autograph manuscript notebook (3 Ergebnisse)

Square 8vo (20.5 x 16.5 cm); annotated neatly in ink, 128 leaves (approx.), one additional folded page laid in, light spotting; full reverse calf, boards tooled in blind, worn with some areas of surface loss, some loss to head and foot of spine, corners exposed. An 18th century arithmetic manuscript notebook, previously belonging to a member of the Leycester family of Toft Hall.

Zustand: Very good. First Edition. Original manuscript notebook (with related correspondence) from prolific American inventor George R. Carey, including original sketches for his "Selenium Electrical Camera," one of the earliest conceptions of what would become television. Live television was an entertainment perfectly suited to the nineteenth-century, so much so that the era's failure to fully develop it requires some explanation. By the late 1870s, Victorians had the camera, the telescope, the telegraph, the telephone, the phonograph, and the reasonable expectation of developing some kind of telectroscope (or telephonoscope, or electroscope) by the end of the century. As scholar Iwan Rhys Morus described the invention: "This was a machine which would do to human eyes what the telephone had already done to the voice." Bostonian surveyor George Carey was one of the first inventors (and the first American) to propose such a machine, patenting a series of selenium-based image-transmitters, influential precursor to modern broadcast television. This notebook and correspondence document his refinement of the selenium camera and numerous related devices, all dated and with witness signatures, and his later correspondence with SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, which in 1880 published Carey's detailed description of the invention in the landmark article titled "Seeing by Electricity." Describing this article in his HISTORY OF TELEVISION, Albert Abramson writes: "What is of importance was that [Carey] conceived of a visual transmitter as a 'camera'" (11). Several similar, related collections of Carey and his invention have come to market in the last twenty years, including at the legendary "Origins of Cyberspace" sale at Christie's in 2005 ($19,200), and another at Bonham's in 2014 ($12,500). A fascinating archive, worthy of further study, and a milestone in the prehistory of modern transmission and broadcast from this "early pioneer of the television art" (Shiers 12). 5'' x 3.25''. Original memo pad, containing notes and sketches (in both pencil and pen) by Carey to recto and verso of all leaves (including wrappers). [74] pages. With: 3 postal cards, 2 registered letter receipts, and envelope of correspondence from The Scientific American. With 6'' x 5.5'' off-print of selenium camera illustration labeled Plate 2.

Raulin, Jules (1836-96). Champ d'expériences. Manuscript notebook. [130]pp., with diagrams and charts. N.p., 1890-93. 214 x 172 mm. Original embossed boards, cloth backstrip, some wear at spine and edges, a few leaves loose. Minor fraying at edges but very good. Scientific notebook written by plant physiologist Jules Raulin, who studied under Pasteur at the École Normale Supérieur and served as Pasteur's first laboratory assistant at the school. Raulin collaborated with Pasteur on the latter's investigations of fermentation, oxidation and silkworm disease; he also pursued his own research on the chemical role of minerals in plant nutrition, which led to important advances in agriculture. In 1876 Raulin was appointed professor of chemistry at the Faculté des Sciences in Lyon, and in 1883 he founded the École de Chimie Industrielle (School of Industrial Chemistry), where he spent most of his research time on agronomy and silk production. He was the first to identify the role of zinc in plant nutrition, and his experimental studies of the mold species Aspergillus niger led to the development of the nutritive medium known as Raulin's fluid. The present notebook contains extensive notes and diagrams detailing Raulin's agricultural researches in the early 1890s, including information on soil chemistry, fertilizers, pest control, etc. At the end of the notebook are several pages devoted to silkworm culture. Dictionary of Scientific Biography. .