FRANKLIN (Benjamin). Experiments and observations on electri - Lot 76

FRANKLIN (Benjamin). Experiments and observations on electricity made at Philadelphia in America. À Paris, chez Durand, 1756. 2 volumes small in-8, (6 including the second blank)-28-xc-(12)-245-(one blank) + (2 including the second blank)-349-(1) pp, garnet morocco, smooth spine cloisonné and fleuronné with brown title and tomaison pieces, triple gilt fillet framing the boards with corner fleurons and gilt coat of arms in the center, filleted edges, inner gilt roulette, edges gilt over marbling; bindings with discreet restorations, snag to the spine pieces of the first volume, discreet snag and wormhole to the spine of volume II (period binding). FIRST COMPLETE EDITION, IN PART ORIGINAL, OF THE FRENCH TRANSLATION, edited by Thomas-François Dalibard. Benjamin Franklin wrote a series of letters on the subject of electricity to naturalist Peter Collinson of London's Royal Society, staggered from 1747 to 1753. His correspondent delivered them for publication in London in installments from 1751 to 1754. Communicated to Buffon, the latter suggested a translation, which was entrusted to physicist and naturalist Thomas-François Dalibard, who went so far as to conduct Benjamin Franklin's experiments himself (it was he who suggested replacing the kite with a piece of metal to attract lightning). He published a translation of the first eight letters in 1752, along with an "Abridged History of Electricity" inspired in part by the one compiled by Jean-Baptiste de Secondat (son of Montesquieu) in his Observations de physique et d'histoire naturelle (1750), and in 1756 published the present expanded edition of Benjamin Franklin's last five letters. 2 copper-engraved folding plates hors texte. "FRANKLIN'S MOST IMPORTANT SCIENTIFIC PUBLICATION" (Norman, vol. I, p. 299, for an English edition). In it, the American philosopher proposes a new concept of electricity, described as a fluid present in all bodies, which does not disappear but passes from one body to another, which can therefore be in deficit (negatively charged) or in surplus (positively charged). The supplement contains a report on the kite experiment and a demonstration that lightning is an electrical phenomenon. EXEMPLAIRE AUX ARMES DU PRINCE DE CONTI, PERE DU DEDICATAIRE DE LA TRADUCTION (iron close to no. 7 of OHR plate no. 2645). Louis-François de Bourbon, Prince de Conti (1717-1776) was an undisciplined free spirit: sent to the army as a young man, he distinguished himself in Germany and Italy as much for his military qualities as for his indocility, and had to face the hostility of many enemies at Court, including Madame de Pompadour. Retired in 1757, he devoted himself to letters, the arts and music: a notorious atheist, he lived in a society of freethinkers, took in Rousseau on several occasions, and occasionally protected Beaumarchais, Diderot and the Abbé Prévost. He was married at an early age to one of the Regent's daughters, with whom he had a child, the Comte de la Marche Louis-François-Joseph, to whom the present translation is dedicated.