Lecture-Notes on Physics
Philadelphia: From the Journal of the Franklin Institute, 1868. Octavo, quarter cloth with marbled boards, printed paper spine label, 112, 3, [1] pp, 3 illustration plates. A scarce volume by prominent American physicist Alfred M. Mayer, who studied in Paris before chairing departments at Pennsylvania College and Lehigh University, and becoming professor of physics at Stevens Institute of Technology. During this time he published of series of contributions to the study of acoustics. This copy is inscribed by Mayer to Dr. Oliver Wolcott Gibbs, an important American chemist, an inscribed by Gibbs as well at a later date, to a Samuel Powel.
According to "History of the Physics Department, Lehigh University", "Mayer's 'Lecture-Notes on Physics', preparation of which probably began at Gettysburg, first appeared as a series in the Journal of the Franklin Institute, then as a book. The first four of six sections deal with the scientific method and instrumentation, and includes a brief discussion of mechanics and Newton's laws (brief no doubt because this subject was covered by Morgan). The fifth and longest section in the book is devoted to the properties of matter, including energy, thermodynamics, and the molecular hypothesis, and the last section covers capillarity. The book is labeled Part I so a continuation was evidently planned to cover other subjects such as elasticity, sound, and electricity and magnetism. No subsequent parts appeared, although Mayer did later write books on sound and light." OCLC locates one copy, at the American Philosophical Society, of this first edition. Wear to corners and spine tips, chipping and loss to spine label, else a very good copy. Item #13775
Price: $250.00