SCIENCE

The Theory of Chances, or The Modern Development of the Rules of Probability; with some notes regarding 'probabilities' in the game of roulette at Monte Carlo.

Author: 
James McGowan, FIA, formerly Government Actuary to the South African Government [Gambling; Roulette; Monte Carlo; Theory of Probability]
Publication details: 
London: Lamley & Co. 1, 3, and 5 Exhibition Road, South Kensington. [Printed at the Oxford University Press by Frederick Hall.]
£120.00

Small octavo: 31 pages. Unbound and stapled. Very good, in grubby original pink printed wraps. According to one authority McGowan is the 'first fully qualified actuary in South Africa of whom there is record [becoming] Cape Government Actuary of the former Cape Colony in 1890'. COPAC (under mispelt name "MacGowan") only recordds the BL copy.

Projet d'application de la lumiere electriqu[e] a l'eclairage des villes

Author: 
[ELECTRICAL ILLUMINATION VIA BALLOONS] Charles Dubos, French inventor or scientist
Publication details: 
No date (mid-to late Nineteenth-Century).
£350.00

Four pages, folio, chipped with small loss of text. IN FRENCH. He begins: "Les nombreuses experiences que j'ai fait sur la lumiere electriquee l'appareil que j'ai confectionne me mettant en meme de pouvoir l'appliquer a l'eclairage des villes avec avantage et economie sur tout autre systeme". He discusses the expense of gas and gives a precis of his plan ("L'agende"), giving letters which correspond to a "dessin" which is not present, and listing his points with a little detail: un ballon de gaz; filet ensoie; cordes en soie; Lampe electrique . .

Faraday Number. Faraday Celebrations 1931 [...] Faraday Centenary Exhibition, Royal Albert Hall [...].

Author: 
The Times of London [Michael Faraday; Clifford Webb; Lord Rutherford; General Electric Company; Siemens; Mullard Wireless Service Co.]
Publication details: 
London: Monday, 21 September 1931.
£135.00

Broadsheet. Twenty-two pages. On browned high-acidity paper, with slight wear and loss to extremities and along central horizontal fold. Attractive full-page illustration cover illustration by Clifford Webb. Articles include 'Telegraphy and telephony. From Morse apparatus to the teleprinter. World-wide conversation.' by Colonel Sir Thomas Purves, and 'Generation of Electricity. Supremacy of the steam turbine. Economy of space and fuel.' by Robert H. Parsons. Also 'The making of a natural philospher. Heredity and environment.

Autograph Letter Signed to Sir Henry Trueman Wood, Secretary, Royal Society of Arts.

Author: 
Frank Clowes (1848-1923), Principal, University College Nottingham, and Professor of Chemistry and Metallurgy
Publication details: 
6 January 1915; on letterhead 'THE GRANGE, | COLLEGE ROAD, | DULWICH.'
£23.00

One page, 12mo. Good. Docketed and bearing the Society's stamp. Concerns 'Sir Alexander Redler's being brought up by Crookes for election to the Athenaeum by the Committee under Rule II [...] you [...] intimated that you knew Redler & that I need not descant on his virtues: he is a most clubbable man & I trust you may be able to support him'.

Certificate in favor of R. Battley | Elected a Fellow 9 Nov 1827', signed by Frost, Yarrell and William Newman

Author: 
Richard Battley (1770-1856), English chemist; William Yarrell (1784-1856), English zoologist; John Frost (1803-40), founder of the Medico-Botanical Society.
Publication details: 
London; 12 October 1827.
£85.00

One page, roughly eleven inches by eight. On aged paper, with fraying to extremites affecting one word of text. 'Richard Battley Esqre. of Fore Street Cripplegate a Gentleman very conversant in several branches of science particularly Vegetable Chemistry and Pharmacy being desirous of becoming a Fellow of the Medico Botanical Society of London | We whose names are hereunto subscribed do recommend him as highly deserving of that honor & likely to pr an useful and valuable member.' Signed 'J Frost', 'Wm. Yarrell' and 'Wm. Newman'.

Typed Letter Signed to the editor of the Journal of the Rontgen Society.

