Experiments and Observations on Electricity, Made at Philadelphia in
Item #75403
FRANKLIN, Benjamin. Experiments and Observations on Electricity, Made at Philadelphia in America...To Which are Added, Letters and Papers on Philosophical Subjects. The Whole Corrected, Methodized, Improved, and Now First Collected Into One Volume, and Illustrated with Copper Plates. London: Printed for David Henry, and sold by Francis Newbery, 1769. [2],iv,[2],496[i.e. 504],[16]pp. including leaf of errata and advertisement "concerning this fourth edition," plus seven engraved plates (two folding). Half title. Quarto. Original drab boards, paper backstrip. Binding tender, backstrip paper expertly repaired. Minor foxing to binding and occasionally to the text. An unusually-tall, untrimmed copy in very good, original condition. In a contemporary marbled paper dust jacket. "America's first great scientific contribution" - Howes. The fourth, first collected, and by far most desirable edition, containing for the first time complete notes on all the experiments, as well as correspondence between Peter Collinson, Franklin, and other collaborators. Franklin began experimenting with electricity as early as 1745, demonstrating the electrical property of lightning and inventing the lightning conductor. This volume includes summaries of his work with Leyden jars, charged clouds, and lightning rods, as well as his famous kite and key experiment. In addition to the electrical experiments it contains the important discovery of the course of storms over North America and other important meteorological observations. The work caused a sensation in the scientific world when first published in 1751, and ranked in the eyes of many of Franklin's contemporaries as far beyond any of his political achievements. Harvard and Yale awarded him honorary degrees in 1753; he received the highest award of the Royal Society, the Copley Medal, the same year; and he was elected to the Society in 1756, the first American to be so honored. This fourth edition is the first complete edition of the original work. The earlier editions were issued in separately published parts. Franklin edited this new one-volume edition himself, significantly revising the text, adding for the first time a number of his own philosophical letters and papers, introducing footnotes, correcting errors, and adding an index. This copy, in original drab boards, includes the err.
Price: $55,000.00