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Details
JAMES CLERK MAXWELL (1831-1879)
A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism. Oxford: the Clarendon Press, 1873. 2 vols, 8° (224 x 142mm). 21 lithographic plates, half-titles, errata slip to vol. I, 15pp of publisher's advertisements at rear of vol. II. (Neat scientific manuscript notes to lower margin and blank leaves vol. I Ee5-Ee7, closed 10mm tear to partly opened fore-edge of Dd7-Dd8.) Original publisher's blind-stamped plum cloth, spines lettered in gilt, glazed endpapers (spine ends with a hint of rubbing, upper corners of vol. I slightly bumped, 25mm (1") neat tear to lower joint of vol. II at spine end, spines slightly faded). Provenance: E. & F.N. Spon, London, bookseller's printed ticket.
FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE OF A MAJOR SCIENTIFIC WORK with 'just published' in the listing for this title on page ten of the publisher's advertisements at the rear of volume two. Maxwell saw electricity not as just another branch of physics but 'as an aid to the interpretation of nature' and saw the study of electromagnetism 'as a means of promoting the progress of science' (Preface p.vii). He demonstrated the importance of electricity to physics as a whole, advancing 'the significant hypothesis that light and electricity are the same in their ultimate nature' (Grolier/Horblit). This theory, one of the most important discoveries of nineteenth-century physics, was Maxwell's greatest achievement, and laid the groundwork for Einstein's theory of relativity. Grolier/Horblit 72; Norman 1466; PMM 355; Wheeler Gift 1872.
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A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism. Oxford: the Clarendon Press, 1873. 2 vols, 8° (224 x 142mm). 21 lithographic plates, half-titles, errata slip to vol. I, 15pp of publisher's advertisements at rear of vol. II. (Neat scientific manuscript notes to lower margin and blank leaves vol. I Ee5-Ee7, closed 10mm tear to partly opened fore-edge of Dd7-Dd8.) Original publisher's blind-stamped plum cloth, spines lettered in gilt, glazed endpapers (spine ends with a hint of rubbing, upper corners of vol. I slightly bumped, 25mm (1") neat tear to lower joint of vol. II at spine end, spines slightly faded). Provenance: E. & F.N. Spon, London, bookseller's printed ticket.
FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE OF A MAJOR SCIENTIFIC WORK with 'just published' in the listing for this title on page ten of the publisher's advertisements at the rear of volume two. Maxwell saw electricity not as just another branch of physics but 'as an aid to the interpretation of nature' and saw the study of electromagnetism 'as a means of promoting the progress of science' (Preface p.vii). He demonstrated the importance of electricity to physics as a whole, advancing 'the significant hypothesis that light and electricity are the same in their ultimate nature' (Grolier/Horblit). This theory, one of the most important discoveries of nineteenth-century physics, was Maxwell's greatest achievement, and laid the groundwork for Einstein's theory of relativity. Grolier/Horblit 72; Norman 1466; PMM 355; Wheeler Gift 1872.
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