Science & Technology - General

Paris: Gauthier-Villars, 1905. First Edition . Printed Wrappers. Very Good. 10"x6.5. Paris: Gauthier-Villars, 1905-1910. First Edition. 3 volumes in 4, vi, 365, [3]; [4], 165, [3]; [4], 136, [2], + 2 ad.; [4], 472. Illustrated with text figures and two folding world maps in Vol. III. 10x6½, original grey printed wrappers. First edition of a work fundamental to celestial mechanics. Poincaré was one of the greatest mathematical minds of the 19th century; his work on the "three-body problem" (the gravitational interplay of three masses) leads some to credit him as a co-discoverer of the special theory of relativity, along with Einstein and Lorentz. The present is one of two of Poincaré's major works on the subject. With the inkstamp of Paul Berg. Scarce, no copies appear in ABPC for the past 20 years. Some light wear and staining/darkening to spines, back wrapper of Vol. III chipped at edges, minor splitting at joints, but overall very good or better with clean pages partially unopened. One of… Read More

Basel, Andreas Cratander, 1522. With 2 richly figured woodcut title borders by Hans Franck, and many woodcut figured initials. 20 unn. leaves, 220 pp., 44 unn. leaves. Folio. 18th-century calf with richly gilt spine, gilt armorial supralibros of Karl Theodor von der Pfalz on both covers (signed B.P. in lowest compartment). Basel, (Andreas Cratander), 1522. Pomponius Mela's famous Latin "Geography" of the earliest surviving Latin work on geography, present here in the epochal edition by the great Swiss humanist Joachim von Watt or Vadianus (1484-1551), first published in a textually shorter edition in Vienna, 1518: 23, 132 ff., see VD 16 M 2310). The present second edition is revised and augmented, and is the first to contain the "Loca aliquot" in which Vadianus once more confirmed his modern scientific point of view by critizising the obsolete one of Johannes Camertus. Further more, this second edition contains the famous letters by Vadian to Rudolph Agricola with the… Read More

Basil: Ludovici Regis, 1621. Third Latin Edition. Hardcover. Very Good in a serviceable binding. Folio (8" x 12-1/2") bound in library buckram; irregularly paginated: [10], 502, [58] pages. Illustrated with 270 woodcuts, many full and half page, some signed with the monogram "RMD," and generally attributed to Hans Rudolf Manuel Deutsch (fl.1525-1572) or, less commonly, Blasius Weffring. Previously published in 1556 and 1561, this edition seems scarcer than either of the previous. PRINTING & THE MIND OF MAN 79: "The first systematic treatise on mining and metallurgy and one of the first technological books of modern times." Herbert Hoover, who first translated this book into English, described this title in his autobiography as "the first important attempt to assemble systematically in print the world-knowledge on mining, metallurgy, and industrial chemistry. It was the great textbook of those industries for two centuries and had dominated thought and practice all that time. In many mining regions… Read More

Edinburgh / London: printed for Cadell and Davies, London, and William Creech / Geological Society, 1795. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Edinburgh: printed for Cadell and Davies, London, and William Creech, 1795 (Vol. I and II); London: Geological Society, 1899 (Vol. III). Bound in three volumes, including the posthumous third part edited by Sir Archibald Geikie for the Geological Society. 4to (211 x 129 mm). viii, 620; viii, [103] 4-567 [1], xvi, 278, xiii [1] pp., including half-title in each volume and 6 folding engraved plates. Uniformily bound in fine 20th-century half calf, by Bayntun of Bath, spines ruled in gilt and with gilt-lettered morocco labels, original printed green wrappers of vol. III laid down and bound in at end (very slight fading to spines and light rubbing of extremities), brown sprinkled edges. Text and plates of first two volumes somewhat browned and foxed as usual (plate 2 in vol. II stronger), large folding plate of Mont Blanc with small defect… Read More

1880. [London, Eyre and Spottiswoode], 1880, 27th November + 1882 + 1885 (1): 8vo. Unbound. With a recent, discreete paper spine. A few smaller tears to extremities. 4 pp. + 1 plate (showing electric light bulbs].(2): 8vo. Original self-wrappers. Stitched at spine. Near mint.(3): 4 pages 8vo. Scarce original printed patent for the seminal invention that is the incandescent light bulb. Though usually erroneously ascribed to Thomas Edison, it was in fact Joseph Swan who invented the light bulb and ended the dark ages. - Here sold together with the extremely scarce offprint of Swan's 1882 speech on his seminal invention as well as a highly important and interesting autograph letter on the same subject, namely "the new filament or "Artificial Silk" as I have been calling it", in which Swan also confirms his priority in invention and warns against letting the withsent speciman fall into the hands of lamp makers. Swan first publicly demonstrated his incandescent carbon lamp at a lecture for the Newcastle… Read More

