The London and Edinburgh Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science, printed in London for Richard Taylor, 1836, third series, offering the full Volume IX, (July-Decenber, 1836, vii, 552pp, 4 engraved plates, including one double-page and one folding. Bound in full calf, with raised bands, red and black spine labels; with the oval gilt stamped arms of the Society of Writers to the Signet on front and rear covers; nice copy. Very Good. $750
There are many interesting papers in this volume, including the Baden Powell (continued from Volume VIII which is also available for sale on this website) and Golding Bird, which is interesting in a pre-paper-photographic photography aspect. Also I should point out that one of the founders of photography, W. Henry Fox Talbot, contributes two papers on optics in volume IX (listed below), which are the continuations of two papers in volume IV, which I am also selling, separately.
Dr. Golding Bird (1814-1854) is best remembered today for his very early work in photography, perhaps the most significant being "A Treatise on Photogenic Drawing." which was five papers in a series found and bound in the London-published journal, The Mirror, appearing in issues from April 20-May 25, 1839, and which includes "A treatise on photogenic drawing", (pp. 241-44); and also "The new art - photography", (pp. 261-2, 281-3, 317-18, 333-335). It is here where Golding Bird furnishes the first image of a photograph--granted, this was a heliographic image in the original, and Golding Bird reproduces it as a woodcut, which makes it also the first non-photographic representation of a photograph. In the paper in this volume Golding Bird writes on albumen, which would not only be of interest to him as a physician with a specialty in the kidneys (he also invented a flexible stethoscope) but also later in the history of photography, when in 1848 Blanquart-Evrard (1802-1872) would introduce the revolutionary printing images on paper, which was made possible by incorporating albumen in the process. Golding Bird was expert in several fields and accomplished a great deal given his 40 years on the Earth.
William Henry Fox Talbot (1800-1877) was among the earliest of the photographic pioneers, or pre-pioneers, as he asserted priority of his photographic method for 1835 when Daguerre revealed his own (very different) method in 1839. Talbot (or Fox Talbot) was also a practitioner of the art, publishing a stone-cold and revolutionary work of photographically illustrated books, The Pencil of Nature.
And so:
- BIRD, Golding (1814-1854, and only 22 when this publication appeared), “Mr. G. Bird on certain new Combinations of Albumen, with an Account of some curious Properties peculiar to that Substance”, pp 109-116;
- TALBOT, William Henry Fox, (1800-1877). “Mr. H. F. Talbot's Facts relating to Optical Science, No. III”, pp 1-4; AND “Mr. H. F. Talbot's Facts relating to Optical Science. No. IV”, pp 401-406; AND WITH Talbot, W. Henry Fox. “Mr. H. F. Talbot on the repulsive Power of Heat”, 189-191. William Henry Fox Talbot (1800-1877), writing on the meaning of the lines in spectroscopy, assert[ing] that the dark lines observed by David Brewster in the spectrum of light shining through nitrous acid vapors are caused by the absoprtion of light by those vapors...Talbot also distinguishes lithium from strontium through spectroscopy"--Claire Parkinson, Breakthroughs, a Chronology of Great Achievements in Science and Mathematics, pg 300.
- BADEN POWELL, “Rev. Baden Powell's Remarks on the Formula for the Dispersion of Light (concluded)”, pp 116-12 ;
- HAMILTON, William Rowan (1805-1865), “Sir W. R. Hamilton's Second Theorem of Algebraic Elimination, connected with the Question of the Possibility of resolving, in finite Terms, Equations of the Fifth Degree”, pp 28-32. [I have no idea how Hamilton produced his staggering amount of work and publications int his relatively not-long lifespan.]
- SCHOENBEIN, Christian Friedrich. (1799-1868) “Prof. Schoenbein of Hale on a peculiar Voltaic Condition of Iron; in a Letter to Mr. Faraday: with further Experiments on the same Subject, by Mr. Faraday ; communicated in a Letter to Mr. Phillips”, pp 53-65;
- FARADAY, Michael (1791-1867). “Letter from Mr. Faraday to Mr. Brayley on some former Researches relative to the peculiar Voltaic Condition of Iron re-observed by Professor Schoenbein, supplementary to a Letter to .Mr. Phillips, in the lust Number” pp 122-125;
- MULLINS, F.W. “Mr. F. W. Mullins's Observations on the Construction of Voltaic Batteries; with a Description of a Battery exhibited at the Royal Institution of Great Britain, June 3, 1836, in which an uniform and powerful current is sustained for any period required”, pp 283-286;
- HENRY, Joseph (1797-1878) . “Dr. Henry's Experiments on Gaseous Interference”, pp 324-333;
- DALTON, John (1766-1844, and the old man of this group and perhaps the most accomplished of this and any other lot), “Dr. Dalton's Observations on certain Liquids obtained from Caoutchouc by Distillation 479-481;
- AND “Dr. Dalton's Observations on certain Liquids obtained from Caoutchouc by Distillation”, pp 481
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