GUERICKE, Otto von. Experimenta nova (ut vocantur) Magdeburgica de vacuo spatio, Amsterdam: Joannem Janssonium á Waesberge, 1672, 2°, FIRST EDITION, engraved additional title, 2 engraved folding plates, 20 full-page, illustrations, errata leaf at end, 19th century half cloth (without the portrait ("as often" - Honeyman), additional title with gutter margin renewed and repairs along lower margin, short internal tear on I3 crossing several lines of text), some spotting and staining throughout). [Honeyman IV, 1565 (without portrait); Grolier/Horblit 44; Wheeler Gift 170; Dibner, Heralds of Science 55: "A book of prime importance in electrical discovery, air-pressure and the vacuum pump"]

Details

GUERICKE, Otto von. Experimenta nova (ut vocantur) Magdeburgica de vacuo spatio, Amsterdam: Joannem Janssonium á Waesberge, 1672, 2°, FIRST EDITION, engraved additional title, 2 engraved folding plates, 20 full-page, illustrations, errata leaf at end, 19th century half cloth (without the portrait ("as often" - Honeyman), additional title with gutter margin renewed and repairs along lower margin, short internal tear on I3 crossing several lines of text), some spotting and staining throughout). [Honeyman IV, 1565 (without portrait); Grolier/Horblit 44; Wheeler Gift 170; Dibner, Heralds of Science 55: "A book of prime importance in electrical discovery, air-pressure and the vacuum pump"]

Lot Essay

"Describes the invention of the air-pump and the famous experiment with the Magdeburg hemispheres, in which two teams of eight horses were employed in an attempt to pull apart two copper hemispheres from which the air had been withdrawn. Guericke also describes the invention of the first electrical machine, which generated the first visible and audible electric discharges" (Honeyman).

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