HOME (Francis):

Essai sur le Blanchiment des Toiles. Traduit de l'Anglois de M. Home.

Paris, Chez Ganeau..., 1762 FIRST FRENCH TRANSLATION. 8vo, pp. xxx [xxxi - xxxii Contents], 412 [413 - 415 Approbation, 416 blank], contemporary mottled French calf, spine gilt to a thistle motif in compartments; front free end-paper a little frayed and worn, lacks label. Home (1719 - 1813) took his M. D. From Edinburgh University in 1750, and as a practicing physician made a number of useful contributions to his profession, including an accurate clinical description of diphtheria, An Inquiry into the Nature, Cause and Cure of the Croup (1765). His Experiments on Bleaching was first published in Edinburgh in 1756 and later in Dublin in 1771. ODNB notes, "In 1756 Home turned his attention to chemistry and in Experiments on Bleaching recommended that bleachers should use dilute sulphuric acid instead of sour milk. This publication greatly increased the profitability of bleaching and the Honourable Board of Trustees for the Improvement of Manufactures in North Britain paid him £100 and presented him with a gold medal." This French translation is preceded by an enthusiastic and admiring introduction by the French translator, Pierre Henri Larcher. There are three copies in UK libraries, NLS, Leeds, and the Victoria and Albert. OCLC adds Cornell, Getty, Smithsonian, Museum of Fine Arts, Chemical Heritage, Wisconsin-Madison, two in France, and one in Germany

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Book number: 7670

Catalogue: Technology

Keywords: technology translation French prose

IMISON (John):

The School of Arts; Or, An Introduction to Useful Knowledge, being a Compilation of real Experiments and Improvements, in several pleasing Branches of Science, on the following subjects, viz. Mechanics, Electricity.... A New Edition, with very considerable editions.

London: Printed for the Author, and Sold by J. Murray..., [no date] [?1790]. Large 8vo (in 4s), 209 x 125 mms., pp. xvi], 319 [320 blank], [8], 176, with separate half-title and title-page for "Curious and Useful Miscellaneous Articles," 19 folding engraved plates, including frontispiece in first part (lacking plate 19 at page 297), 4 folding engraved plates in second part, contemporary calf, gilt spine, red leather label; fore-margin of title-page soiled, front joint cracked, top and base of spine chipped, corners worn, but a good copy John Imison (died 1788) was a clockmaker, mechanical engineer, and printer, and in the latter capacity printed some novels with his own woodcuts. The School of Arts was first published in 1785, a second edition in 1787, and another second edition in 1794. This "New Edition" appears to be a re-issue of the second edition, with a cancel title-page, or possibly with the first half-sheet impression reset. ESTC N21609 locates copies in Sir John Soanes's Museum; William and Mary, Columbia, Library Company of Philadelphia, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Smithsonian, and Delaware. W. Zachs, The First John Murray (1998).

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Book number: 8950

Catalogue: Technology

Keywords: technology education prose

NICHOLSON (Peter). HAY (John):

Nicholson's New Carpenter's Guide; Being A complete Book of Lines for Carpenters, Joiners, Cabinet Makers, and Workmen in General. An Enlarged and Improved Edition, By John Hay, Esq. Architect. The Theory and Practice Explained by Numerous Engravings.

George Virtue, London and New York [ no date], [?1850] 4to, 275 x 208 mms., pp. [ii], xii, 240, engraved frontispiece, additional engraved title-page, 121 engraved plates, contemporary half calf, marbled boards (rubbed), new morocco label; plates foxed, front joint amateurishly repaired and still a bit tender, but a respectable copy. The text is preceded by a "Memoir" of the Scottish engineer, Peter Nicholson (1765 - 1844), whose skills led him to publish The Carpenter's New Guide (1792), for which he engraved his own plates. Later, he published a number of books on building and the practical deployment of architectural principles. Treve Rosoman in his ODNB entry notes, "Nicholson's great gift as a mathematician was his ability to simplify and generalize traditional methods as well as inventing new ones. The rules that he formulated for finding sections of prisms, cylinders, or cylindroids enabled joiners to construct the great sweeping, curved staircases that were so fashionable in the early nineteenth century with much greater ease, speed, and economy of timber. Nicholson was the first author to write about the practical creation of joints, and the hinging and hanging of doors and shutters. He was also the first to note that Grecian mouldings were conic in section and that the volutes of Ionic capitals should be composed of logarithmic spirals. The complexity of the geometry involved in setting out fine woodwork meant that Nicholson was writing for an informed audience rather than the novice, as he sometimes thought. It was, perhaps, for this reason that he wrote so many books on mathematics really to help the enthusiastic tradesman. Nicholson's books were also sold in America but despite, or perhaps because of, his use of Greek revival ornament, then so popular there, he became the subject of much plagiarism. As a result, he is perhaps not as well known in America as he should be."

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Book number: 7398

Catalogue: Technology

Keywords: technology architecture PROSE

STOKES (J.):

The Complete Cabinet Maker and Upholsterer's Guide: Comprising, the Rudiments and Principles of Cabinet-Making and Upholstery, with Familiar Instructions, Illustrated by Examples, for Attaining a Proficiency in The Art of Drawing: The Processes of Veneering, Inlaying, and Buhl-Work; the Art of Dying and Staining Wood, Ivory, Bone Tortoiseshell, &c. Directions for Lackering, Japanning, and Varnishing; to make French Polish, to Prepare the Best Glues, Cements, & Compositions; and A Number of Recipts, particularly useful to the workmen generally. Embellished with Sixteen Explanatory and Illustrative Engravings, by Mr. J. Stokes, With the Articles of Furniture elegantly coloured.

London: Published by A. R. Newman & Co., Leadenhall-Street [Dean and Munday, Printers, Threadneedle Street] [1829]. FIRST EDITION. 12mo, 175 x 104 mms., pp. [iii] - xii, 133 [134 - 140 Index], folding engraved coloured plate as frontispiece, plates 2, 3, III and IV between pages 18 and 19, plate 6 at page 23, 10 coloured engraved plates (one folding) of furniture between pages 38 and 39, complete with sixteen plates, entirely uncut, original printed boards for A. E. Newman; short tear in fore-margin of last blank leaf, spine renewed, boards a little worn, but a very good copy, with a wraparound for the covers, preserved in a quarter calf slipcase. None of the few copies that I could find on Copac and OCLC list Newman as publisher, with Dean & Munday being listed on the title-page as publishers.

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Book number: 9207

Catalogue: Technology

Keywords: technology furniture prose