Beschreibung:

THOMPSON, Benjamin, count Rumford (1753-1814). Experimental essays, political, economical and philosophical. London: [A. Strahan and Luke Hansard for] T. Cadell, Jr. and W. Davies, 1796-1802. 8 o (222 x 136mm). 11 parts (only, of 18). Part 1 with engraved vignette, the parts with a total of 19 engraved plates (1 folding) and 11 full-page woodcut illustrations, half-titles and titlepages for vols. 1 and 2 present in Parts V and VIII respectively, (an incomplete set, lacking Part X, section 3; Parts XI-XV [rest of Vol.3], and Parts XVI-XVIII [Vol.4]). Original publisher's blue-gray printed wrappers (Parts VI and Part X, section 1 in similar blue-gray boards), ENTIRELY UNTRIMMED, front wrappers and boards with printed text within decorative woodcut border (imitative of tooled bookbinding), back wrappers or boards with border and centerpiece, paper spines with small woodcut floral decorations (Part I front wrapper frayed and nearly detached, other parts with moderate fraying and wear to wrapper edges, 7 parts with paper spines partially or wholly defective); modern protective case. Provenance : Gloucester Public Library (small oval ink stamps in various places [on verso of front wrappers or boards and at end of text], bookplate, dated 1914, on verso of front wrapper of Part I, stamped "discarded.") FIRST EDITIONS OF PARTS IV, VI-VII, VIII-IX & X (Sections 1 and 2); Second editions of II and III, Third editions of Parts I and V. All parts are very rarely found in original condition. Thompson, born in Massachusetts, studied at Harvard and emigrated to England during the Revolution; he became a member of the Royal Society, was commissioned an officer in the British Army. He continued military and scientific experiments, took various high military posts with the Elector of Bavaria, and was knighted by George III in 1784. Although this constitutes a partial run of the separate parts of Rumford's Essays (issued over a 7-year period) those present here include several of Rumford's most important works, such as Essay IV Of chimney fire-places (1796), Essay VI Of the management of fire, and the economy of fuel (1797), Essay VII Of the manner in which heat is propagated in fluids (2 parts, 1797 & 1798), Essay VIII Of the propagation of heat in various substances (1798) and Essay IX An inquiry concerning the source of the heat excited in friction (1798). Together, these incorporate "the report of his experiments demonstrating the truth of the kinetic theory of heat, in which he produced a seemingly limitless supply of heat...by boring cannon barrels with a variety of drills. He also devised other experiments disproving the caloric theory of heat, weighing a block of ice before and after melting to show that heat has no weight, and demonstrating that the expansion of water between zero and four degrees Celsius is not due to the absorption of a material fluid" (Norman). Many of Rumford's experiments in applied science and technology derived from his professional position as head of the Bavarian army, which led him to experiment with and devise practical cooking, heating and lighting devices and clothing; he also took considerable interest in philanthropy and social problems, and proposed work-houses and new methods for feeding the poor (the subject of Essays I-III in this set). In studying the conduction of heat, Rumford originated a design for a steam-heating system and an efficient, non-smoking fireplace utilizing the now-standard damper, smoke shelf and throat in its chimney. Norman 2072. Sold as a periodical, not subject to return.