Cape Town Johannesburg London: Purnell, 1980 DIAMOND CUTTING - A Complete Guide to Diamond Processing is written by Basil Watermeyer, an international expert who in 1970 perfected the magnificent Barion cut. His book, which is compiled from notes carefully recorded over a career of 33 years, will serve as an invaluable guide to diamond cutters and jewellers alike. Mr Watermeyer covers his subject in great depth with supporting illustrations, drawings and photographs. The Barion cut is de scribed fully for the first time, explaining how by incorporating both vertical faceting and horizontal steps it can be adapted to any angular stone. The cut combines the intricate craftsmanship of the Emerald cut with the brilliance of the Round cut. Diamond Cutting is a unique work which will become essential reading for all who are concerned with dia mond processing internationally. ------------------ Orders over $100.00 are shipped using tracked courier delivery services. Roughly 7" Wide By 10" Tall

Shannon, Claude. Transactions of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers. Volume 57 (29 x 32cm). 1938. Original publisher's dark blue cloth. Shannon while working at Bell Labs wrote his famous master thesis whereby he "proved that the two-valued algebra developed by George Boole...could be implemented electrically by telephone relays, and used as a basis for designing computer circuits. This was probably the most significant theoretical step toward the construction of electronic digital computers made prior to World War II." OOC. "A symbolic analysis of relay and switching circuits" was his first published paper, and was abstracted from his thesis. At the time he was studying at MIT for a master's in science degree and working as a research assistant to Vannevar Bush. While working with Bush he became interested in the theory and design of switching circuits, and he realized the two-value algebraic concept as it applied to relays could be used to design electronic computer circuits. His article… Read More

Basel, (Heinrich Petri & Peter Perna, 1561). *** Première édition donnée par Daniel Santbech de cet ouvrage de Regiomontanus. Il l'a revu et commenté à la lumière des découvertes de Copernic. Rédigé en 1464, ce texte n'a été publié pour la première fois qu'en 1533 à Nuremberg. Illustré de très nombreux bois gravés dans le texte. Relié à la suite : - SANTBECH. Problematum astronomicorum et geometricorum sectiones septem... Basileae, Per Henrichum Petri, et Petrum Pernam, 1561. In-folio de (20), 294, (2) pp. Première édition. Une suite de l'ouvrage précédent, qui traite des applications pratiques. La plus grande partie est consacrée à l'astronomie et ses instruments. L'auteur traite aussi des cadrans solaires, de géographie, de navigation, d'arpentage, de balistique... Le mathématicien et astronome Daniel Santbech était hollandais. En 1651, Riccioli a donné son nom à un cratére de la Lune. Relié avec : - REGIOMONTANUS, PEURBACH. In Ptolemaei magnam compositionem, quam… Read More

London: Apud Guil. & Joh. Innys, 1726. Full description: NEWTON, [Sir] Isaac. Philosophiæ naturalis principia mathematica. Editio tertia aucta & emendata. London: Apud Guil. & Joh. Innys, 1726. Third edition. One of only 1250 copies printed. Quarto (9 1/2 x 7 1/2 inches; 241 x 190 mm.). [36], 530, [6, index] pp. Engraved frontispiece portrait (facing preface) by George Vertue after I. Vanderbank. Numerous diagrams in the text and one engraving of cometary orbit on p. 506. Title printed in red and black. In period repurposed mottled calf over original boards. Spine stamped in gilt. Red morocco spine label, lettered in gilt. All edges red. Marbled endpapers. Some old ink notes on front flyleaf. One instance of light marginalia. A one-inch closed tear to leaf D2, not affecting text. Some occasional very light dampstaining to fore-edge margin. Overall a very good, clean copy. "This edition was the last published during the author's lifetime and the basis of all subsequent editions. It was edited by… Read More

Paris:: Arthus Bertrand, [1840-55]., 1840. Atlas folio (in sheets). 55 x 35.5 cm. 10 lithographic plates with drawings by Louis Bevalet & lithographed by Muller [and] Himely (engr.), 2 additional maps or charts. With the original printed wrapper chemise. Wrapper is a bit worn. Plates are in excellent condition. Very good. HOUSED WITHIN A MODERN HALF-MOROCCO DROP-BACK BOX, navy blue cloth chemise. First printing, extremely rare, of the unfinished publication of Gaimard expedition, containing what is often missing from the main body of the expedition report (probably due to the size of the plates and their non-bound format?). It seems Rudolph Ackermann (1764-1834), the famous lithographer from London, may have also been involved in the production of these plates as his name is on the plates themselves. / Gaimard, a French naval surgeon and naturalist, built an observatory at Bossekop, Finnmark, where he made his scientific observations of the Arora Borealis. There were 10 striking lithographs used to… Read More

