Science, Medicine and Technology

The Traveller's Oracle; Or, Maxims for Locomotion: Containing Precepts for Promoting the Pleasures and Hints for Preserving the Health of Travellers. [Part II: 'By John Jervis, An Old Coachman.] [Including sheet music of eight songs by Kitchiner.]

Author: 
William Kitchiner ['John Jervis, An Old Coachman.']
Publication details: 
London: Henry Colburn, New Burlington Street. Second Edition, 1827. [London: Printed by J. Moyes, Took's Court, Chancery Lane.] [Sheet music engraved by Sidney Hall, Bury Street, Bloomsbury.]
£300.00

2 vols, 12mo. Vol.1: viii + 264 pp. Vol.2: viii + 336 pp. Complete, with all the engravings of sheet music listed in the contents (vol.1: five two-page plates and one four-page plate, with one more piece of music 'printed with the letterpress'; vol.2: one two-page plate). Both volumes good and tight, on lightly-aged and spotted paper. In worn contemporary half-calf binding, marbled boards, with the first volume rebacked. Each volume with bookplate of Frederic Perkins, Chipstead Place, Kent.

Presentation copy of offprint of article: 'Die Handschrift des Chronischen Arthritikers'.

Author: 
Thea Stein-Lewinson (1907-2000), German graphologist
Publication details: 
[1937. From 'Die Schrift'.] Verlag Rudolf M. Rohrer, Brunn.
£56.00

8vo: 14 pp, paginated 114-127. Presentation copy, inscribed on first page 'With the compliments of the author.' First page stamped 'DIE SCHRIFT | III J. 3 NR. | VERLAG RUDOLF M. ROHRER, BRUNN.' On browned, high-acidity paper, with chipping and flaking to extremities of first leaf. Four facsimiles of handwriting in text.

Offprint titled 'Air Ministry. Meteorological Office. Professional Notes. Vol. 3. No. 39. The Upper Air Circulation of the Atlantic Ocean. Published by the Authority of the Meteorological Committee.'

Author: 
E. W. Barlow [Edward William Barlow (b.1886)] [Air Ministry, Meteorological Office.]
Publication details: 
1925. London: Published by His Majesty's Stationery Office.
£28.00

8vo: 18 pp, paginated 200-217. Grubby and lightly-aged and creased, with rusty staples. Title-page headed 'For Official Use. M.O. 245s.' Scarce. No copy at the British Library, and the only copy on COPAC at Nottingham.

Detailed coloured hand-drawn plan of a broad gauge locomotive, with dimensions, on large piece of cloth headed 'F.C.G.O.A.', and text in Spanish and English, designed by the Stephenson Locomotive Works for the Argentine Great Western Railway Company.

Author: 
Robert Stephenson & Co. Ltd., Locomotive Works, Darlington [railway engines; F.C.G.O.A.; Ferro Carril Gran Oeste Argentino; the Argentine Great Western Railway Company]
Publication details: 
Stamped 'ROBERT STEPHENSON & CO. LTD. | LOCOMOTIVE WORKS | 29 APR. 1907| DARLINGTON'.
£185.00

An attractive item, on one side of a piece of cloth roughly 57 x 94 cm. Good: lightly aged and creased. Side section of the engine roughly 21 x 61 cm, with dimensions in grey, outlines and other lines in purple, one block in pink and red, and a few small parts in blue. Also a cross-section from the front, of the left side of the train only, roughly 22 x 9.5 cm. Beneath the heading 'F.C.G.O.A. are six lines of neatly-written text, the first reading 'Trocha de. 1676<?> Gauge.

The Sickness Accident and Life Association Limited. Prospectus.

Author: 
The Sickness Accident and Life Association Limited [Friends Provident; life insurance; actuarial science]
Publication details: 
Foreword' dated 'Edinburgh, December, 1897.' [Printed by Morrison and Gibb Limited, Edinburgh.]
£45.00

12mo (leaf dimensions 13 x 9 cm): 62 pp. Folded 'Proposal' tipped in on perforated stub. Sewn into cream wraps, printed in red. Text clear and complete. Internally tight on lightly-aged paper. In worn and grubby wraps with a few ink notes on front. Index on p.ii (reverse of front wrap) gives sections (each with subsections) devoted to Sickness Department, Accident Department, Employers' Liability and Accidents to Workmen, Indemnity and Third Party Insurance, Fidelity Guarantees, and Life Department. Also lists Directors, Office-Bearers, Head Office and Branches.

