The Longitude at the Eve of the Third...

Geneva, Hotel Des Bergues, Oct 23, 1999

LOT 3

SULLY Henry.Description abrégée d'une Horloge d'une nouvelle invention, pour la juste mesure du temps en mer - Avec le jugement de l'Académie Royale des Sciences sur cette invention et une Dissertation sur la nature des tentatives pour la Découverte des Longitudes dans la Navigation, & sur l'usage des Horloges, pour la mesure du Temps en Mer.

CHF 12,000 - 14,000

Paris, janvier 1726In 4°, 294 pp + errata and folding plates.Full calf, ribbed back with inlaid remaining of the original binding.


LOADING IMAGES
Click to full view
Image

Notes

Including:- Description d'une Horloge d'une nouvelle invention pour mesurer le temps en Mer. First part printed in Paris, janvier 1726. Second part printed in Bordeaux, décembre 1726.- Premier Mémoire of 17 April 1723, addressed to the Académie, when showing them Pendule à Levier "A". p. 49.- Second Mémoire of 8 January 1724, addressed to the Académie, when showing them Pendule à Levier "B". p. 63.- Sully's second, third and fourth letters to Graham, dated respectively 29 August 1724 (p. 78), 21 October 1724 (p. 90) and 5 November 1725 (p. 92).- Graham's first and second letters to Sully, dated respectively: 21 July 1724, (p. 74) and 12 October 1724 (p. 87).The earlier of these two letters is a reply to Sully' first letter dated 29 June 1724, now in the Clockmakers Library in London, No. 990 in their Catalogue of Manuscripts.Although the pendule à levier "A" is now in the Clockmaker's Company's Museum in London, it cannot, as has been believed and stated, have been sent to Graham by Sully on 29 June 1724. Most careful reading of Graham's correspondence with Sully makes plain that Graham, by the time of his second letter to Sully, on 12 October 1724, had yet to see any pendule à levier.Indeed, Sully's fourth letter to Graham, dated 5 November 1725, records his thwarted intention of sending three pendules à levier to Graham. Presumably they would have been "A", "B" and "C".How "A" came eventually to England is not at present clear.