Author: 
Sir Richard Arman Gregory, Professor of Astronomy, Queen's College, London (1864-1952)
Publication details: 
25 July 1918; on letterhead of the British Science Guild (British Scientific Products Exhibition, 1918).
£33.00

Signed 'R. A. Gregory'. One page, folio. Good, with one dogeared corner. Bearing the stamp of the Royal Society of Arts. Circular letter referring to an enclosure (not present) relating to an exhibition which 'will shew that by the combination of science and industry we have done nearly as much in four years of war as the Germans did in the preceding forty. More than 250 manufacturers are sending exhibits, and the Air Ministry will make a large display, as well as the Food Production Department.' Asks for 'a sympathetic editorial note or article'.

Paper entitled 'Refraction-equivalents of organic compounds'.

Author: 
John Hall Gladstone
Publication details: 
Repritned from the Journal of the Chemical Society, July, 1884. Vol. XLV.'
£23.00

English physical chemist (1827-1902), fellow of the Royal Society and father-in-law of the first Labour Prime Minister, Ramsay MacDonald. Nineteen pages, octavo (paginated 241-59). Unbound. Stitched. Good, though dogeared in one corner and on paper discoloured with age. In worn discoloured, grubby wraps. INSCRIBED at head of first page 'With J H Gladstone's kind regds.' Front wrap stamped 'SOTHERAN. SACKVILLE STREET. LONDON'.

Paper entitled 'Specific Refraction and Dispersion of Isomeric Bodies'.

Author: 
John Hall Gladstone
Publication details: 
Offprint 'From the PHILOSOPHICAL MAGAZINE for January 1881.'
£23.00

English physical chemist (1827-1902), fellow of the Royal Society and father-in-law of the first Labour Prime Minister, Ramsay MacDonald. Seven pages, octavo (paginated 54-60). INSCRIBED at head of first page 'With J H Gladstone's kind regds.' Unbound. Stitched. Creased and with foxing at head of leaves. In grubby, creased wraps, stamped 'SOTHERAN. SACKVILLE STREET. LONDON'.

Paper entitled 'The optical and chemical properties of caoutchouc'.

Author: 
John Hall Gladstone
Publication details: 
Reprinted from the Journal of the Chemical Society, July, 1888. Vol. LIII.'
£23.00

English physical chemist (1827-1902), fellow of the Royal Society and father-in-law of the first Labour Prime Minister, Ramsay MacDonald. Ten pages, octavo (paginated 679-88). Unbound. Stitched. Good, though slightly dogeared and on paper discoloured with age. In worn, discoloured wraps, stamped 'SOTHERAN. SACKVILLE STREET. LONDON'. INSCRIBED on front wrap 'With the authors' kind regds.'

Paper entitled 'The Relation between the Refraction of the Elements and their Chemical Equivalents'.

Author: 
John Hall Gladstone
Publication details: 
Offprint 'From the PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY, Vol. 60' [1896].
£23.00

English physical chemist (1827-1902), fellow of the Royal Society and father-in-law of the first Labour Prime Minister, Ramsay MacDonald. Seven pages, octavo (paginated 140-146). Unbound. Stitched. In original grey printed wraps. With dogeared, worn corners (one missing) and on paper discoloured with age. Wraps worn and grubby and with slight loss at bottom. INSCRIBED on front wrap 'With J H Gladstone's kind regds'. Front wrap stamped 'SOTHERAN. SACKVILLE STREET. LONDON'.

Paper entitled 'The Relation between the Refraction of the Elements and their Chemical Equivalents.'

Author: 
John Hall Gladstone
Publication details: 
Offprint 'From the PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY, Vol. 60' [1896].
£23.00

English physical chemist (1827-1902), fellow of the Royal Society and father-in-law of the first Labour Prime Minister, Ramsay MacDonald. Seven pages, octavo (paginated 140-146). Unbound. Stitched. In original grey printed wraps. Good on paper discoloured with age and with slight foxing to top of leaves. Wraps worn and grubby and with slight loss and closed tear. INSCRIBED on front wrap 'With J H Gladstone's kind regds'. Front wrap stamped 'SOTHERAN. SACKVILLE STREET. LONDON'.

Typed Letter Signed to Professor R[ichard]. H[enry]. Tawney.

Author: 
Maurice Parmelee
Publication details: 
4 October 1948; 'Hull House | 800 S. Halsted St. | Chicago 7, Ill.'
£450.00

Eminent American sociologist and economist (1882-1969) and nudist. The recipient (1880-1962) was an equally eminent English economic historian, social critic and reformer. Two pages, quarto. On discoloured, sunned paper.

