Beschreibung:

BARLOW, William (1544-1625). The Navigators Supply. Conteining many things of principall importance belonging to Navigation, with the description and use of diverse Instruments framed chiefly for that purpose. London: G. Bishop R. Newbery, and R. Barker 1597.
BARLOW, William (1544-1625). The Navigators Supply. Conteining many things of principall importance belonging to Navigation, with the description and use of diverse Instruments framed chiefly for that purpose. London: G. Bishop R. Newbery, and R. Barker 1597. Small 4 o (179 x 130 mm). Engraved vignette of an instrument on title, 7 engraved folding plates of instruments by Charles Whitwell woodcut initials and ornaments. (Title-page cut close at top affecting lettering, a few headlines cut into, some others just touched.) Disbound; brown half morocco slipcase. Provenance : Robert B. Honeyman (his sale part I, Sotheby's London, 30 October 1978, lot 213). FIRST EDITION. Barlow's rare first book, describing several new navigational instruments and compasses. To Barlow is owed the discovery of the difference between iron and steel for magnetic purposes. He is better known as the inventor of the repeating clock and repeating watch. "William Barlow uses the "nonnius" devised by Pedro Nuñez more than fifty years previously and gives a graphical method for drawing a Mercator network... He describes a number of new navigating and surveying instruments and summarizes his own contribution to the study of magnetism. Charles Whitwell engraved the plates and was ready to make the instruments described" (Taylor Mathematical Practitioners pp. 334-5). Adams & Waters 141; STC 1445; Wheeler Gift 69.