Die Entdeckung der Elektrodynamik

André Marie Ampère
Mémoires sur l'action mutuelle de deux courans électriques .. [Paris, Impr. de Feugeray 1821].

• Erste Ausgabe
• Erster Sonderdruck
• Erste Schrift über die Natur des elektrischen Stroms
• Sehr selten

Die von Ampère hier beschriebenen Experimente lieferten erstmals empirische Beweise für seine neue Theorie des Magnetismus als Elektrizität in Bewegung. "He demonstrated for the first time that two parallel conductors, carrying currents traveling in the same direction, attract each other; conversely, if the currents are traveling in opposite directions, they repel each other" (Sparrow).
"The first of Ampère's papers on the relationship between electric current-flow and magnetism, which established the new science of electrodynamics. Ampere was present at the Academie des Sciences on 11 September 1820, when Francois Arago performed for the first time in France Hans Christian Oersted's experiment demonstrating the magnetic effects of current-carrying wires upon magnestized needles. Deeply impressed with Oersted's discovery, Ampère immediately concluded that magnetism was electricity in motion, an intuitive leap which he sought to confirm by experiment" (Norman).
Die Editionsgeschichte von Ampères Schriften ist einigermaßen komplex, da er Ergänzungen und Überarbeitungen in mehreren Nachdrucken aufeinander folgen ließ. "Since he could not change the original, he would add the revisions to the separately published reprints of the paper and even modify the revised versions later if he felt it necessary: some 'reprints' of Ampere's articles exist in as many as five different versions. The present work, revised considerably from its first appearance in the Annales de chimie et de physique , is an example of this process" (Norman).
Hier der erste Sonderdruck aus Annales de chimie et de physique , vol. 15 (Paris 1820).

EINBAND: Zeitgenössische Interimsbroschur. 22 : 14,5 cm. - ILLUSTRATION: Mit 5 gefalteten Kupfertafeln. - KOLLATION: 68 S. - ZUSTAND: Erste 10 Bll. am Kopfsteg mit 2 vertikal verlaufenden Randschäden (bis 3 cm, tls. Buchstabenverlust), letzte Lage gelöst. Sonst gutes, unbeschnittenes und breitrandiges Exemplar. - PROVENIENZ: Seit über fünfzig Jahren in Berliner Privatbesitz.

LITERATUR: Sparrow 8. - Dibner 62. - Norman 43. - Norman Coll. 892.

First edition, first offprint issue, of the first paper on the nature of electric current by the founder of electrodynamics. With 5 folding copperplates. Interim wrappers. 68 pp. - First 10 leaves with 2 marginal damages at head (loss of letters), last quire detached, else good and uncut copy with wide margin. _ Privately owned in Berlin for over fifty years.(R)