Autograph Letter Signed ('T. M. Stone') to Mrs Metcalfe, on an 'eulogium' to her father Frederic Carpenter Skey, delivered by the President of the Royal College of Surgeons, Henry Hancock.

Author: 
Thomas Madden Stone (d.1894), Librarian to the Royal College of Surgeons of England, London [Henry Hancock (1809-1880); Frederic Carpenter Skey (1798-1872), surgeon to St Bartholomew's Hospital]
Publication details: 
28 February 1873; on the letterhead of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, London.
£56.00

12mo: 2 pp. 18 lines of text. Good. Reporting that 'Mr. Hancock our President' has 'paid such a well deserved eulogium to your honoured sire in his Hunterian Oration published fully in "the Medical Times & Gazette" of last Saturday'. Stone was 'much moved by it', and said to himself 'how pleased I should have been, had his children been present to hear and see how well it was rec[eive]d.' Makes a Latin quotation that has been 'truly [...] said of your noble father'. Skey is not mentioned by name, but the item is from the Skey family archives.

Offprint of paper entitled 'The Magnetic Spectrum of the [beta]-Rays Excited by [gamma]-Rays'.

Author: 
C.D. Ellis [Charles Drummond Ellis (1895-1980), FRS, nuclear physicist [Ernest Rutherford; James Chadwick; Cavendish Laboratory]
Publication details: 
From the 'Proceedings of the Royal Society', A, vol.99, 1921, pp.261-271. Harrison and Sons, Ltd., Printers in Ordinary to Her Majesty, St. Martin's Lane.
£125.00

8vo: 11 pp. One diagram. Text clear and complete. In original printed wraps. Aged and in grubby white wraps with printed details of the paper. Two punch holes in inner margin. With ownership inscription by Ellis's father Abraham Charles Ellis: 'A. C. Ellis, 40 Belsize Park Gardens, NW3'. Ellis was co-author, with Rutherford and Chadwick, of 'Radiations from Radioactive Substances' (CUP, 1930), a work said by A. R.

Offprint entitled 'The [gamma]-Rays of Radium (B + C) and of Thorium (C + C')'.

Author: 
C.D. Ellis [Charles Drummond Ellis (1895-1980), FRS, nuclear physicist; Ernest Rutherford; James Chadwick; Cavendish Laboratory]
Publication details: 
From the 'Proceedings of the Royal Society', A, vol.143, 1934, pp.350-357. Harrison and Sons, Ltd., Printers, St. Martin's Lane, London, W.C.2.
£125.00

8vo: 8 pp. With tables. In original green printed wraps. Lightly aged, but good, with two punch holes in inner margin. 'With the author's compliments' by Ellis on front wrap. Brief calculations in pencil at foot of last page. Ellis was co-author, with Rutherford and Chadwick, of 'Radiations from Radioactive Substances' (CUP, 1930), a work said by A. R.

Offprint of paper by Ellis and Aston entitled 'The Absolute Intensities and Internal Conversion Coefficients of the [gamma]-Rays of Radium B and Radium C.

Author: 
C.D. Ellis [Charles Drummond Ellis (1895-1980), FRS, nuclear physicist; G. H. Aston
Publication details: 
From the 'Proceedings of the Royal Society', A, vol.129, 1930, pp.180-207. Harrison and Sons, Ltd., Printers, St. Martin's Lane, London, W.C.2.
£125.00

8vo: 28 pp. Four figures and two tables. Lightly aged, but good. In original green printed wraps. Two punch holes in inner margin. 'With the compliments of the authors' by Aston on front wrap. Ellis was co-author, with Rutherford and Chadwick, of 'Radiations from Radioactive Substances' (CUP, 1930), a work said by A. R. Mackintosh ('The Third Man: Charles Drummond Ellis, 1895-1980', Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London, July, 1995) to have been 'often referred to as the "Bible" of nuclear physics', with Ellis's contribution to the work placing him 'third among equals'.

