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HAUKSBEE, Francis (ca. 1666-1713). Physico-Mechanical Experiments on Various Subjects. Containing an Account of several Surprizing Phenomena touching Light and Electricity. London: R. Brugis, for the Author, 1709.
4o (200 x 149 mm). Inserted engraved plate between pp. 160/161, 7 folding engraved plates. Contemporary calf gilt (spine ends and extremities a little worn). Provenance: Denis Duveen (bookplate).
FIRST EDITION OF "ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT EARLY WORKS ON ELECTRICITY" (Duveen). Hauksbee was indebted to Isaac Newton for some of his theoretical ideas, while the results of his important experiments in electroluminescence, static electricity and capillarity in turn influenced Newton's revisions and additions to the new editions of his Principia and Opticks. He was the first to demonstrate the optical effects produced by the passage of electricity through rarified air. "His demonstration of the efficacy of glass in producing frictional electricity opened the way for the work of Gray, Dufay and Franklin, and his discoveries in capillarity ... influenced Laplace nearly one hundred years later" (Norman). Duveen, pp. 281-82; Wellcome III, p.224; Wheeler Gift 232; Norman 1020.
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FIRST EDITION OF "ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT EARLY WORKS ON ELECTRICITY" (Duveen). Hauksbee was indebted to Isaac Newton for some of his theoretical ideas, while the results of his important experiments in electroluminescence, static electricity and capillarity in turn influenced Newton's revisions and additions to the new editions of his Principia and Opticks. He was the first to demonstrate the optical effects produced by the passage of electricity through rarified air. "His demonstration of the efficacy of glass in producing frictional electricity opened the way for the work of Gray, Dufay and Franklin, and his discoveries in capillarity ... influenced Laplace nearly one hundred years later" (Norman). Duveen, pp. 281-82; Wellcome III, p.224; Wheeler Gift 232; Norman 1020.