Faraday's Diary.

an unusually attractive set

First edition and a lovely set complete with the index, uncommon with the jackets in such nice condition.

'Faraday was both one of the greatest physicists of the nineteenth century and one of the finest experimenters of all time. His principal contributions were made in advancing our knowledge of the nature and potentialities of electricity' (Printing and the Mind of Man 308). The first of his great discoveries was his demonstration, in 1821, that current-carrying wires and magnetic poles would rotate around each other - the principle of the electric motor. He then sought the opposite effect, discovering in 1831 that current flowed through wires when they rotated around a magentic pole - the principle of the dynamo and the transformer. 'Faraday himself however was interested in these experiments only as a stage in his investigation of the phenomena of electromagnetism, by which he finally succeeded in demonstrating the identity of all forms of electricity, however produced... Finally he enunciated his theory of "lines" or "tubes" of magnetic force which was the starting point for the revolutionary theories of Clerk Maxwell and later of Einstein' (Printing and the Mind of Man 308).

First edition; 8 volumes, 8vo; portrait frontispiece in volume I and 15 other plates with tissue guards, diagrams within the text, contents fresh; original blue cloth, titles to spines and top edges gilt, some corners bumped, spines of volumes III and VII rolled, an excellent, fresh set in the very lightly rubbed jackets with occasional small chips and short splits.