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BENZENBERG, JOHANN FRIEDRICH. Versuche über das Gesetz des Falls, über den Widerstand der Luft und über die Umdrehung der Erde, nebst der Geschichte aller früheren Versuche von Galiläi bis auf Guglielmini. Dortmund: the brothers Mallinckrodt 1804. 8vo, 199 x 123 mm. (7 13/16 x 4 7/8 in.), contemporary or slightly later nineteenth-century half calf, edges stained green, worn, head of spine torn, library ink stamps on title, lower margins of a few text leaves and versos of plates, one or two marginal tears. FIRST EDITION. Collation: 8 A-Cc8 Dd6 Ee-LI8. 278 leaves. Engraved frontispiece of St. Michael's church in Hamburg, additional engraved title, 6 engraved plates on light blue paper (2 folding).
In Benzenberg's experiments on falling bodies, described in this work, "he determined the displacement toward the east of falling lead spheres--in the tower of the Michaelis Church in Hamburg in 1802, and in a mine shaft in Schlebusch, in the Earldom of Mark, in 1804. He therefore demonstrated the revolution of the earth some fifty years before Foucault did. (That such a demonstration might be possible had been suspected by Newton, to be sure, but Robert Hooke's experiments of 1679 were inconclusive and those of Domenico Guglielmini were highly inaccurate.)"--DSB.
Provenance: Egyetemi Könyvtar, Szeged, Hungary, library inkstamps on front flyleaf, etc. (see above) -- Robert Honeyman IV (sale, Sotheby's London, Part I, 30-31 October 1978, lot 279).
In Benzenberg's experiments on falling bodies, described in this work, "he determined the displacement toward the east of falling lead spheres--in the tower of the Michaelis Church in Hamburg in 1802, and in a mine shaft in Schlebusch, in the Earldom of Mark, in 1804. He therefore demonstrated the revolution of the earth some fifty years before Foucault did. (That such a demonstration might be possible had been suspected by Newton, to be sure, but Robert Hooke's experiments of 1679 were inconclusive and those of Domenico Guglielmini were highly inaccurate.)"--DSB.
Provenance: Egyetemi Könyvtar, Szeged, Hungary, library inkstamps on front flyleaf, etc. (see above) -- Robert Honeyman IV (sale, Sotheby's London, Part I, 30-31 October 1978, lot 279).