Autograph Letter Signed to Richard Wilson

Author: 
Henry Cline [J.H. Shorthouse and John Porter].
Publication details: 
Lincolns Inn Fields, 22 Nov. 1821.
£150.00

Surgeon, Astley Cooper's mentor (DNB), author of medical works. Three pages, 8vo, crude repairs to tears on folds, laid down, text clear and complete. He writes, "That disorder in a horse which constitutes a Roarer, is caused by a membranous projection in a part of the wind pipe (technically called the larynx). It is a consequence . . . [he continues ] . . . "A Roarer is not therefore a diseased horse . . . When a horse is in strong action, his breathing becomes proportionatley quickened . . . and thus the roaring noise is produced.

Two Typed Letters Signed, the first to G. K. Menzies, Secretary, Royal Society of Arts, the second to S. Digby, R.S.A.

Author: 
Sebastian Ziani de Ferranti
Publication details: 
12 January 1918, on letterhead 'HOLLINWOOD, | LANCASHIRE'; 23 August 1918, on letterhead 'FERRANTI LIMITED, | ELECTRICAL & GENERAL ENGINEERS, | HOLLINWOOD, | LANCASHIRE.'
£95.00

British scientist (1864-1930); patented the Ferranti alternator, 1882; chief electrician to the London Electric Supply Corporation. Both items one page, quarto. Both very good, though dusty; one with small pinholes in one corner. Both bearing the R.S.A. stamp, and one docketed. ITEM ONE: He has received Menzies letter of 11 January, 'from which I note that you are sending me one dozen copies of Mr.

Six Typed Letters Signed and two Autograph Letters Signed to G. K. Menzies, Secretary, Royal Society of Arts.

Author: 
Margaret Fishenden (nee White)
Publication details: 
1925-6; all items on embossed government letterheads, from various locations including the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research and the Fuel Research Bord.
£160.00

English scientist (1889-1977), who worked with Rutherford in Manchester. All eight items quarto and very good. Most carrying the Society's stamp and some docketed. All signed 'Margaret Fishenden'. Mostly concerning the delivery and publication of a lecture on 'Domestic Heating'. Letter of 11 January 1926 suggests a number of people who should be invited.

Autograph Letter Signed "D Brewster" to "Dr Bostock", Liverpool, medical writer, etc.

Author: 
Sir David Brewster.
Publication details: 
Edr 13 Hope Street, 25 May 1815.
£150.00

Natural scientist (see DNB). Two pages, 4to, some damage and marking but text clear and complete. "You will have probably seen from the progres of the Encyclopaedia, that we are now approaching very rapidly to the article Galvinism [underlined] which you were so kind as to undertake. We are printing at present the article Fortification . . . & I think we shall require it for press on the Ist of |September." He asks for an estimate of the number of sheets the article will occupy, how many plates or separate figures to illustrate.

The Lettsomian Lectures, delivered at the Medical Society of London, 1879, on bronchial asthma: its causes, pathology, and treatment.

Author: 
John C[harles]. Thorowgood
Publication details: 
London: Baillière, Tindall, and Cox, King William Street, Strand. 1879.
£56.00

Small 8vo. Pages i-vi, 3-86 (nothing apparently lacking). Original publishers' catalogue for 1879 at rear. Good tight copy, in worn original brown cloth, gilt. PRESENTATION COPY 'For The Library of the Medical Society of London with The Authors Compts'. With stamps, labels, and other evidence of library provenance. From the collection of the Society's librarian Nehemiah Asherson, and carrying a note by him, over the Society's stamp on the half-title 'DISCARDED FROM THE LIBRARY | RESCUED FROM Pulping | 1971/2'.

Autograph Letter 'To the Editor', entitled 'Phrenology', and signed 'Apollonius'.

Author: 
PHRENOLOGY [Wiveliscombe; Somerset Country Gazette]
Publication details: 
Wiveliscombe Decr 18th, 1840'.
£65.00

Two pages, quarto. On a discoloured piece of brittle, thin wove paper, with some fraying, several closed tears and a little loss (affecting three words). A long, able and closely-written defence of the discipline. '[...] | X appears decidedly opposed to an alarmed at the science, and feels himself awfully degraded with the comparisons drawn by Phrenologists between the human species and the lower animals - that they should exist, breathe, and partake of, in a limited degree, corresponding qualities with the human race.