Offprint of paper by Ellis and Aston entitled 'The Dependance of the Photographic Action of [beta]-Rays on their Velocity'.

Author: 
C.D. Ellis [Charles Drummond Ellis (1895-1980), FRS, nuclear physicist; G. H. Aston
Publication details: 
From the 'Proceedings of the Royal Society, A, vol.119, 1928, pp.645-650. Harrison and Sons, Ltd., Printers in Ordinary to Her Majesty, St. Martin's Lane.
£100.00

8vo: 6 pp. In green printed wraps. Lightly aged, but good. Two punch holes in inner margin. Ellis was co-author, with Rutherford and Chadwick, of 'Radiations from Radioactive Substances' (CUP, 1930), a work said by A. R. Mackintosh ('The Third Man: Charles Drummond Ellis, 1895-1980', Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London, July, 1995) to have been 'often referred to as the "Bible" of nuclear physics', with Ellis's contribution to the work placing him 'third among equals'.

Offprint by Ellis and Mott entitled 'Energy Relations in the [gamma]-Ray Type of Radioactive Disintegration'.

Author: 
C.D. Ellis [Charles Drummond Ellis (1895-1980), FRS, nuclear physicist; Sir Nevill Francis Mott (1905-1996), winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics
Publication details: 
From the 'Proceedings of the Royal Society', A, vol.141, 1933, pp.502-511. Harrison and Sons, Ltd., Printers, St. Martin's Lane, London, W.C.2.
£125.00

8vo: 10 pp. Three figures. Lightly aged, but good. In original green printed wraps. Two punch holes to inner margin. 'With the compliments of the authors' by Ellis on front wrap. Ellis was co-author, with Rutherford and Chadwick, of 'Radiations from Radioactive Substances' (CUP, 1930), a work said by A. R. Mackintosh ('The Third Man: Charles Drummond Ellis, 1895-1980', Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London, July, 1995) to have been 'often referred to as the "Bible" of nuclear physics', with Ellis's contribution to the work placing him 'third among equals'.

Offprint of paper by Ellis and Wooster entitled 'The Photographic Action of [beta]-Rays'.

Author: 
C.D. Ellis [Charles Drummond Ellis (1895-1980), FRS, nuclear physicist; W. A. Wooster, crystallographer
Publication details: 
From the 'Proceedings of the Royal Society', A, vol.114, 1927, pp.266-276. Harrison and Sons, Ltd., Printers in Ordinary to Her Majesty, St. Martin's Lane.
£100.00

8vo: 11 pp. Five figures. Good, on aged paper. In original green printed wraps. Two punch holes in inner margin. 'With the authors' compliments' by Wooster on front wrap. Ellis was co-author, with Rutherford and Chadwick, of 'Radiations from Radioactive Substances' (CUP, 1930), a work said by A. R. Mackintosh ('The Third Man: Charles Drummond Ellis, 1895-1980', Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London, July, 1995) to have been 'often referred to as the "Bible" of nuclear physics', with Ellis's contribution to the work placing him 'third among equals'.

Autograph Letter Signed to John William Stuart, on the occasion of his brother Benjamin Whitworth's death.

Author: 
Robert Whitworth, philanthropist [Benjamin Whitworth (1816-1893), Liberal M.P. for Drogheda, Manchester cotton merchant; Whitby Lifeboat; temperance; Sunday observance]
Publication details: 
2 October 1893. 14 Brown Street, Manchester.
£95.00

8vo, 4 pp. Bifolium. Sixty-eight lines of text. Complete and legible, but damaged: grubby and creased, with short closed tears and small hole at gutter. Interesting and informative letter. Stuart's message of condolence on Benjamin Whitworth's death is one of many which 'have been very acceptable more especially to his widow who has been laid aside so long with bad health, his daughters have been quite worn out'. Describes how his brother's health 'began to break down after a slight attack of paralysis some two or three years ago when at John Brown & Co Ld.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Mel. Alcan'), in French, to 'Monsieur le Conseiller d'Etat Commissaire Général'.

