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BOUGUER, Pierre (1698-1758). Essai d'optique sur la gradation de la lumire. Paris: Claude Jombert, 1729.
12 (165 x 95mm.) 3 folding engraved plates. Woodcut title vignettes, headpieces and initials. With the blank first leaf. Contemporary mottled calf, gilt panelled spine, red speckled edges (joints rubbed, corners worn). Provenance: Jouanaux Jeune (bookseller's label).
FIRST EDITION OF THE FIRST TREATISE ON PHOTOMETRY. Bouguer was the leading French authority on navigation and naval architecture. His interest in optical measurement dates from 1721, and though little more than a hobby by comparison, his discoveries in this field entitle him to be regarded as the father of photometry. In the Essai d'optique, which was followed by the longer Trait d'optique published posthumously in 1760, he demonstrated how to make comparisons of the intensity of light, and established the fundamental law that 'in a medium of uniform transparency the light remaining in a collimated beam is an exponential function of the length of its path in the medium.' Norman 283.
12 (165 x 95mm.) 3 folding engraved plates. Woodcut title vignettes, headpieces and initials. With the blank first leaf. Contemporary mottled calf, gilt panelled spine, red speckled edges (joints rubbed, corners worn). Provenance: Jouanaux Jeune (bookseller's label).
FIRST EDITION OF THE FIRST TREATISE ON PHOTOMETRY. Bouguer was the leading French authority on navigation and naval architecture. His interest in optical measurement dates from 1721, and though little more than a hobby by comparison, his discoveries in this field entitle him to be regarded as the father of photometry. In the Essai d'optique, which was followed by the longer Trait d'optique published posthumously in 1760, he demonstrated how to make comparisons of the intensity of light, and established the fundamental law that 'in a medium of uniform transparency the light remaining in a collimated beam is an exponential function of the length of its path in the medium.' Norman 283.