Good. 4to (measuring 10" x 7" x 2"), three-quarter bound leather over black buckram, a later but handsome rebinding, with original spine label affixed. Fourteen engravings on steel, "eight line engravings, and two hundred and fifty vignettes on wood, with several hundred diagrams and sections". Occasional foxing to edges of engravings, with several images only themselves being lightly foxed, but never obtrusively obfuscatory. (Did I utter that?). Early-ish scientific overview ("The present volume is intended to furnish a very general view of the leading appearances of Physical Nature - the economy of the heavens and the earth-- with incidental notices of the progress of discovery, and pictorial representations of remakrble phenomena and interesting localilties..."). Includes "Phases and Movements of the Moon Round the Earth", Beer and Madler's "Selenographic Map of the Whole Visible Hemisphere of The Moon" (2 pp.), a diagram of the "Phases and… Read More

Braunschweig: von Friedrich Vieweg & Sohn, 1877. Second Edition, Revised & Enlarged. Leather-bound. Good Plus. 8vo. Original half-leather over marbled boards Rubbing and some scuffing to extremities with 1/4" loss of leather at top of spine, and a bit of peeling of marbled paper to rear board. Second edition, substantially enlarged and with a new preface by the author. 70 in-text illustrations of scientific equipment, and charts and tables. Errata page at rear. Occasional foxing to text block. Overall, clean and tight. 388pp. Bunsen, known for the Bunsen burner, opened the field of spectrum analysis and went on to discover the elements Cesium and Rubidium.

New York: Robert Carter and Brothers, 1858. ("A New, Improved, and Enlarged Edition"). Very Good Plus. Octavo. Brick red/Light Brown cloth covered boards, both front and rear bordered with stamped, heraldic motif in black. Title in red-on-(bright) gilt to spine, with chessboard-like design within black and gilt lines at top and bottom. 403 pp, Five-color frontis chart on thick card-stock (The Burn of Eathie), and numerous black-and-white engravings. Just very light rubbing to extremities. Tight and bright. Part of this work (nearly one-third) appeared earlier in 1858 "in the form of a series of sketches in the Witness newspaper.

London, England: Printed for the Heirs of Charles Elliot; and C. Elliot and T. Kay T. Cadell, and C.G. J. & J. Robinsons, 1790. First Edition. Leather-bound. Very Good Plus. Quarto. Full leather, originally acid-treated for effect. Gilt chain-and-dot border, largely rubbed off. Printed on high rag-content laid bond. Bright and uniformly internally excellent. A second volume was published in 1799, four years after Smellie's death from stomach cancer, no doubt exacerbated by his almost nightly attendance at the local Oyster Bar and Ale House situated downstairs from Smallie's printing establishment. Willim Smellie (1740-1795) was a Scottish polymath and master printer who from an early age exhibited a prodigious and sharp intellect and curiosity about topics ranging from Botany to Psychology to Political Justice and Reform. "...As an intellectual, Smellie courted controversy by defying systems and authorities: he contradicted Linnaeus on the sexuality of plants, proposed that human reason was only an… Read More

Paris: Chez Helie Josset, rue St Jacques, a la Fleur de Lys d'or, 1674. Leather-bound. Good. IN FRENCH. EN FRANCAIS. Full leather,small octavo [6x4 inches]. Hinges, spine chipped and spine leather worn and brittle. 182pp + index. Engraved title page. Binding tight. Writing in ink [fountain pen] at bottom and also obverse of title page in French, in at least three hands. Also a partially faded small stamped blue bookplate with partial name (Charles Hennegui?) and some ink writing in same hand on rear pastdown. Text clean with light toning and bit of foxing. The author presents jealousy not as the popular concept that it is a proof of love, but rather that it is a biological disease and hopes this knowledge will lead to a peaceful marriage.

London: Longmans Green, and Co, 1903. First English Edition. Hardcover. Good Plus. 8vo. Grey buckram over boards. Wear to extremities. This is a copy which was recently strengthened by rebacking and adding new leather spine (3 raised bands) with contrasting gilt-on-black spine title label, and gilt 1903 date stamped to bottom compartment. Planck was a physicist studying thermodynamics ( "Uber die Grundlage der Losungstheorie) which led to his formulation of quantum mechanics from a thermodynamic viewpoint. Only very occasional penciled marginalia, and that same annotater/previous owner has written down (in pencil (opposite the title page) three errors she or he discovered in Planck's thesis. xii + 272 + 40 pp. (Advertisement of "A Select List of Books in Natural and Physical Science, Mathematics, and Technology published by Messrs. Longmans, Green, & Co."). Translated from the original German by Alexander Ogg.

New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1874. Eighth Edition. Hardcover. Good Plus. Quarto. Quarter-leather over black textured cloth. Moderate rubbing to extremities, fraying to top and bottom of spine, and some loss of leather along joints. Solidly bound. 424 pages, plus 84 pp. of "Traverse Tables: Or, Latitudes and Departures of Courses, Calculated to Three Decimal Places: for Each Quarter Degree of Bearing. Chapters Part I: General Principles and Fundamental Methods I) Definitions and Methods; 2) Making The Measurements; 3) Drawing the Map; 4) Calculating the Content. 2. NOTE: The "Magnetic Chart" is a fold out chart illustrating "Lines of Equal Magnetic Declination for the Year 1850, first published in 1856.

Montgomery, Alabama: Air Command and Staff College, 1985. First Edition. Pamphlet. Very Good Plus. Stapled pamphlet, 8 in. x 5.1 in., pp. vii, [1], 75. White paper with two blue double-bars and title to front. Rust to staples. Umarked interior. Laid-in: 3 in. x 5 in. card: "With the compliments of the Air Command and Staff College" "In this study, Dr Howard Hensel reviews the themes developed in the Soviet media during the last several years regarding superpower space policy. In the final section of the study, Dr. Hensel evaluates a series of interpretations which might be applied in assessing Soviet-American space policies." (from the Foreward).