PRESENTATION COPIES OF FARADAY'S DISCOVERY OF LINES OF FORCE. FARADAY, MICHAEL. 1791-1867. 'Expe...

PRESENTATION COPIES OF FARADAY'S DISCOVERY OF LINES OF FORCE. FARADAY, MICHAEL. 1791-1867. 'Experimental Researches in Electricity (Eleventh [- Thirteenth] Series): On Induction [Continued...; Continued...].' OFFPRINT FROM: Philosophical Transactions. London: Richard Taylor, 1837-8. 3 papers in two volumes. 4to (284 x 220 mm). Engraved diagram in each volume. Later plain wrappers. Provenance: Michael Faraday (both copies, inscribed) to Sir Benjamin Collins Brodie (1783-1862, 'To Sir Benj C Brodie, from the author'); St. George's Hospital (stamp to title pages and verso of final leaf. FARADAY INTRODUCES 'LINES OF FORCE' AS A PHYSICAL CONSTRUCT - A REVOLUTION IN FARADAY'S ELECTROMAGNETIC THOUGHT, LEADING TO MAXWELL'S FIELD THEORY, presented as the eleventh through thirteenth series of Faraday's 'Experimental Researches in Electricity,' his defining series of papers published from 1831-1855 which set forth the concepts of field theory considered 'the starting point for the revolutionary theories of Clerk Maxwell... [and] laid the foundation of the modern electrical industry' (PMM 408). Faraday, the most important electro-magnetic experimentalist of the 19th-century, first discovered electro-magnetic induction in 1831, publishing the new findings as the first paper of his 'Experimental Researches' in 1832. However, the concept of 'lines of force' had remained in Faraday's notebooks as more of a philosophical tool than a physical reality. The 10th series of the 'Researches' was read and received in January, 1835, and this eleventh series read in November 1937, published January 1938. In the intervening 3 years, Faraday performed a series of successive electrical experiments, culminating in his conviction that the electrical action of the 'lines of force' curved around intervening objects. The force followed Coulumb's Law, with its strength inversely proportional to its distance between two objects; however, the lines of force were not just a philosophical framework, but active forces between two filling the space. These three papers make up the whole of Faraday's revolutionary 'On Induction.' Faraday stepped away from the laboratory in 1839, afflicted with headaches, confusion, giddiness, and memory loss, and retired into a quiet existence and limited study. He would return to the subject in the mid-1840s to further develop the theory and form the basis for Maxwell's equations representing a series of continuous fields, a change in our conception of reality called 'the most profound and the most fruitful that physics has experienced since Newton....' (Einstein, 1931). Benjamin Collins Brodie was a surgeon at St. George's Hospital from 1808 to 1840. '... he was a successful operator, distinguished by coolness and knowledge, a steady hand, and a quick eye; but the prevention of disease was in his opinion of greater significance than operative surgery, and his strength was diagnosis.' (ODNB 7:773-776). Presentation copies of this landmark work, the first serious treatment of lines of force, are rare. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing