Books offered by JF Ptak Science Books LLC

 Bell,  Alexander Graham.  The Photophone: 3 articles from the journal Nature, 1880. 

London:  1880-1881.  Nature: Nov 4 & 18, 1880; February 10, 1881  Original printed wrappers.  Fine condition. 

We offer the following three issues of Nature covering the initial announcenments of Bell's future-provoking invention of the PHOTOPHONE: (1) Bell's Photophone, pp 15-19, with illustrations of the apparatus, running approximately 3000 words. (2) Shelford Bidwell, "Bell's Photophone", in 18 November 1880, pp 58-9, approximately 1750 words. (3) "Photophone Experiments", in 10 February 1881, page 354, approximately 400 words, two illustrations. These are among the earliest articles on Bell's fantastic invention utilizing his discovery of the photoacoustic effect--basically, transmitting wireless telephone conversations, a feat that would not be utilized until the last two decades of the 10th century. /// We offer the three issues in their original wrappers, cleanly removed from a larger bound volume with only trace elements of the removal visible at their spines. Nice copies. $300

Bell believed that the photophone--developed most fully in his Volta Street lab, which was just three blocks away from where my store stood for nine years--as a machine that transmitted speech on light rays, was by far his most important invention.

Electro-LUXurious 1: ELectrical Advertising Signs

JF Ptak Science Books   Quick Post

 This is the first in a new series of posts on the history of the invention of early applications of electricity to, well, whatever.  This first example, far from being the first patent granted for an electrical apparatus, is interesting because of how relatively modern its outcome looks--if we defined "modern" at about 1975.  Digital displays have replaced most signage whose basis was formed in this patent, though various palm readers, "loose" gold buyers and tent revivalists continue to use the things.  But for the times in which machines like this were new commodities, they were sensational--not only did they actually utilize electricity (many things advertised during this period were named "Electric _____  or  _____" but had absolutely nothing to do with the application of a current--they were simply using the name in a fad for brand recogniion, much like Atomic Bakery and Nuclear Toasties did) seeing the electrically-lighted words must've felt a little like the exhilaration in seeing your first television.  [An earlier post on this blog on very early electrical signs appears here.]

 

The patent reads (below):