1807. London, Philosophical Transactions, 1807. 4to. Bound to style in recent plain blue wrappers. Offprint, with the separate printed title-page, from "Philosophical Transactions" 1807 - Part I. With author's presentation to title-page: "From the Author". Occassional brownspotting throughout and a small tear, not affecting text, to lower margin of B4. (2), 56 pp. + 1 plate. The exceedingly rare offprint, inscribed presentation copy, of Davy’s milestone paper in which he shows that electricity is capable of decomposing the most stable elements. The paper was central to any chemical affinity theory in the first half of the nineteenth century and Berzelius, one of the founders of modern chemistry, considered it "one of the best memoirs which has ever enriched the theory of chemistry”. Davy early concluded that the production of electricity in simple electrolytic cells resulted from chemical action and that chemical combination occurred between substances of opposite charge. He therefore reasoned… Read More

1605. Mainz, Balthazar Lipp, 1605. 4to. Bound in a beautiful 18th century full mottled calf binding with double gilt line-borders to boards. Edges of boards gilt. Expertly rebacked perfectly matching the boards and the gilding. With gilt leather title-label and gilt ornamentations. End-papers renewed. B2 and B3 defective in lower blank margins, not affecting text. A nice and clean copy. 53, (1) pp. + 1 folded plate and numerous illustrations in text. The exceedingly rare first edition of the first work to describe the construction of the adjustable proportional compass – the first work to describe both its construction and its application. The adjustable proportional compass became an indipensable tool for calculations and measurements for over three centuries. The proportional compass was a seminal calculating instrument in use from the end of the sixteenth century until the nineteenth century. Consisting of two rulers of equal length joined by a hinge, it was a precursor to the sector and… Read More

Antwerp: Arnoldo Berckmâno [Arnold Birckmann]., 1540. 1540 Early Latin edition. Quarto (160 x 222mm). Full contemporary or near-contemporary vellum over boards with titles in manuscript to the spine. Illustrated with 51 woodcuts and 5 volvelles (4 with moveable parts) to the verso of leaves X, XI (with the moveable element absent, as appears to always be the case, and seemingly as issued), XIII, and to the recto of leaves XXIX and XLV. Historiated initials throughout, globe woodcut to the title page, woodcut printer's device to the verso of the final printed leaf. Somewhat enigmatically inscribed in an early hand to the foot of the title page "Georgy dati Florentini" (George of Florence), and further inscribed to the verso of the final printed leaf. A very good copy, the binding secure, although with some cracking in places, and the spine covering with loss at the sewing supports. The contents with a minor mark to the head of the title page and some nibbling to the top-right corner of the final 13… Read More

Superb set of the first six volumes (of 12) of Friedrich Bertuch's famous Picture-book for Children, an illustrated encyclopedia for children.
Volumes 1 and 2 in half leather, volumes 3 to 6 in original paper wraps.
With all 600 hand-coloured copperplates in near fine condition with superb hand colour.
Text in German and French.
The Picture-Book was published in 12 volumes from 1790 to 1843 and eventually included 1,185 handcoloured copperplates. Bertuch wished to reproduce the magic of discovery, and mixed engravings of plants, animals, shells, minerals, volcanoes and technical inventions in a utopian chaos, so that a child could encounter afresh the wonders of the natural world at the turn of every page.
Although unsigned, the copperplates were overseen by Georg Melchior Kraus and J.H. Lips, after drawings by Th. Götz, C. Graf, C. Horny, Fr. Kaiser, and W. Waitz, and botanicals by Henriette and Conrad Westermayr, F. Götz and C. Ermer. With 118 botanical plates, 76 ornithology, 74 quadrupeds, 53… Read More

Oxford, printed for Henry Hall for Ric. Davis and B. Took, at the Ship in St. Pauls Church Yard, 1680.. TITLE CONTINUED: To which in this Edition are subjoynd divers Experiments and Notes about the Producibleness of Chymical Principles. TWO PARTS, EACH WITH ITS OWN TITLE PAGE, SECOND EDITION 1680, OFTHE SCEPTICAL CHYMIST (but the first to include the second part), FIRST EDITION 1680 of EXPERIMENTS AND NOTES. Small 8vo, approximately 165 x 100 mm, 6½ x 4 inches, pages: [20], 1-440; [28], 1-268, without the inserted 'advertisement' leaf (as often), a facsimile advert tipped in on last pastedown, full contemporary speckled panelled calf, paper label with old ink title, original endpapers. Spine worn and glued down, covers slightly pitted, paper label chipped at edges, upper hinge cracked but still attached on cords, inner paper hinges cracked, first inner paper hinge strengthened with binder's cloth, slight staining to title page, author's name in old ink to title page, another crossed out, 2 small edge… Read More