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DIBNER 55: AIR PUMPS AND ELECTRIC GENERATORS. First edition, and a fine copy, of one of the great classics of science. "A book of prime importance in electrical discovery, air-pressure and the vacuum pump" (Dibner). Guericke proved the existence of a vacuum through his famous experiment, illustrated by one of the double-page plates. "At Ratisbon in 1654 Guericke had performed one of the most dramatic experiments in the history of science, when, before the Imperial Diet, he showed how two teams of eight horses each could not separate a bronze pair of hemispheres from which he had exhausted the air" (ibid.). To create the vacuum, Guericke invented the air-pump, and in a series of experiments that followed he demonstrated the weight and elasticity of air. The air-pump became of fundamental importance for the study of the physical properties of gases. Guericke also demonstrated electrical attraction and repulsion, the discharging power of points, and constructed the first electrical generator. "Guericke constructed a spherical rotor of sulphur mounted on a crank; its rotation and contact upon it generated the first visible and audible electric sparks" (ibid.). As the Wheeler Gift catalogue remarks, "This remarkable work on experimental philosophy ranks next to Gilbert's in the number and importance of the electrical discoveries described. Electric conduction and repulsion, the discharging power of points, the dissipation of charge by flames, the light due to electrification, the crepitating noises of small sparks are all recognized". Guericke's experiments were motivated by his profound Copernican cosmological views on the nature and composition of space, which are fully set forth in the present work. Provenance: letterpress title with previous owner's initials P. T. W. (i.e., Peder Topp Wandel, or Wandal) dated 1754; and with old stamp from Odense Katedralskole in Denmark. "Guericke had been preoccupied ever since his student days at Leiden with the question of the definition of space. A convinced Copernican, he was particularly concerned with three fundamental questions: (1) What is the nature of space? Can empty space exist, or is space always filled and empty space only a spatium imaginarium, a logical abstraction? (2) How can individual heavenly bodies affect each other across space, and how are they moved? (3) Is space, and therefore the heavenly bodies enclosed in it, bounded or unbounded? "Descartes's conception of space and matter as equivalent and his denial of a vacuum led Guericke to propose an experiment designed to resolve the old conflict between plenists and vacuists. Guericke posited that if the air were pumped out of a strong container and no other new material allowed to take its place the vessel would implode if Descartes's assertions were true. Soon after he returned from Osnabruck in 1647 Guericke made a suction pump using a cylinder and piston to which he added two flap valves; he then used this apparatus to pump water out of a well-caulked beer cask. Air entered the cask, however, as was evidenced by whistling noises. When Guericke repeated the experiment with the beer cask sealed within a second larger one that he had also filled with water, the water that he pumped out was replaced by water seeping in from the larger vessel. "In an attempt to solve the sealing problem Guericke ordered the construction of a hollow copper sphere with an outlet at the bottom. He pumped the air directly out of this apparatus which thereupon imploded. This result would seem to indicate that Descartes was right; but Guericke still thought otherwise on the basis of his earlier experiments. He had a new apparatus made, and with this his experiment succeeded. Guericke thus invented the air pump, or, rather, discovered the pumping capacity of air. He had thought that the air within the vessel would sink, as had the water in his previous devices, and that it would be evacuated from the bottom; later experiments, however, in which th. Seller Inventory # 3763
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