engineering

Richly illustrated lectures on applied physics, by the Royal Society’s de facto curator of experiments
2. DE SAGU LIERS, John Theophilus. De natuurkunde uit ondervindingen opgemaakt... Uit het Engels vertaald door een liefhebber der
natuurkunde.
Amsterdam Isaak Tirion, 1751. 3 volumes. 4º. With 114 folding engraved plates. Contemporary half-calf. € 1925
Second edition in Dutch of a syllabus of lectures by a British natural philosopher,
reprinting the first two volumes and adding a third volume, appearing
here in translation for the first time. The son of Huguenot refugees, Desaguliers
(1683–1744) studied at Christ Church, Oxford and succeeded James Keill as
lecturer in experimental philosophy at Hart Hall. “Desaguliers’ practical
abilities aroused the Royal Society’s interest soon after his arrival in London…
at Newton’s suggestion, he was invited to repeat some of Newton’s experiments
on heat; before long he had become a de facto curator of experiments” (DSB).
Desaguliers was highly skilled in practical mechanics, improving numerous
devices, and described and demonstrated a great number of experiments. For
the benefit of his auditors, Desaguliers published a number of his lectures in
1717 and in 1719 other lectures were published in an unauthorized edition
which Desaguliers denounced. Only in 1734 did the first official volume of
lectures appear, including a simple treatment of Newton’s system of the world
and a description and a description of Ralph Allen’s railway in Bath. The
second volume appeared in 1746. “Desaguliers attributed the ten-year delay
before the appearance of his second tome to his desire to improve the treatment
of machines, especially waterwheels… Continuing with mechanics, in seven
lectures, he discussed impact and elasticity, vis viva and momentum, heat,
hydrostatics and hydraulics, pneumatics, meteorology, and more machines.
This second volume… entitles Desaguliers to be considered a forerunner of
the more advanced knowledge of machinery that characterized the Industrial
Revolution” (DSB).
Dutch translations appeared in 1737 (volume 1) and 1746 (volume 2). Both
volumes were reprinted in 1751, together with a third volume containing a
single lecture on hydraulics and a treatise on optics.
With some spotting throughout and the bindings rubbed. The privilige of volume 1 is bound after instead of before the contents; volume 2 with a small
wormhole in the lower margin not affecting the text and a hole in the lower margin on pp. 279–301. A good copy of this interesting work on applied physics
with attractive engravings.
Bierens de Haan 1178–1180; DSB IV, pp. 43–46; STCN (12 copies, 6 incomplete).