Chemical Amusement

London: Thomas Boys, 1817. FIRST EDITION. Tables and wood engravings in the text. Original publisher’s boards (hinges worn, crown chipped), paper label on the spine. Some light foxing and dampstaining. Bookplate of Benjamin Flanders, one of the founding directors of the Stockton and Darlington Railway. Uncut. A good copy in original condition. First edition, a juvenile chemistry manual comprised of 103 experiments designed to entertain and educate. It was “one of the most popular expositions of elementary chemistry of the time, which did much to bring the study of the science to the attention of the general public” (Neville). Each entry provides step-by-step directions for changing the color of flames, making compounds form from liquids, creating invisible ink, making things glow in the dark, manipulating light and color, fulminating elements, engraving on glass, and much more. Many of the experiments involving silver show early progress towards photographic processes.

Accum (1769-1839), a German chemist, moved to London in 1793 as an engineer to the London Gas Company and librarian to the Royal Institution. Dismissed from the latter for alleged book thefts, he established his own laboratory and became one of the foremost chemists of the period. His treatise on adulteration of food and culinary poisons aroused the public concern and resulted in the Adulteration Act of 1860.

Duveen 2; Neville I:4.