Author: 
Michel Alcan (1801-1877), French politician and engineer who made numerous innovations in the field of textiles [Exposition Universelle de 1867, Paris, France]
Publication details: 
Paris le 13. Dbre 1866'.
£65.00

4to (27 x 21 cm), 1 p. Nine lines of text. Text clear and complete on lightly aged, creased and foxed paper. Small closed tear at edge along crease line (not affecting text). Bearing the numbered stamp of the Exposition Universelle de 1867, Commission Imperiale. Accepting the position, conferred on him by the Commission, of 'membre de Jury de l'Exposition dans la 55me. classe': 'J'accepte cette tâche de confiance, et ferai tous mes éfforts pour la remplir avec l'activité reclamée par le reglement concernant les travaux du Jury'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Philippe de Larenaudière'), in French, to unnamed male editor of a journal.

Author: 
Philippe de Larenaudière [Philippe François de La Renaudière], nineteenth-century French mining engineer, geographer and traveller in the Americas
Publication details: 
Date and place not stated.
£65.00

4to, 1 p. Fourteen lines of text, on the recto of the first leaf of a bifolium. Text clear and complete, on lightly aged and creased paper. Slight staining at foot of text (affecting part of signature), and on the reverse of the second leaf of the bifolium, which is docketed 'la renaudié | A. S.' He is sending an article on 'la Bibliotheque des voyages'. Asks that the article on the work entitled 'Des Beaux arts en Angleterre', 'que Buisson vous adressa il ya prés de Deux mois', be inserted. 'Je vous prie en grace de laisser ma Signature en entier.

Two Autograph Letters Signed and one Typed Letter Signed (all three 'A. W. Pimm') on 'loco matters' to King.

Author: 
Arthur Watson Pimm [A. W. Pimm] (b.1881), locomotive engineer and inventor [H. G. King of the Institution of Locomotive Engineers; Sir W G Armstrong Whitworth & Co Ltd; Vickers; LNER; LMS Railways]
Publication details: 
Autograph Letters: 14 October and 18 December 1942. Typed Letter: 4 November 1942. All three from 5 Oakhill Road, Orpington, Kent.
£450.00

Text of all three letters clear and entire. A well-written and well-informed correspondence relating to 'locomotive matters'. Letter One (14 October 1942): Manuscript. Foolscap, 4 pp. Good, on aged high-acidity paper. 'Knowing, and to some extent, at least, sharing' King's 'interest in loco matters', Pimm informs him that the Ministry of Supply 'have ordered 360 L.M.S. mixed traffics generally like the 227 that AW's [Armstrong Whitworth] bill as their last order'.

Autograph Sentiment Signed (Sentiment [proverbe] Autographe signe)

Author: 
Ferdinand de Lesseps, engineer (Suez Canal).
Publication details: 
[Printed heading] 34 Drumsheugh Gardens [Edinburgh], 18 Avril 1884.
£200.00

A half-sheet of writing paper, c. 11.5 x 11cm, good condition, text, a French proverb, as follows: "fais ce que dois | advienne que pourra. | ferd. de lesseps | edimbourg - 18 Avril 1884. ||"

Typed Letter Signed ('Cyril Burt') to 'Mrs. Place' [i.e. Mrs G. M. Place, of the publishers Pitman].

Author: 
Sir Cyril Burt [Sir Cyril Lodowic Burt] (1883–1971), disgraced psychometric psychologist and eugenicist,
Publication details: 
12 October 1932; on letterhead of 4A, Eton Road, Hampstead, NW3.
£85.00

4to: 2 pages. 37 lines of text. Text clear and entire on slightly discoloured paper, lightly worn and creased and with a few nicks to extremities. Signed properly on the second page. Place's essay, apparently a biographical account of the psychological development of a very young child, 'whiled [sic] away a long train journey last night very pleasantly'.

Three Autograph Letters Signed (all 'E. Beulé'), in French, to (severally) Messieurs Jalabert and Duvivier, and an unnamed woman.

Author: 
Charles Ernest Beulé (1826-1874), French archaeologist and politician [Jalabert; Duvivier]
Publication details: 
The letters to Jalabert and Duvivier without date or place; the letter to the woman dated '<?>, 16 Novembre [no year]'.
£100.00

All three letters 12mo. The letter to Jalabert (with a mourning border) is 2 pp, the others 1 p each. All three in good condition. The Jalabert letter (18 lines) mentions his wife and 'M. Goupil'. The Duvivier letter (6 lines) is a letter of introduction to a 'Monsieur Pietsch, artiste distingue de Berlin'. Asks him to give the artist 'toutes les facilités pour visiter l'Hémicycle de Delaroche et la galérie des Plâtres'. The letter to the woman (11 lines). His return has been delayed by the death of the King of Portugal.