A collection of 10 offprints, etc. of Douglas McKie's publications

Author: 
Douglas McKie.
Publication details: 
1944-1951.
£45.00

Historian of Science (see Dictionary of National Biography). 1. "Wohler's 'Synthetic' Urea and the Rejection of Vitalism: A Chemical Legend" (Reprinted from "Nature", 20 May 1944, 8pp.; 2. "The Scientific Periodical from 1665 to 1798" (From the Philosophical Magazine Commemoration Number, , July 1948, pp.122-132); 3.

Autograph Letter Signed to Sir H[enry]. T[rueman]. Wood, Secretary, Royal Society of Arts.

Author: 
John Allen Harker
Publication details: 
9 February 1916; The National Physical Laboratory, Teddington (on deleted letterhead of the National Liberal Club).
£28.00

Inventor and engineer (1870-1923), whose papers are held by the Royal Society. During the war Harker was in the Inventions Department of the Ministry of Munitions. One page, 12mo. Good, if slightly grubby. Docketed in pencil and bearing the Society's stamp. Reads 'I send herewith a short contribution to the discussion of Dr Flemings paper at which I was present but in which on account of lack of time I did not feel it desirable to take part verbally.' Signed 'J. A. Harker'.

Autograph Letter Signed to Thomas Archer. [Humphry Davy].

Author: 
William Thomas Brande
Publication details: 
6 January 1843; Royal Mint.
£150.00

English chemist (1788-1866) who succeeded Sir Humphrey Davy as Professor of Chemistry at the Royal Institution (1813). Two pages, octavo. Very good, though lightly creased and with remains of previous mount adhering to one edge. Begins 'I have no doubt that much fraud is committed by the substitution of spiritious liquors of different strengths, for what is called woodspirit and wood naphtha'.

Autograph Letter Signed to Don Wauchope.

Author: 
General Sir George Keith Buller Elphinstone
Publication details: 
10 January 1891; on letterhead '86, CANONBURY ROAD'.
£36.00

Engineer (1865-1941) whose inventions include the speedometer for motor-cars. Two pages, 12mo. Good, though slightly grubby. Docketed on reverse. Small ink smudge beneath letterhead. Reads 'Dear Don Wanchope | Thanks for your letter. My full name is/ | George Keith Buller Elphinstone and by profession I am an Electrical Engineer & Maker of Electrical Instruments | So I hope that will be full enough information for you'. Signed 'G K B Elphinstone'.

Three Autograph Letters Signed to Mark [Bonham-Carter].

Author: 
George Malcolm Young
G.M. Young
Publication details: 
14 July 1945, 1 December 1946, 8 May 1947; all on letterhead 'THE OLD OXYARD, | OARE, | MARLBOROUGH, | WILTS.'
£120.00
G.M. Young

English historian (1882-1959). All three items, two pages, quarto. All good, though grubby and lightly creased. Three intimate and revealing letters. ITEM ONE apparently sent to Bonham-Carter in America. 'You will soon be back, I think. Are you now occupied in assembling and correlating your observations? [...] I should guess it was quite impossible to think when a Presidential election is going on. | I have been spending a fortnight in Oxford and I asked some of the early-middle-aged dons what the undergraduates were thinking.

Two Autograph Letters Signed to G[eorge]. K[enneth]. Menzies, Secretary, Royal Society of Arts.

Author: 
Sir John Benton
Publication details: 
Both letters 14 January 1918; Westeroft, Liverdale Road, Eastbourne.
£40.00

Scottish hydraulic engineer (1950-1927), of the India Public Works Department; Chief Engineer and Secretary to Government, Punjab Irrigation Branch. Both letters 12mo. Both very good, docketed and bearing the Society's stamp. LETTER ONE (two pages): Benton and a friend will make use of the two cards of invitation to A. Newland's paper on 'Water Power in Great Britain'.

Four Autograph Letters Signed and one Typed Letter Signed to G[eorge]. K[enneth]. Menzies, Secretary, Royal Society of Arts.

Author: 
William Arthur Bone [THE COAL INDUSTRY]
Publication details: 
31 Oct. 1913 and 6 Feb., 2 March, and 5 and 12 Oct. 1919.; the first three on Imperial College of Science and Technology letterhead, the fourth from St Albans and the fifth from Stockton on Tees.
£80.00

English scientist (1871-1938), Professor of Chemical Technology at the Imperial College of Science and Technology. All items quarto and very good, though lightly grubby, creased and stained in places. All five docketed and bearing the Society's stamp. LETTER ONE (one page): He will be happy to give 'a course of Cantor lectures [...] on the subject of "Surface Construction" provided that you will put in the requisite gas & air services at your cost for the practical Demonstration'.

