Details
VOLTA, ALESSANDRO. Lettere... Sull' Aria infiammabile nativa delle Paludi[,] al Padre Carlo Giuseppe Campi. (Milan: Giuseppe Marelli) [1776 or 1777]. 8vo, 193 x 108 mm. (7 7/8 x 4 3/16 in.), single folded sheet, UNBOUND, UNOPENED AND UNCUT, as issued; quarter morocco folding case (slightly rubbed), small perforation to fol. 3 (pp. 5-6), 2 or 3 minor fold breaks, outer pages (1 and 16) a trifle dust-soiled, slight soiling along folds. FIRST EDITION. 8, 16 pp. Contents: fol. [1]r drop title, [1]r-3v first letter, dated Como, 14 Novembre 1776, 4r-8v second letter, dated Como, 21 Novembre 1776, 8v colophon.
THE DISCOVERY OF NATURAL GAS
FIRST EDITION of Volta's first two letters to Campi describing Volta's discovery of methane. The 1777 edition of 147 pages, commonly referred to as the first edition, contains the present letters and two later letters to Campi (dated 26 November and 18 December 1776). Volta's "first pneumatic studies concerned 'inflammable air from marshes' (chiefly methane), which he discovered in November 1776 in Lago Maggiore. It was not a chance find. Inflammable air from metals (hydrogen released from acids) had been known since its isolation by Cavendish in 1776, and Franklin's description of a natural source of inflammable air had just been published by Priestley" (DSB). As yet, however, no distinction had been made between the various kinds of inflammable gases. "In the autumn of 1776 Volta's friend P. Carlo Giuseppe Campi had found a natural source near Pavia; and Volta himself, intrigued by the 'ever more remarkable and interesting subject of the different kinds of air'... had scoured the countryside for telltale bubbles" (op cit.). He collected his specimens by "stirring the mud with a stick and letting the bubbles pass into an inverted bottle filled with water. He distinguished [this gas] from the 'inflammable air from metals' (hydrogen) by its azure-blue flame and slower combustion, and by its requiring 10-12 vols. of air for detonation..." [hydrogen required one-fourth this amount]. (J.R. Partington, History of Chemistry, 4 vols., 1962-73, p. 4:814).
Of the present first edition only one other copy is recorded, in the Sir Francis Ronalds collection now in the library of the Institute of Electrical Engineers in London (although there may be a few unrecorded copies in Italian libraries). No copy appears in the auction records, nor in any of the standard bibliographies. It is probable that the edition was privately printed for the author and a few friends.
THE DISCOVERY OF NATURAL GAS
FIRST EDITION of Volta's first two letters to Campi describing Volta's discovery of methane. The 1777 edition of 147 pages, commonly referred to as the first edition, contains the present letters and two later letters to Campi (dated 26 November and 18 December 1776). Volta's "first pneumatic studies concerned 'inflammable air from marshes' (chiefly methane), which he discovered in November 1776 in Lago Maggiore. It was not a chance find. Inflammable air from metals (hydrogen released from acids) had been known since its isolation by Cavendish in 1776, and Franklin's description of a natural source of inflammable air had just been published by Priestley" (DSB). As yet, however, no distinction had been made between the various kinds of inflammable gases. "In the autumn of 1776 Volta's friend P. Carlo Giuseppe Campi had found a natural source near Pavia; and Volta himself, intrigued by the 'ever more remarkable and interesting subject of the different kinds of air'... had scoured the countryside for telltale bubbles" (op cit.). He collected his specimens by "stirring the mud with a stick and letting the bubbles pass into an inverted bottle filled with water. He distinguished [this gas] from the 'inflammable air from metals' (hydrogen) by its azure-blue flame and slower combustion, and by its requiring 10-12 vols. of air for detonation..." [hydrogen required one-fourth this amount]. (J.R. Partington, History of Chemistry, 4 vols., 1962-73, p. 4:814).
Of the present first edition only one other copy is recorded, in the Sir Francis Ronalds collection now in the library of the Institute of Electrical Engineers in London (although there may be a few unrecorded copies in Italian libraries). No copy appears in the auction records, nor in any of the standard bibliographies. It is probable that the edition was privately printed for the author and a few friends.