Descriptions of an Electrical Telegraph, and of Some other Electrical Apparatus
London: R. Hunter 1823. First Edition. [6], [1]-83, [1-(blank)], [1-(errata)], [1-(blank)] pages + frontis + seven engraved plates (one folding). 8vo. 9 1/8 x 5 1/2 inches. Later 1/4 calf over drab boards with gilt spine lettering and leather tipped corners. Vaious penciled notations from previous booksellers presumably on the front flyleaves. Generally bright and clean internally with a few pages foxed. Very Good. Boards. [29210]
Printed in London by Charles Wood (People's Court, Fleet Street). Plate 2 is made with the delicate Chine colle method (a thin tissue with the engraving mounted to the thicker support below).
A small but important treatise which describes an Electric Telegraph, an improved Electrical Machine, a new Mode of Electrical Insulation and Experiments on Vesuvius, a new Electrograph, a Pendulum Doubler, and an attempt to apply M. De Luc's Electric Column to the Measurement of Time.
Ronalds was himself a book collector, building the collection of books on electricity that became the basis of the Institution of Electrical Engineers (IEE) library. A detailed catalogue of his description was published in 1880 by E&F Spon.
"The apparatus of Ronalds was the prototype of electrical dial telegraphs; a pamphlet of historic interest" (Wheeler Gift)
PROVENANCE:
The collection of telegraph historian Bill Holly.
LITERATURE:
Catalogue of the Wheeler Gift of Books, Pamphlets and Periodicals in the Library of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers (AIEE), New York: 1909, #803
Mottelay, Bibliographical History of Electricity and Magnetism, pp.438-440 (for a detailed writeup on Ronalds and his work)
Ronalds Library, p438
Overmier and Senior, Books and Manuscripts of the Bakken (1992), p. 292. "reports the invenin of the first electric telegraph as well as other electrical devices"
Price: $2,750.00