Twelve Typed Letters Signed to the Secretary, Royal Society of Arts.

Author: 
Percy Dunsheath
Publication details: 
Between 28 October 1925 and 30 June 1926; all on letterhead 'W. T. HENLEY'S TELEGRAPH WORKS COMPANY, LIMITED. | RESEARCH DEPARTMENT. | Gravesend, | Kent.'
£120.00

English electrical engineer and research scientist and writer (1886-1979), Member of the Senate, University of London. All items one page, quarto. All but one very good; one item discoloured and creased at head, and with several closed tears. All signed 'P Dunsheath' and most docketed or bearing the Society's stamp. The letters concern a lecture at the Society Dunsheath agreed to give following a conversation with Sir George Sutton entitled 'Science in the Cable Industry'. Dunsheath suggests that L. B.

Tables astronomiques publiées par le Bureau des Longitudes de France. Tables de la lune, par M. Burckhardt.

Author: 
Johann Karl Burckhardt [Bureau des Longitudes, Paris]
Publication details: 
Paris: Mme Ve Courcier, Imprimeur-Libraire pour les Mathématiques, Quai des Augustins, No. 57. Décembre 1812.
£200.00

Burckhardt (1773-1825) was a German astronomer, who first computed the orbits of a number of comets. First and only edition. Quarto. Pages: viii + 88. A rare survival, but in very poor condition: grubby, creased, stained and frayed at edges. In remains of makeshift wraps. Text perfectly legible throughout. Some scholarly annotations in pencil and pen.

Typed Note and Typed Letter Signed, one to the Editor and the other to the Secretary, Royal Society of Arts.

Author: 
Charles Crowther
Publication details: 
20 February and 14 March 1940; both on crested letterhead of the Harper Adams Agricultural College, Newport, Hampshire.
£36.00

Agricultural chemist (1876-1964). Both one page, quarto, and very good, though lightly creased. The letter carries a few light carbon-paper stains. The note informs the editor of the R.S.A. journal that Crowther is returning the 'corrected copy of my remarks in the discussion on my paper. | I presume that you will be sending me a supply of reprints when the Journal comes out'. The letter thanks the secretary for the copies of the journal.

Eleven Typed Letters Signed and one Autograph Letter Signed, variously to W. Perry and G. F. Menzies, Royal Society of Arts; and three-page typed 'brief statement of Dr. [Charles] Carpenter's qualifications', headed 'CONFIDENTIAL'.

Author: 
Edward Frankland Armstrong
Publication details: 
1927 to 1934; on letterheads including 'BUSH HOUSE, | ALDWYCH', 'BALDWIN HOUSE, | 67, QUEEN VICTORIA STREET', and that of the British Dyestuffs Corporation Ltd.
£120.00

British chemist (1878-1945), Vice-President of the Royal Society, 1942-3. All items in very good condition. All letters, one page, quarto. Subjects include an R.S.A. lecture by Armstrong on 'Hydrogen and its uses', the proof of another lecture, Armstrong's chairmanship of various R.S.A. meetings, his appointment as R.S.A. Vice-President, and the possibility of a 'paper on the hydrogenation of bituminous coal ('even though a good many people may be a little tired of the subject'): 'I suppose the man you ought to ask in the first place is K.

Typed Letter Signed to W. Perry, Royal Society of Arts.

Author: 
Cecil Henry Desch
Publication details: 
2 February 1937; on letterhead (including map of environs) of the National Physical Laboratory, Teddington, Middlesex.
£45.00

Eminent British metallurgist (1874-1958). One page, quarto. Very good. 'I should have been pleased to take the chair at Professor Bragg's Lecture, but I have already undertaken to preside at a similar lecture by Professor Bragg [...] and to have the same Chairman on both occasions, the lectures dealing with the same subjects, would suggest that Metallurgy is very poorly represented in London. Would it be possible to get Sir Harold Carpenter to take the chair? I am sure that you will have a good Meeting, as Professor Bragg's lectures are always exceedingly interesting.' Signed 'C. H.

Syndicate content