Details
OERSTED, Hans Christian (1777-1851). Experimenta circa effectum conflictus electrici in acum magneticam. [Copenhagen:] Schultz Press [for the author, 1820].
4o (238 x 183 mm). Collation: s2. 2 leaves, paginated [1] 2-4. Dated at end 21 July 1820. (Light spotting, short tear along gutter.) 19th-century Danish marbled paper boards, manuscript title label on upper cover (minor wear); morocco-backed folding case.
FIRST EDITION, EXCEEDINGLY RARE, OF THE ANNOUNCEMENT OF OERSTED'S EPOCHAL DISCOVERY OF ELECTROMAGNETISM. The son of an apothecary, Oersted became an ardent Kantian in his student years. His interpretation of Kant closely resembled that of the German school of so-called Naturphilosophen, led by Frederick Schelling, who envisioned nature as a unity governed by differentiation and the conflict of the two opposing forces of attraction and repulsion. This monistic view of natural phenomena, coupled with the belief that the human mind imposes patterns on perception that mirror the laws of science, or that "human reason corresponds to Divine Reason" (DSB), formed the metaphysical basis for Oersted's scientific investigations. His formative years as a philosopher and scientist took place in a scientific world that had been revolutionized by the discovery of the voltaic pile (1800) and the subsequent acceptance of the chemical role of electricity. In his Ansicht der chemischen Naturgesetze (1812, a French translation published the following year), Oersted had attempted to impose a unitary theoretical framework on chemistry, by showing that all known chemical changes were the result of the interaction of the two basic elemental forces, the Kantian Grundkrfte, of attraction and repulsion, manifested chemically as combustibles and combusters. Although this work was dismissed by his contemporaries, it was significant for the history of science, as Oersted also discussed the convertibility of forces, including the possibility of the conversion of electricity into magnetism. "It is important to stress that electromagnetism was not an effect to be expected according to the orthodox, corpuscular theories of the day... [According to Coulumb's widely accepted theories, which held that] electricity and magnetism were two entirely distinct species of matter... the conversion of one into the other was, literally, unthinkable... For Oersted the situation was quite different. The Kantian doctrine of Grundkrfte led directly to the idea of conversion of forces. All that was necessary was to discover the conditions under which such conversions took place" (DSB). Although Oersted's speculations concerning these conditions were misguided, the fact was that by 1812 "he had already predicted the existence of the electromagnetic effect" (op. cit.). Due to his misconception of the requisite conditions for the production of an electromagnetic effect, as well as to his heavy teaching schedule (as Director of the Polytechnic Institute in Copenhagen), eight years passed before Oersted succeeded in demonstrating the existence of electromagnetism. "It was after lecturing to students in his own rooms in the Noerragade, Copenhagen, in 1819 or 1820 that he invited a few of them to stay on to witness an experiment--the possible deflection of a compass-needle by an adjacent electric current. The experiment was successful, but only just; and Oersted repeated it many times before venturing on 21 July to proclaim the identity of magnetism and electricity in this four-page paper entitled 'Experiments relative to the Effect of the Contiguity of Electricity to a Magnetic Needle'" (PMM). Oersted's paper, which was reprinted within the year in France, England, Germany, Italy and Denmark, "opened a new epoch in the history of physics" (DSB). Its importance cannot be overestimated, as it paved the way for the creation of the science of electrodynamics by Ampre and for Faraday's demonstration of the unity of all forms of electricity.
Oersted had his pamphlet privately printed, no doubt in a very small number, in order to distribute it to colleagues and to the principal European scientific journals. Only a handful of copies are recorded, all in institutional collections. SINCE DR. NORMAN'S ACQUISITION OF THE PRESENT COPY IN THE 1960'S, NO OTHER COPIES OF THIS CRUCIALLY IMPORTANT PAPER APPEAR TO HAVE COME ON THE MARKET.
Dibner Heralds of Science 61; Grolier/Horblit 3b; PMM 282; Wheeler Gift Catalogue 773; Norman 1606.
4
FIRST EDITION, EXCEEDINGLY RARE, OF THE ANNOUNCEMENT OF OERSTED'S EPOCHAL DISCOVERY OF ELECTROMAGNETISM. The son of an apothecary, Oersted became an ardent Kantian in his student years. His interpretation of Kant closely resembled that of the German school of so-called Naturphilosophen, led by Frederick Schelling, who envisioned nature as a unity governed by differentiation and the conflict of the two opposing forces of attraction and repulsion. This monistic view of natural phenomena, coupled with the belief that the human mind imposes patterns on perception that mirror the laws of science, or that "human reason corresponds to Divine Reason" (DSB), formed the metaphysical basis for Oersted's scientific investigations. His formative years as a philosopher and scientist took place in a scientific world that had been revolutionized by the discovery of the voltaic pile (1800) and the subsequent acceptance of the chemical role of electricity. In his Ansicht der chemischen Naturgesetze (1812, a French translation published the following year), Oersted had attempted to impose a unitary theoretical framework on chemistry, by showing that all known chemical changes were the result of the interaction of the two basic elemental forces, the Kantian Grundkrfte, of attraction and repulsion, manifested chemically as combustibles and combusters. Although this work was dismissed by his contemporaries, it was significant for the history of science, as Oersted also discussed the convertibility of forces, including the possibility of the conversion of electricity into magnetism. "It is important to stress that electromagnetism was not an effect to be expected according to the orthodox, corpuscular theories of the day... [According to Coulumb's widely accepted theories, which held that] electricity and magnetism were two entirely distinct species of matter... the conversion of one into the other was, literally, unthinkable... For Oersted the situation was quite different. The Kantian doctrine of Grundkrfte led directly to the idea of conversion of forces. All that was necessary was to discover the conditions under which such conversions took place" (DSB). Although Oersted's speculations concerning these conditions were misguided, the fact was that by 1812 "he had already predicted the existence of the electromagnetic effect" (op. cit.). Due to his misconception of the requisite conditions for the production of an electromagnetic effect, as well as to his heavy teaching schedule (as Director of the Polytechnic Institute in Copenhagen), eight years passed before Oersted succeeded in demonstrating the existence of electromagnetism. "It was after lecturing to students in his own rooms in the Noerragade, Copenhagen, in 1819 or 1820 that he invited a few of them to stay on to witness an experiment--the possible deflection of a compass-needle by an adjacent electric current. The experiment was successful, but only just; and Oersted repeated it many times before venturing on 21 July to proclaim the identity of magnetism and electricity in this four-page paper entitled 'Experiments relative to the Effect of the Contiguity of Electricity to a Magnetic Needle'" (PMM). Oersted's paper, which was reprinted within the year in France, England, Germany, Italy and Denmark, "opened a new epoch in the history of physics" (DSB). Its importance cannot be overestimated, as it paved the way for the creation of the science of electrodynamics by Ampre and for Faraday's demonstration of the unity of all forms of electricity.
Oersted had his pamphlet privately printed, no doubt in a very small number, in order to distribute it to colleagues and to the principal European scientific journals. Only a handful of copies are recorded, all in institutional collections. SINCE DR. NORMAN'S ACQUISITION OF THE PRESENT COPY IN THE 1960'S, NO OTHER COPIES OF THIS CRUCIALLY IMPORTANT PAPER APPEAR TO HAVE COME ON THE MARKET.
Dibner Heralds of Science 61; Grolier/Horblit 3b; PMM 282; Wheeler Gift Catalogue 773; Norman 1606.