Priestly, J. History and present state of electricity with original experiments

The second edition, corrected and enlarged. London, printed for J. Dodsley a.o., 1769, (4), (4),XXXII,712,III,(9) p. and letterpress errata slip at the end, w. 8 fold. engr. plates and a chart. Cont. calf, gilt spine w. mor. letterpiece, 4to. Lacks frontisp., offsetting from turn-ins at the beginning and end and offsetting from plates on opposite textp. Occas foxing, rebacked w. use of the orig. backstrip.

Comp. DSB XI, 139/147: "He began his scientific career, with the writing of his 'History (...)', for which he enlisted the support of B. Franklin, J. Canton, R. Price and W. Watson. (The work) was conceived as a methodized account of previous discoveries and an assessment of contemporary electrical studies to encourage further work on the subject (...) as a chronical of near contemporary and contemporary electrical researches (...) it was very successful. During his lifetime the work went through five English editions, and was translated into Dutch, French and German." Wheeler I, 453 (4th ed.) "(...) it is a storehouse of information (...)".; Mottelay 227: "Perhaps the most important of (his) discoveries was that charcoal is a conductor of electricity (...)". This edition contains numerous additions, chiefly from the works of German authors, and an additional plate, representing a new type of electrical machine. He anticipated H. Cavendish and C.A. Coulomb that the law of electrical attraction is that of the inverse square, deducing this from an experiment suggested by Franklin. This 2nd edition contains 3 new chapters, "Experiments in which rings, consisting of all the prismatic colours, were made by electrical explosions, on the surface of metals; (containing the discovery of 'Priestley's rings'). "Experiments on the lateral force of electrical explosions" (showing the oscillatory nature of electric discharge) and 'Various experiments on the force of electrical explosions.'