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Traité des Parafoudres et des Paragrêles en Cordes de Paille, précédé d'une Météorologie électrique, présentée sous un nouveau Jour, et terminé par l'Analyse de la Bouteille de Leyde by LAPOSTOLLE, Alexandre Ferdinand Léonce

by LAPOSTOLLE, Alexandre Ferdinand Léonce

Traité des Parafoudres et des Paragrêles en Cordes de Paille, précédé d'une Météorologie électrique, présentée sous un nouveau Jour, et terminé par l'Analyse de la Bouteille de Leyde by LAPOSTOLLE, Alexandre Ferdinand Léonce

Traité des Parafoudres et des Paragrêles en Cordes de Paille, précédé d'une Météorologie électrique, présentée sous un nouveau Jour, et terminé par l'Analyse de la Bouteille de Leyde

by LAPOSTOLLE, Alexandre Ferdinand Léonce

  • Used
One long folding lithographed plate & one folding printed table. 2 p.l., v, [3] (including the leaf of "explication de la planche"), 320 pp., one leaf of errata. 8vo, cont. red morocco, sides gilt, with arms in gilt of Francis I, the first Emperor of Austria, on each cover, flat spine gilt, a.e.g. Amiens: Caron-Vitet, 1820. First edition and a lovely copy from the library of Francis I (1768-1835), the final Holy Roman Emperor and the first Emperor of Austria, with his arms in gilt on the covers. Lapostolle was an apothecary at Amiens and studied under Cadet de Vaux. Taking Franklin's researches as his starting point, he gives first a general survey of the current state of electrical science, and then a description of his straw-rope lightning rods, which could be used both on buildings and adapted for use in fields to prevent the destruction of crops by hailstorms. This fascinating work contains one of the stranger illustrations in the history of early electrical books: it is a long lithographed plate depicting the construction of the rods and a view of a village and surrounding fields equipped with them. It very much resembles a modern wind farm. A very fine and handsome copy with half-title. With the copyright notice on verso of title signed by the author. Bookplates of Fernand J. Heitz and Jean-Claude de Rocha Carneiro. ❧ Wheeler Gift Cat. 771.