"Mémoire ... De l'Action mutuelle de deux courans électriques

Paris: Crochard, 1820. First edition. Half-calf. Very Good. THE ORIGINS OF ELECTROMAGNETISM. AMPÈRE'S FIRST DISCUSSION OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ELECTRIC CURRENT-FLOW AND MAGNETISM. Ampère often worked by publishing his ideas chiefly in Annales de chimie et de physiques, at times as much as once a week. When he had further thoughts on the topic, he would publish revisions. The "first great memoir on electrodynamics", the present paper is the seed of what would become a series of papers "establishing the laws of forces acting between conductors carrying current" (DSB, p. 144; Dibner, Heralds, 62). In this - the first appearance of Ampère's discussion of electric current-flow as it relates to magnetism - Ampère effectively establishes a new field of science and paves the way for developments in electrodynamics.

In this volume (the original periodical publication), Ampère's discussion begins on pp. 59-76 and continues on pp. 170-218.

AMPÈRE, ANDRÉ MARIE. "Mémoire ... De l'Action mutuelle de deux courans électriques". IN: Annales de chimie et de physiques, vol. 15. Paris: Crochard, 1820. pp. 59-76, 170-218. Octavo, later three quarter calf over early boards. 448 pp., 5 full-page plates by Adam Sculp including one fold-out plate. Some toning to extreme edge of text, very occasional light spotting, otherwise fine.

References:

DSB: L. Pearce Williams, "Ampère, André-Marie", Dictionary of Scientific Biography, 16 vols. (New York: Scribner's, 1980), I: Pierre Abailard-L.S. Berg, pp. 139-147

Dibner, Bern, Heralds of Science (New York: Burndy Library and The Smithsonian Institute, 1980)

Norman, Jeremy M. and Diana H. Hook, The Haskell F. Norman Library of Science and Medicine (San Francisco: Jeremy Norman, 1991).