Susanne Schulz-Falster Catalogue Eighteen - International League ...

harmony of light and colours, effects and the expression of passions. On
the strength of this, Watelet (1718–1786), an amateur painter and socialite
was elected to the Académie Française, and an expanded version of the essays
provided the basis of his unfinished dictionary of the fine arts.
Particularly appealing are the vignettes and portrait medallions, showing
reading and drawing putti.
Cohen-de Ricci 1051.
Experimenting with Electricity
121. WEBER, Joseph. Neue Erfahrungen idiolektrische Körper
ohne einiges Reiben zu elektrisiren. Mit dreyen Kupfertafeln.
Augsburg, Eberhard Klett, 1781 £1,200
8vo, pp. [xxiv], 118, [1] errata, [1] blank, with three large folding
engraved plates (a little creased); uncut in contemporary half pigskin
over pale blue boards; a very fine copy.
First edition of Weber’s interesting compilation of eighty-one electrical
experiments, carefully described and illustrated on the three large plates.
This work follows on from his earlier publication on the construction of
an ‘electrophore’ in 1778, for which he had won a prize from the Bavarian
Academy of Sciences.
Together with Volta and Lichtenberg, Weber (1753–1831) followed the
theories of Aepinus’ Tentamen Theoriae electritatis et magnetismi published
in 1759: that is the view that electrical phenomena were based on action at
a distance and the rejection of the notion of electrical atmospheres. Weber’s
susanne schulz-falster rare books catalogue eighteen
contribution was to confirm and spell out Aepinus’ views in much greater
detail with the experimental aid of the electrophore. This device, originally
invented by Volta to produce an electric charge by means of induction,
Weber assembled from components of an electrical machine he purchased
as a student:
‘In the early 1770’s, while still studying theology, Weber bought an
electrical machine from an old clothes peddler. The purchase showed its
value when, just after his ordination, he won a prize from the Bavarian
Academy of Sciences for an ‘air electrophore,’ an air condenser with a
movable coating, whose action he explained in the modern manner, using
‘atmosphere’ to mean ‘sphere of activity.’ In 1783, in a formal account
of electrical theory drawn up for a new scientific society in Berlin, he
observed that, until experiment proved the contrary, we must maintain that
electrical matter does not leave an [electrified] body to form an atmosphere’
(Heilbron, p. 425).
Poggendorff II, 1272; not in Wheeler Gift, where his other works are listed; see
Heilbron, Electricity in the 17th and 18th Centuries, pp. 424–5; Gartrell, Electricity,
553; Trefzger, Joseph Weber als Philosoph der katholischen Romantik, pp. 1–15.
Lady Riders
122. [WOMEN – ANON.] Breve esposizione di alcuni precetti
sull’arte dell’equitazione da proporsi alle donne. Con sei tavole in
rame. Milan, Felice Rusconi, 1827. £950