[FOUCAULT & Fizeau] Fizeau, “Upon the hypotheses relative to Luminous Ether, and upon an experiment which seems to demonstrate that the motion of Bodies changes the velocity with which light is propagated within them”, appearing in the December issue and translating the Fizeau paper of September 1851 (. "Sur les hypothèses relatives à l'éther lumineux". Comptes Rendus. 33: 349–355). It seems as though the first English translation appears in the Philosophical Magazine Series 4 vol 2 pp 568-573; this JFI appearance seems to be the first English translation published in the U.S. In: Journal of the Franklin Institute, 1851, vol 22 (third series, and vol 52 overall). Half-calf and marbled boards. Ex-library, with a few stamps on the title page, plus bookplate; the front joint is sprung but the book is still quite tight and intact. Good solid copy. $450
Also: John Tyndall, “On the Velocity of Light—experimental Proof of the Theory of Undulation”, pp 104-108, in which Tyndall reviews the two excellent Comptes Rendus papers of Foucault and Hippolyte Fizeau (from May 6 1850 and June 17 1850, respectively). The Foucault is a big paper on the particle v. wave theories of light, part of the issues of which lie int eh experimental measure of the speed of light, and in this paper he succeeds in establishing the fundamental constant at 2.98 x 1010 cm/sec. .
And another “Exposition of Foucault's Experiment, pp 352-355;
And another, On Foucault's Pendulum Experiments, pp 419-421;
ALSO: Charles Allen, “Investigation of Foucault's Pendulum” AND “Demonstration of Foucault's Experiment”, The Foucault experiment occupies pp 38-42 in the July issue and pp 103-104. On the Charles Allen papers: the news of Foucault's experiment (released to the world just a few months earlier in February) raced through the U.S., the news of the experiment reported in dozens of newspapers within just a couple of months. It has been written that0 for some reason the news and subsequent U.S.-based reproductions of the experiment were lagging in the New England and mid-Atlantic regions—for what reasons, I don't know. The Franklin Institute contribution to the Foucault phenomenon was significant because it was among the very early reports on the evaluation of the experiment that was published in a scientific/technical journal. It is not the very first, but it is quite early.
There are of course a hundred interesting entries in this volume, including:
Michael Faraday, On Atmospheric Magnetism, pp 115-118;
John C. Trautwine, A New Method of Calculating the Cubic Contents of Excavations and Embankments, pp (1)-13, 146-158;
B.F, Isherwood, Remarks on Nystrom's Screw Propeller, pp42-48;
Turnbull, A Series of Lectures on the Telegraph, pp 118-128, 185-194, 256-266, 335-339, 406-414 (with a beautiful plate of a printing telegraph);
Robert Hunt, Recent Improvements in Photography, pp 196-202;
John Nystrom, A Few Suggestions as to the Manner of Laying out a Propeller..., pp 321-332, with two beautiful plates.
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