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. Various 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 that 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, p 438
Overmier and Senior, Books and Manuscripts of the Bakken (1992), p. 292. "reports the invention of the first electric telegraph as well as other electrical devices"
Price: $2,750.00