June 2021 Catalogue

S c i e n c e 15 “Extraordinary Achievements Of Central Importance” 13. FARADAY, Michael. Experimental Researches in Chemistry and Physics. London, 1859. Octavo, original blue-green blind-stamped cloth. $2800. Click for more info First edition of Faraday’s collected papers in chemistry and physics, documenting important discoveries from one of the world’s greatest scientists, with three engraved plates (one folding). A fine copy in the original cloth. “This collection of physical and chemical papers, reprinted from the Philosophical Transactions and elsewhere, includes Faraday’s account of the production of the first known compounds of chlorine and carbon... which was achieved by substituting chlorine of hydrogen in ethylene—the first substitution reaction. Also present are his announcement of the discovery of benzene, his account of the liquefaction of chlorine and other gases, and works on the composition of lime, the production of high-grade steels, and optical glass. One of the most important physical papers in this collection is the one on ray vibrations, in which Faraday tentatively put forward an explanation for the transmission of light through a vacuum without a vibrating machine; this is an embryonic form of the electromagnetic theory of light” (Norman 765). Without errata slip at page 445. Simmons, The Scientific 100 11. A touch of rubbing to lower front corner. Still a fine copy. I“ t is a great beauty of our science, chemistry, that advancement in it… opens the doors to further and more abundant knowledge.”