Author: NOLLET, J.A.
Title: Lettres sur l'électricité. Dans lesquelles on examine les dernieres Découvertes qui ont été faites sur cette Matière, & les conséquences que l'on en peut tirer. AND: IDEM, Essai sur l'électricité des corps. 3me éd.
Description: Paris, H.L.Guerin & L.F. Delatour, ruë S. Jacques, vis-à-vis les Mathurins, à S. Thomas d'Aquin, 1753. Small 8vo. In 2 vols. W. 4 engr. fold. pls. (unsigned, sl. yellowed) in the "Lettres" and an engr. front. & 4 engr. fold. pls. in the "Essai". Contemp. uniform marbl. clf., spine blindst., w. red spine label and top of spine a paper libr. shelf-mark. (1. XII, 264 pp.; 2. XXVI, 373, III (privilege), I (blank) pp.). ). Ad 1) First edition: Wheeler's Gift I, 379: 'Six [the "Lettres contains 9 letters] written to [Benjamin] Franklin controversing his views; [1] letter to Jallabert of Geneva and [1 to] Bose of Wittenberg [furthermore 1 to Mlle Ardinghelli]; theory of effluent and affluent matter; papers of Symmer and Birch with remarks by the author.': DSB X, pp. 145 - 148: '...Nollet found himself the quarry of Buffon, who was promoting the translation of a book by an unknown printer from Philadelphia. ... the first menace was the Philadelphia theory of the Leyden jar ... the second threat was the doctrine that electricity ... came in two qualitatively different, opposite, and mutually desctructive types. ... Nollet recognized these menaces and replied in an amusing set of "Lettres" (1753) [of which we offer the first volume 1753, two more vols. were published 1760 & 1767], containing a wealth of counterexamples which drew their strength from Franklin's occasional obscurities, imprecisions, exaggerations, and inappropriate appeals to traditional effluvial models.': Ronalds, p. 370: Bakken Libr., p. 92: Ad 2) Third edition 1753 (First ed. 1746, 4th ed. 1764): DSB X, pp. 145 - 148: Wheeler's Gift I, 329a: Bakken Libr., p. 92. Very nice uniform set.

Keywords: physics Vired