Partly printed (the heading is official), Letter Signed by Le Vaillant de Bovent to "Messieurs les Membres du Comité formé dans le Sein de la Commission d'inquête du Canal Monsieur

Author: 
Le Vaillant de Bovent, "L'Ingénieur en chef de Ire classe au Corps royal des Ponts et Chaussées, Chargé du Service dans le Département du Douba".
Publication details: 
{Partly printed} Ponts et Chaussees / [5o?] Inspection. [ms.] Envoi des releves de passage sur le Pont a buscule de Basancon/ No. 1396, Besancon, le 21 avril 1829
£56.00

One page, 4to, secretarial hand but signed by Le Vaillant de Bovent. In response to a letter he is providing "les états mensuel de tous les passagers de voiture . . . qui ont été [constules?] par le prepose du pont a bascule de cette ville depuis le mois de . . . 1828 . . . "

Autograph Letter Signed ('H Fournel'), in French, to unnamed correspondent.

Author: 
Henri Fournel [Henri-Jérôme-Marie Fournel (1799-1876), French civil engineer, geologist and disciple of Saint-Simon] (1799-1876)
Publication details: 
Without date or place.
£150.00

4to: 3 pp. Bifolium. Good on lightly aged and creased paper. Text clear and entire. Eighty lines of text, beginning abruptly, without salutation, 'Vous m'avez demandé ma pensée sur le prospectus que vous avez proposé.

Collection of six items, including publicity material, invoice and receipt, some relating to an order for a house in East Sheen, Surrey.

Author: 
J. W. Gray & Son, Limited. 'Lightning Conductor Experts. Electrical Engineers. Steeplejacks. Chimney Shaft Builders & Repairers. Church Steeple Restorers. Flagstaff Makers & Erectors.'
Publication details: 
1930
£85.00

The collection of six items, with an envelope, is in good condition. An interesting sidelight into 1930s business practice, and an insight into an unusual business concern. First, copy of letter, 14 November 1930 (4to: 1 p), to the firm from Percy L. Young of Messrs H. Young & Co. Constructional Engineers, confirming a verbal order 'for the installation and supply of lightning conductors' to 2 Orchard Rise, Sheen Common Drive, East Sheen.

Dr John Francis Churchill's Free Stoechiological Dispensary, For Consumption, and diseases of the Lungs (etc - titlepage text completed below).

Author: 
Dr John Francis Churchill
Publication details: 
London: 99 Marylebone Road, W., "Post Free on Demand", 1886
£56.00

Pamphlet, 24pp., 8vo, some spotting and wear at edges, small stampp of the Ashmolean Society, Oxford on title, mainly good condition. Titlepage continues, "Windpipe, Nose and Throat, with an appendix on Croup, Diphtheria, and Hay-Fever. Advice and Treatment Gratis for the Poor Daily, at 2 O'Clock, Sundays Excepted. Open to Members of the Medical Profession on presenting their card." COPAC lists copies at Imperial College and the Wellcome.

Science at Cambridge, by Dr. Monckman. (Of Downing College.)

Author: 
[Dr James Monckman of Downing College, Cambridge; Bradford]
Publication details: 
Cambridge - Deighton, Bell & Co., Trinity Street. Bradford - Honorary Secretaries of the Scientific Association, - Mr. J. Skelton, Crossley Hall; Mr. Wm. Pickles.' [J. Green, Printer, &c., 311, Manchester Rd., Bradford.] [1888]
£95.00

8vo: 16 pp. Unbound and stitched. On brittle, discoloured paper chipping at extremities and with the first and last leaves detached from one another. All but the first four pages consisting of a 'list of Original Papers, published by resident members of the University during the years 1886 and 1887', compiled to indicate the 'extent to which the country is indebted to the endowments of the University'. Including works by J.J. Thomson, Francis Darwin, George Darwin. Scarce: no copy in the British Library and the only copy on COPAC at Cambridge University Library.

