‎PRIESTLEY (J.)‎
‎Expériences et observations sur différentes espèces d'air - Ouvrage traduiut l'anglais par M. Gibelin -- PREMIERE EDITION FRANCAISE -- 3 VOLUMES (Complete set) -- BEL EXEMPLAIRE‎

‎P., Nyon, 1777, 3 VOLUMES in 12 reliés en plein veau moucheté, dos ornés defers dorés, tranches rouges (reliures de l'époque), (petit accroc sans gravité à une coiffe), T.1 : 36pp., 434pp., (1), 2 planches dépliantes, T.2 : (2), 62pp., 297pp., 1 planche dépliante, T.3 : (2), 6pp., 352pp., 5 planches dépliantes‎

Reference : 4321

‎---- PREMIERE EDITION FRANCAISE --- BEL EXEMPLAIRE ---- "C'est en 1772 que Priestley publia ses premières observations sur différentes espèces d'air. Recueillant les gaz sur la cuve à mercure (1773) il put isoler un grand nombre d'entre eux... Il découvrit aussi l'hydrogène sulfuré, l'oxyde azotique, l'éthylène... Il étudia le gaz carbonique, découvrit la respiration des végétaux. Sa principale découverte fut celle de l'oxygène..." ---- "Rare. According to Hoefer "cette traduction fut faite en quelque sorte sous les yeux de l'auteur". It also contains a reprint of a letter to the translator from Priestley in which he says : "Je viens de m'assurer que l'air fixe est une modification de l'acide nitreux. The nature of nitrogen as an element was not recognised until Lavoisier... Dr. Priestley's most important scientific publication, containing accounts of his discoveries of nitric oxide, nitrous oxide (laughing gas, the anaesthetic properties of which were only recognised 28 years later by Sir Humphry Davy), sulphurous acid, carbon dioxide, hydrochloric acid, silicon tetrafluoride, and ammonia gas, while he was the first to collect gases over mercury in his pneumatic trough. It contains moreover his important investigations on the absorption of gases by liquids, and describes his preparation of pure nitrogen ('phlogisticated air') ; but it is most important for his discovery of oxigen ('dephlogisticated air'), a discovery also made, independently of Priestley, by Scheele, and also claimed by Lavoisier...". (Sotheran supp. 2 Tome 1 N° 11805 & 11793) ---- "Jacques Gibelin's approved translation of the three volumes of priestley's Experiments and observations on different kinds of Air. The translator has added letters from Priestley in vols I and III and a translation of priestley's paper read at the Royal Society Jan. 25, 1776, Observations on respiration in vol. II. The essay presented to the Academie of Sciences by the Duc De Chaulnes on 15 May 1776, Description d'un appareil nouveau (for preparation and collection of gases) is reprinted in vol. III with three plates. The editor has added a few notes, divided a few paragraphs differently and corrected the errata. The list of subscribers in vol. II is interesting, Lavoisier asked for 8 sets". (Cole N° 1067) ---- DSB XI pp. 139/147 - Partington III pp. 236/301**4321/ARM1A‎