the birth of the electrical age

An attractive set of the Quaritch facsimile reprint of Farday's magnum opus, collecting 29 key papers originally published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society and first published in book form between 1839 and 1855.

'Faraday was both one of the greatest physicists of the nineteenth century and one of the finest experimenters of all time. His principle contributions were made in advancing our knowledge of the nature and potentialities of electricity' (Printing and the Mind of Man 308). The first of his great discoveries was his demonstration, in 1821, that current-carrying wires and magnetic poles would rotate around each other - the principle of the electric motor. He then sought the opposite effect, discovering in 1831 that current flowed through wires when they rotated around a magentic pole - the principle of the dynamo and the transformer. 'Faraday himself however was interested in these experiments only as a stage in his investigation of the phenomena of electromagnetism, by which he finally succeeded in demonstrating the identity of all forms of electricity, however produced... Finally he enunciated his theory of "lines" or "tubes" of magnetic force which was the starting point for the revolutionary theories of Clerk Maxwell and later of Einstein' (Printing and the Mind of Man 308).

Facsimile reprint; 3 volumes, 8vo; 8 folding plates in volume I, 5 plates in volume II of which 2 are folding, 4 folding plates in volume III, volumes II and III unopened, contents a little toned with scattered spotting; original green pebble-grain cloth, titles to spines gilt, cloth a little rubbed and mottled, corners bumped, a very good set; 574, 303, & 588pp.

Printing and the Mind of Man 308 (for the first edition).