DALTON, John. Four papers: (1) Versuche über Wärme Kälte, die bei mechanischer Verdichtung und Verdünnung der Luft entstehen. (2) Ueber die Kraft der Flüssigkeiten, Wärme zu leiten, in Beziehung auf des Grafen von Rumford siebenten Essay. (3) Ueber den absoluten Nullpunkt der Wärme und verwandte Betrachtungen. (4) Versuche über die Ausdehnung des Wasser's durch Wärme. All in Annalen der Physik, Series I, vol 14, (viii), 512pp, 5 plates (the last of which is provided in facsimile). Halle, Rengerschen Buchhandlung, 1803. The volume is bound in black half-cloth and very dark green/black marbled boards.

Provenance exlibris (a) Provinzial Gewebbschele zu Aachen, then (b) Deutsche Akademie der Luftfahrtforschung, and then (c) Wright Field Library (Dayton, Ohio), and finally (d) the Library of Congress. There are ownership rubber stamps on text block page edge at top and bottom, a stamped gilt title on the bottom of the spine, and two scant stamps on the contents page, and that's it. Very nice, tight, fresh copy. 

Each section (stuck 5-8) is offered with their original wrappers bound in (save section 8 which lacks the rear wrapper). The original wrappers for the AdP are uncommon. $750

Four early and significant papers by Dalton (their first appearance in German) occupying pp 101-11, then pp 184-198, then pp 287-292, an then lastly pp 293-96.

"Three papers that Dalton read to the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society in 1799 and 1800 (in which year he became the Society's secretary) show how much the question of water vapor continued to exercise him. In the first paper he discusses the balance in nature between rain, dew, river-water runoff, and evaporation. In the course of this discussion, he provided the earliest definition of the dew point. Then followed two competent, but more pedestrian, papers on heat, in which his firm belief in a fluid of heat is well-displayed and his complete acceptance of the particular caloric theory of William Irvine an Adair Crawford is apparent.  The really dramatic development came in the summer of 1801. By 14 September, Dalton was confident enough in his ideas to write to William Nicholson’s recently established monthly Journal of Natural Philosophy, Chemistry and the Arts. It showed no hesitation in publishing his “New Theory of the Constitution of Mixed Aeriform Fluids, and Particularly of the Atmosphere.”--Dictionary of Scientific Biography online.