Electricity and the Electric Telegraph. [In two volumes]

New York: Appleton and Company, 1885, 1888. Later printings. Hardcover. Very good/none as issued. Mixed set with continuous pagination in publishers original brown cloth. In 2 volumes. Vol. I: xii, [5] -602, [i]-iii, [3] pages. Vol. 2: viii, [603] -1120, [9-tables] , [I-blank], [i]-ii pages . 8vo. Original brown publisher's cloth with uniform spine designs but different decorations in blind. With several old institutional stamps on the title page and the Dibner Institute stamp on the front pastedown endpapers (properly withdrawn). Wear and bumping to the corners. Wear to head and tail of both spines. Binding sound with one signature a bit proud in volume 1. Both volumes are copyrighted 1884, but Vol. l (a gift of Bern Dibner) is the 7th edition dated 1888 and Vol. 2 (a gift of IBM) is the sixth edition dated 1885. Ad for Prescott’s latest works in back matter, including “Bell’s Electric Speaking Telephone.” Very Good. See Sterling and Shiers History of Telecommunications Technology, An Annotated Bibliography, **6-059 (which notes the 1877, 1881, and 1885 editions) . Wheeler Gift Catalogue, I, 2045 (referencing 1877 first edition) "Comprehensive, descriptive treatise," Cyclopaedia of American Biography V/108. A continuation of Prescott's well regarded "History, Theory, and Practice of the Electric Telegraph" (first published in 1860, and with several editions through 1866). "Electricity and the Electric Telegraph spends "the first 280 pages or so on electricity in general, while the rest focuses on the telegraph." It went through many editions, with 1877 being the first. George Bartlett Prescott was well positioned to write such a book. He was a manager of telegraph offices from 1847-1858, then Superintendent of the American and in 1866 of the Western Union telegraph companies' lines, and in 1869 electrician of the Western Union telegraph company. He was also electrician of the International Ocean Telegraph Company from 1873 to 1880, and later travelled overseas to review the technologies being used there. He later rose to executive and board positions in several companies including the Bell telephone company of Philadelphia. He also had several related patents, and wrote numerous articles for the technical press as well as several books." --- Kuenzig Books