Together 11 vol[.]; the
Spectacle has 8 vol. in 9, the other work 2 vol[.], 12mo. No copies of the editions assigned to the Jefferson Collection by the Library
of Congress catalogues after 1815 have been located for collation.
Barbier IV, col. 557.
These editions not in Quérard.
The eleven volumes were purchased by Jefferson from
P. & C. Roche,
reliés, $
20.00, and sent from Philadelphia to Washington on March 6, 1806.
Noel Antoine Pluche, abbé, 1688-1761, French Jansenist writer, was Directeur of the College at Laon. The first edition of the
Spectacle appeared in 1732 and the years following.
[630]
4
Franklin on Electricity.
4
to.
1815 Catalogue, page 29, unnumbered, [Franklin on electricity, 4to] in his works.
1831 Catalogue, page 71. no. J. 50; Franklin, Benjamin: Experiments and Observations on Electricity, with Letters and Papers
on Philosophical Subjects, 4to; London, 1774.
FRANKLIN,
Benjamin.
Experiments and observations on electricity, made at Philadelphia in America. By Benjamin Franklin, L.L.D. and F.R.S. . . . To which are added, Letters and Papers on philosophical subjects . . . The
Fifth Edition.
London: Printed for
F. Newbery.
M.DCC.LXXIV. [1774.]
QC516 .F85
Square 8vo. in fours. 269 leaves; engraved frontispiece, full page and folded plates, illustrations in the text.
Sabin 25506.
Stevens 77.
This edition not in Ford.
Welsh, page 223 can only cite from an F. Newbery list of 1775.
Jefferson’s manuscript catalogue and the later Library of Congress catalogues call for this separate edition of this book. The 1815 catalogue omits the separate
edition, which may not have been sold to Congress.
In his refutation of the abbé Raynal’s remarks, Jefferson in the
Notes on Virginia
mentions that
In physics we have produced a Franklin, than whom no one of the present age has made more important discoveries, nor has enriched
philosophy with more, or more ingenious solutions of the phenomena of nature.
The first edition was printed in London in 1751.
[631]
5
Franklin’s Philosophical works.
4
to.
Franklin’s works, electrical, physical & meteorological.
4
to.
1815 Catalogue, page 29, unnumbered, [Franklin’s works electrical, physical and meteorological, 4to] in his works.
[Franklin on electricity, 4to] in his works. See chapter 44.
6
Description of Nairne’s electrical machine.
8
vo.
1815 Catalogue, page 29. no. 7, as above.
NAIRNE,
Edward.
The Description and Use of Nairne’s Patent Electrical Machine; with the Addition of some Philosophical Experiments and Medical Observations.
London: Printed for
Nairne and Blunt,
1783.
First Edition. 8vo. 34 leaves: A-H
4, I
2, 5 folded engraved plates, errata slip pasted down on the back of the title. The last three leaves contain the
Prices of some of the Mathematical, Optical, and Philosophical Instruments made and sold by Nairne and Blunt . . .
Surgeon General’s Library Catalogue I, ix, 623.
Ronalds 361.
Jefferson was introduced to Nairne as an instrument maker by Benjamin Franklin in Paris in 1786, and in December of that year,
in a letter to Benjamin Vaughan, requested the latter to give an order to Nairne for certain instruments and a set of magnets to be made
for him as Dr. Franklin described his to have been.
Edward Nairne, 1726-1806, English electrician. His electrical machine, still known as
Nairne’s electrical machine, was made on plans supplied by Dr. Priestley.
[632]
