Rare Books and First Editions: Michael Faraday, Electric Conduction and the Nature of Matter

Michael Faraday (1791-1867)

"A Speculation Touching Electric Conduction and the Nature of Matter"

First printing, 1844

Michael Faraday

"The view now stated of the constitution of matter would seem to involve necessarily the conclusion that matter fills all space, or, at least, all space to which gravitation extends (including the sun and its system); for gravitation is a property of matter dependent on a certain force and it is this force which constitutes the matter. In that view matter is not merely mutually penetrable, but each atom extends, so to say, throughout the whole of the solar system, yet always retains it own centre of force." -page 143

Michael Faraday, "A speculation touching electric conduction and the nature of matter"

"A Speculation Touching Electric Conduction and the Nature of Matter" represents the first account of Faraday's fundamental ideas on the nature of matter. Specifically, Faraday explores the nature of space between the constituent particles of matter and explains the properties of matter in terms of point centers surrounded by forces. Faraday, in essence, redefines the 'atom'; his ideas can be interpreted as providing a foretaste of particle-wave duality as developed in the following century. (DSB; Davis, Science in the Making)

FARADAY, Michael. "A speculation touching electric conduction and the nature of matter," pp. 136-144 in The London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Philosophical Magazine, Volume XXIV, No. 157, February 1844. London: Richard and John E. Taylor, 1844. Octavo, original blue printed wrappers, pages uncut.

First printing of the first account of Faraday's fundamental ideas on the nature of matter, anticipating one of the central problems of twentieth-century physics. This volume also includes papers by J.P. Joule ("On the intermittent character of voltaic current") and Herbert Spencer ("Remarks upon the theory of reciprocal dependence"). Only the most trivial of defects: minor soiling and light chipping to spine and edges of wrappers; a small, inoffensive ink stain on rear cover; early owner's signature in upper right hand corner of front cover. Internally clean and crisp; a remarkable uncut copy in original wrappers.