Exposition raisonnée de la Théorie de l'Électricité et du Magnétisme, d'après les Principes de M. Aepinus...
Four folding engraved plates. xxvii, [5], 238 pp. 8vo, orig. wrappers (dampstain to final eight leaves of preliminary leaves), new paper spine with printed paper label. Paris: la Veuve Desaint, 1787.
First edition of Haüy’s abridgement of Aepinus’s important Tentamen Theoriae Electricitatis et Magnetismi (1759), the first reasoned and productive exposition of electrical phenomena based on action at a distance. Haüy (1743-1822), the distinguished crystallographer, also did important work in physics. “In 1787 he published Exposition raisonnée… In contrast with Aepinus, he refrained from mathematical calculations and added Coulomb’s recent results. Like Franklin and Aepinus, Haüy assumed one hypothetical electric fluid and one magnetic fluid, although in his later works he adhered to the two-fluid theory.”–D.S.B., VI, p. 178.
Very good copy. Signature in upper corner of title of an officer in the French corps of engineers.
❧ Neville, I, p. 602–“It was Haüy’s non-mathematical abridgement that provided the first adequate exposition of Aepinus’s theories.” Sinkankas 2808. Wheeler Gift Cat. 541.
Price: $1,250.00
Item ID: 3222
