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[YOUNGHUSBAND, C. W., PRESIDENT OF THE COMMITTEE ON EXPLOSIVES.] Preliminary report of the Committee on Explosives, with plates.
[London], printed at the War Office, 1870. First edition, folio, pp. [2], 11, [1]; 2 folding plates, 7 folding tables and graphs, several printed in color; original blue printed wrappers; wrappers curled at fore. and bottom edges, a few short tears entering from the fore-margin; all else very good. This copy with a presentation from Sir Frederick Augustus Abel to the renowned natural philosopher John Tyndall, inscribed and signed by Abel at the top of the front wrapper. From the time he became ordnance chemist at the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich till his retirement in 1888, Abel (1827-1902) was the chief government authority on all matters connected with explosives, and the man who invented the smokeless propellant cordite in 1889 in collaboration with Sir James Dewer. "He was a member of the ordnance select committee, was expert for submarine defense and smokeless powder, and from 1888 until his death was president of the explosives committee. The transformation of arms and ammunition which took place during his thirty-four years of service at Woolwich necessarily occupied the greater part of his scientific career, though almost ever branch of technical science was enriched by his labours" (DNB). Sir Frederick invented an instrument to test the flash point of petroleum products, electrical fuses and other applications of electricity to warlike purposes. He was knighted in 1891. The report was prepared by C. W. Younghusband at the request of J. H. Lefroy, Master of Ordnance. University of Chicago only in OCLC.
Offered for US$ 3125.00 by: Rulon-Miller Books ABAA/ILAB - Book number: 29455