Rare Book Monthly
Book Catalogue Reviews - January - 2009 Issue
Eighty-Three Books from The Manhattan Rare Book Company
Beethoven's Fifth Symphony in original wraps.
Item 54 is Michael Faraday's Experimental Researches in Electricity, an original, unbound copy of the first edition published in 1820. It was known at the time that an electrical current could generate magnetism, but no one had figured how to reverse the process. Of course, the need for magnetism is limited, but for electricity the need is immense. Figuring out how to use magnetism to generate electricity opened the door to power generation, most electricity being generated through this method to this day. $13,500.
Item 58 reports another major scientific discovery: On the Absorption and Radiation of Heat by Gases and Vapors. This first edition explains John Tyndall's discovery that transparent gasses can absorb heat radiation just as visible solids can. The significance of this fact is being experienced more than ever today, as this is the principle behind global warming - heat radiated from earth being captured by carbon dioxide gas rather than drifting out into space. $3,800.
The Manhattan Rare Book Company may be reached at 212-326-8907 or [email protected]. Their website is www.manhattanrarebooks.com.
Rare Book Monthly
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Freeman’s, August 20. President Washington Reaffirms the US Treaty of Friendship and Peace with Morocco, the Longest Unbroken Treaty in US History. $50,000 – 80,000.Freeman’s, August 20. Weeks After Victory at Yorktown, Benjamin Franklin Promises Repayment of a French Loan that Funded the American Revolution. $200,000 – 300,000.Freeman’s, August 20. Rare First Edition of the Foundational Text of the Mormon Church. $100,000 – 150,000.Freeman’s, August 20. President Washington Sends the First Major Law Passed by Congress, the Tariff Act of 1789. $100,000 – 150,000.Freeman’s, August 20. A Scarce Example of Audubon's Depiction of a Brown Pelican, Plate CCLI from his Birds of America. $30,000 – 50,000.Freeman’s, August 20. The Official and First Obtainable Broadside Printing of the Lincoln's Final Emancipation Proclamation. $30,000 – 50,000. -
