VOLTA, Alessandro. Lettere sull’aria infiammabile nativa delle paludi. Milano, Giuseppe Marelli, 1777.

8vo, mm. 210x130; Contemporary marbled cardboard bining; pp. 147, 3 nn.; vignette on titlepage, device, 7 headpieces depicting scientific instruments, 5 Finals, all in copper. Very rare first edition. In these seven letters it is set out for the first time the discovery of methane; before 1776, there was virtually no distinction between the various flammable and chemical gases had no clear idea about their composition.

Partington: “The collection of inflammable marsh gas is described by Volta in some letters to Carlo Giuseppe Campi, dated from Como the 14, 21, and 26 November, and 18 December 1776.” Il testo contiene la descrizione delle ricerche voltiane sul gas che risale dalle paludi, il quale in precedenza non era stato distinto dall’idrogeno. Duveen: “Contains the author’s investigation on marsh-gas, which previously had not been distinguished from inflammable air. He showed that inflammable air, when burnt, required only one-fourth of the volume of oxygen which was needed for the complete combustion of marsh-gas, and that in the latter case alone was carbonic acid formed”. Guareschi: “La scoperta dell’aria infiammabile delle paludi, fatta da A. Volta nel 1776, che si riconobbe poi essere un idrocarburo... ha aperto la via allo studio dell’origine dei petroli” Polvani, L’opera scientifica di A. Volta, p. 72; Partington, III, p. 814; Cole 1321; Duveen 606; Neville II, p. 593; Guareschi, St. della Chimica, p. 402.

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