The General History of the Air...

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The first clear statement on the kinetic theory of gases. 1692, Rare First Edition. In contemporary calf, corners worn. Re-spined to style, gilt title to red calf label, blind tooling. Internally, title in double ruled border, [2], (iii-xii), 259 pp, [1] adverts, 48 parts (titles) last 2 in French & Latin, woodcut illustrations within text, contemporary ink names to tp (Robertson Morg.an & Geo. Bird), (signatures [4], a-a2, B-LL1), pencil notes & doodles to p83, 64,89 & 92, some spotting to eps, light offsetting throughout, contemporary ink ownership inscriptions to tp (Geo Bird; Robertson Morgan, leather book label to fpd (Michael Sharpe). Housed in a custom slipcase. (194*160 mm). (Wing B3981. ESTC R11260. Fulton 194). Posthumously published, it was seen through the press by John Locke, Boyle's friend, and contains some of Locke's own meteorological observations. The work is of considerable importance in the history of science - the views Boyle expressed here became the basis for the phlogiston theory of combustion, and it is the product of his life's work. His research on air also contributed to the development of the Boyle's Law, which describes the inversely proportional relationship between the pressure and volume of a gas at constant temperature.