JF Ptak
I've just written on the blog side here of the bookstore a bit on the naming of clouds--a very late addition to scientific classification--but also not providing illustrations of them. Luke Howard first published on his cloud classifications in his paper "On the Modifications of Clouds and on the Principles of their Production Suspension and Destruction being the Substance of an Essay read before the Askesian Society in the Session 1802-3" (full text here), and his "modifications" (which at the time meant "classifications") were instantly and universally adopted.
It is interesting to note that this very important work wasn't really discussed in the German language for another dozen years, appearing in the Annalen der Physik (series I volume 51) in 1815. It is also interesting to see that--unlike the English original--there are no illustrations, which in some sense provide a scent of defeat in trying to display these groundbreaking classification ideas.
And so we offer the entire volume for the second half of 1815, 442pp, with the Howard material occupying teh first 72 pages. Nice copy, bound in half-cloth and marbled boards. $250.00
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