2 volumes in one, 8vo. Half-title to Vol. I only, errata slip in Vol. I; 20 plates, numerous in-text diagrams. (Lacking half-title and publisher’s advertisements Vol. II., some light spotting to a few leaves.) Blue calf prize binding gilt, upper cover with gilt crest and motto of Blackheath Proprietary School (spine slightly sunned, some very light wear). Provenance: Jonathan Darley (signatures dated 1874). 

 

FIRST EDITION of Maxwell’s most comprehensive work, presenting ideas which would become essential to the development of modern physics. He viewed electricity not just as another branch of physics but “as an aid to the interpretation of nature," and saw the study of electromagnetism "as a means of promoting the progress of science" (Preface, p. vii). Maxwell advanced “the significant hypothesis that light and electricity are the same in their ultimate nature” (Grolier/Horblit). “He began the investigation of moving frames of reference, which in Einstein’s hands were to revolutionize physics; gave proofs of the existence of electromagnetic waves that paved the way for Hertz’s discovery of radio waves; worked out connections between the electrical and optical qualities of bodies that would lead to modern solid-state physics; and applied Tait’s quaternion formulae to the field of equations, out of which Heaviside and Gibbs would develop vector analysis" (Norman 1466). Grolier/Horblit 72; PMM 355.