Discourse, On the Objects and Importance of the National Institution for the Promotion of Science, Established at Washington, 1840, Delivered at the First Anniversary.

Author: 
Joel R. Poinsett, Secretary of War and Senior Director of the National Institution for the Promotion of Science [Smithsonian Institution]
Publication details: 
Washington: P. Force, Printer. 1841.
£35.00

8vo: 52 pp. Stitched pamphlet in marbled paper wraps. On aged, damp-stained paper, with foxing to last leaf. The Institution was later renamed the National Institute and eventually became a part of the Smithsonian Institute.

Watt and the Measurement of Power. Being the Watt Anniversary Lecture delivered before The Greenock Philosophical Society, 5 February, 1897.

Author: 
Sir William Henry Preece (1834-1913), 'Engineer-in-Chief and Electrician, General Post Office, London; Vice-President of the Institution of Civil Engineers.'
Publication details: 
London: Printed by William Clowes and Sons, Limited, Stamford Street and Charing Cross. 1897.
£120.00

8vo: 13 pp. Stitched. In original cream printed wraps. On aged, spotted paper, in heavily worn wraps. Facsimile of handwriting at head of front wrap reads 'With the Author's Compliments'. Two diagrams in text.

Autograph Letter Signed to an unnamed male correspondent.

Author: 
Stéphane Flachat, Ingénieur, Engineer.
Publication details: 
No place, 12 Janvier 1830.
£280.00

One page, minor damage and staining marginally affecting text, which has lost one letter, as follows: "D'après l'autorisation que mon frère [Eugène Flachat, eminent engineer] m'a transmise de votre part, je prends la liberté de vous demander un rendez-vous, pour vour entretenir du Canal maritime, et vous soumettre notamment la partie des plans de cette entreprise qui interesse plus spécialement la ville de Paris.

Autograph Letter Autograph Letter Signed to an unnamed woman.

Author: 
Ernest Lacan, sometime Secretaire de la Redaction du journal La Lumière, writing on behalf of Niepce, pioneer photographer.
Publication details: 
"Mardi" [no other information about place and date].
£250.00

Two pages, 8vo, good condition. Text as follows (accents not on my keyboard!): M. Niepce est venue hier, un peu inquiet, me dire qu'on venait de lui apprendre que l'organisation militaire des chateaux inferieurs etait a peu pres decidee. N'ayant rien aucune nouvelle en ce qui le concerne, il craint d'avoir ete tout a fait oublie au milieu des preoccupations que les evenements recents ont fait [naitre?]. / Oserai, je vous prie, Madame, de demander a Monsieur Le Fevre, qui a deja tant fait pour lui, de vouloir bien rappeler a l'Empereur notre pauvre officier savant. / Ce sera pour M.

Autograph Letter Signed ('h. f.') to 'Madame [Eliza] Thomas'.

Author: 
Henri-Jérôme-Marie Fournel (1799-1876), French civil engineer, geologist and disciple of Saint-Simon [Algeria]
Publication details: 
1 September 1842 ('4h du matin'); place not stated.
£200.00

8vo bifolium, 3 pp. 57 lines of text. Addressed on verso of second leaf of bifolium, with circular postmark in black ink, to 'Madame Thomas, chateau de marville, près et par St. Denis (Banlieue de Paris).' Good, on lightly creased and aged paper, with slight damage to second leaf from breaking of wafer. Text clear and entire, in a difficult, indiosyncratic hand. An interesting and significant letter, announcing Fournel's appointment to the post which would result in his greatest achievement.

Fragment of Autograph Statement or Letter Signed (last page).

Author: 
Alessandro Chiapelli, Italian philosopher
Publication details: 
No place or date on this page.
£85.00

One page, 8vo, text as follows (square brackets when I can't read the Italian): "mova, come le antiche che la [?] a maestro d' sapienza politica e d'arte luminosa, è e [infende?] d'essere [affermazinne?] d'cultura e d'intellectualita. Il chiedere a gran voce l'istituzione d'una universitata italiana d'una universita italiana a Trieste, è [?] [affermaginnne?] d'italianita & d'civita: e nessu no [?] contrastar quella, senza rinnegar questa."

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