ALDINI, Giovanni. Saggio di osservazioni sui mezzi atti a migliorare la costruzione e l'illuminazione dei fari, con appendice sull'illuminazione dei fari col gas ... Milan, dall'Imperiale Regia Stamperia, 1823
8vo, pp. viii, 208, [2], with 7 (6 folding) engraved plates, with contemporary colour, of various light house constructions and their technical apparatus for illumination, bound in contemporary half calf and red boards, modest gilt spine with green label.
First edition of this important treatise on the building and operation of lighthouses, with a special emphasize on the new method of illumination by gas, rather than coal or wood fire or oil. Aldini compared different existing lighthouse designs, including a discussion of the Bell Rock Lighthouse off the coast of England. The physicist Giovanni Aldini was the nephew of Luigi Galvani and had come to prominence as an ardent defender of his uncle's discovery of 'animal electricity'. He published widely on this topic and was appointed professor of physics at the University of Bologna in 1794 (cf. DSB, vol. I, p. 107).
£1200
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