Details
AMPRE, Andr Marie (1775-1836); Jns Jacob von BERZELIUS (1779-1848); Michael FARADAY (1791-1867); Auguste De la RIVE. Mmoires sur l'action mutuelle de deux courans lectriques.... [Paris, 1822?].
8o (219 x 137 mm). General half-title; 12 parts or articles, continuously paginated: 198 [2] 199-222 237-250 [2] 252-258 [1] 259-278 pp. (the gap between pp. 222 and 237 apparently as issued), the two blank leaves present; 9 fold-out engraved plates, plates 1-5 signed by Adam after Girard, one woodcut in text. (Plate 9 darkened). Original pink plain wrappers, UNCUT AND LARGELY UNOPENED (backstrip worn away, sewing loose).
Second(?) collected edition, consisting of an important collection of articles and letters on electromagnetism by Ampre and others, some initially presented as papers to the Acadmie des Sciences in 1821, and some first published in the Annales de chimie et et de physique or the Journal de physique. "Ampre had originally intended the collection to contain all the articles published on his theory of electrodynamics since 1820, but as he prepared copy new articles on the subject continued to appear, so that the fascicles, which apparently began publication in 1821 [see previous lot], were in a constant state of revision, with at least five versions of the collection appearing between 1821 and 1823 under different titles" (Norman). The collection opens with the Premier Mmoir (from the same setting of type as the preceding lot), followed by Ampre's "Additions au mmoire prcdent" (pp. 69-92). It includes a "Lettre M. Berthollet sur l'tat magntique des corps qui transmettent un courant d'lectricit" by the Swedish chemist Berzelius (pp. 93-112), a paper by de la Rive fils on the effect of the earth's magnetic field on an electric current (pp. 259-278), and the first French translation (by Anatole-Riffault) of Faraday's first paper on electromagnetism, "On some new electro-magnetical motions, and on the theory of magnetism" (pp. 125-167), originally published in the 21 October 1821 issue of the Quarterly Journal of Science, which records THE FIRST CONVERSION OF ELECTRICAL INTO MECHANICAL ENERGY, and contains the first enunciation of the notion of the line of force (DSB); the translation is followed by extended notes by Flix Savary and Ampre. Faraday's work on electromagnetic rotations would lead him to become the principal opponent of Ampre's mathematically formulated explanation of electromagnetism as a manifestation of currents of electrical fluids surrounding "electrodynamic" molecules. The collection also includes Ampre's response to a letter from the Dutch physicist Albert van Beck (pp. 169-198), first published in the October 1821 issue of the Journal de Physique, in which "Ampre argued eloquently for his model, insisting that it could be used to explain not only magnetism but also chemical combination and elective affinity. In short, it was to be considered the foundation of a new theory of matter. This was one of the reasons why Ampre's theory of electrodynamics was not immediately and universally accepted. To accept it meant to accept as well a theory of the ultimate structure of matter itself" (DSB). Norman 44.
8o (219 x 137 mm). General half-title; 12 parts or articles, continuously paginated: 198 [2] 199-222 237-250 [2] 252-258 [1] 259-278 pp. (the gap between pp. 222 and 237 apparently as issued), the two blank leaves present; 9 fold-out engraved plates, plates 1-5 signed by Adam after Girard, one woodcut in text. (Plate 9 darkened). Original pink plain wrappers, UNCUT AND LARGELY UNOPENED (backstrip worn away, sewing loose).
Second(?) collected edition, consisting of an important collection of articles and letters on electromagnetism by Ampre and others, some initially presented as papers to the Acadmie des Sciences in 1821, and some first published in the Annales de chimie et et de physique or the Journal de physique. "Ampre had originally intended the collection to contain all the articles published on his theory of electrodynamics since 1820, but as he prepared copy new articles on the subject continued to appear, so that the fascicles, which apparently began publication in 1821 [see previous lot], were in a constant state of revision, with at least five versions of the collection appearing between 1821 and 1823 under different titles" (Norman). The collection opens with the Premier Mmoir (from the same setting of type as the preceding lot), followed by Ampre's "Additions au mmoire prcdent" (pp. 69-92). It includes a "Lettre M. Berthollet sur l'tat magntique des corps qui transmettent un courant d'lectricit" by the Swedish chemist Berzelius (pp. 93-112), a paper by de la Rive fils on the effect of the earth's magnetic field on an electric current (pp. 259-278), and the first French translation (by Anatole-Riffault) of Faraday's first paper on electromagnetism, "On some new electro-magnetical motions, and on the theory of magnetism" (pp. 125-167), originally published in the 21 October 1821 issue of the Quarterly Journal of Science, which records THE FIRST CONVERSION OF ELECTRICAL INTO MECHANICAL ENERGY, and contains the first enunciation of the notion of the line of force (DSB); the translation is followed by extended notes by Flix Savary and Ampre. Faraday's work on electromagnetic rotations would lead him to become the principal opponent of Ampre's mathematically formulated explanation of electromagnetism as a manifestation of currents of electrical fluids surrounding "electrodynamic" molecules. The collection also includes Ampre's response to a letter from the Dutch physicist Albert van Beck (pp. 169-198), first published in the October 1821 issue of the Journal de Physique, in which "Ampre argued eloquently for his model, insisting that it could be used to explain not only magnetism but also chemical combination and elective affinity. In short, it was to be considered the foundation of a new theory of matter. This was one of the reasons why Ampre's theory of electrodynamics was not immediately and universally accepted. To accept it meant to accept as well a theory of the ultimate structure of matter itself" (DSB). Norman 44.