Research Guides: History of Science and Nature materials in Haverford Special Collections (HC): Chemistry and Physics

Chemistry Books

The principles of chemistry
By Daniel Smith, who was a Philadelphia pharmacist and professor at Haverford. This book is a textbook of chemistry set out in numbered sections. Smith created this edition of the book by heavily revising an earlier 1837 edition to include new advances in chemistry.
Experiments and considerations about the porosity of bodies, in two essays
By Robert Boyle. 1684 edition presenting first presenting Boyle’s experiments and conjectures on pores in animals and plants and then attempting to extrapolate these principles to minerals.
Dissertation on vegetable chemistry
By Columbus C. Conwell. Part of a volume of the Pendle Hill Library and bound together with other short works, this work lists various compounds isolated from vegetable sources and describes their physical properties with an attempt at chemical classification.
Researches concerning physical chemistry and other researches not concerning atomic weights
By Theodore W. Richards. This book is a bound-together collection of journal articles in English and German from 1886-1908 concerning chemistry and ordered roughly sequentially.
A new system of chemical philosophy
By John Dalton, who was a chemist and meteorologist most famous advancing a theory of atoms. This work is his seminal publication showing how atomic theory could explain problems like the mixing of gases and chemical reactions.
The hermetic and alchemical writings of Aureolus Philippus Theophrastus Bombast, of Hohenheim, called Paracelsus the Great
By Paracelsus, who was a Renaissance physician who was famous for questioning scholastic methods in medicine. This work is a translation by Arthur Waite focusing on Paracelsus’ occult writings particularly astrology and alchemy.
Cvrrvs trivmphalis antimonii
By Basilius Valentinus, about alchemy.
A continvation of nevv experiments physico-mechanical, touching the spring and vveight of the air, and their effects
By Robert Boyle. Oxford: Printed by Henry Hall printer to the University, for Richard Davis in the year 1669. "Written by way of letter, to the Right Honourable the Lord Clifford and Dungarvan. VVhereto is annext a short discourse of the atmospheres of consistent bodies."
New experiments and observations touching cold, or an experimental history of cold begun
By Robert Boyle. London: Printed for John Crook, MDCLXV

Physics Books

Natural philosophy
By Isaac Sharpless. This work is a textbook in physics covering the major areas in physics at the end of the nineteenth century in a relatively non-technical way. It is notable for an extensive list of suggested experiments and illustrations of experimental apparti.
An easy grammar of natural and experimental philosophy, for the use of schools
By Sir Richard R. Phillips. This work attempts to summarize physics of the time without the use of mathematics. It includes a number of illustrations of experimental apparati.
Two treatises
By Digby Kenelm, who was an English natural philosopher and supporter of Charles I. This book contains reflections on the nature of the physical world including quantity, light, motion, chemistry, and color as well as sections on nature, memory, knowledge, and emotions.
De revolutionibus orbium caelestium
By Nicolaus Copernicus. First-edition copy of Copernicus’ seminal work laying out his heliocentric theory.
Opere di Galileo Galilei
By Galileo Galilei. This item is three volumes from 1718 of the collected works of Galileo in Italian including illustrations.
The sphere of Marcus Manilius made an English poem
The first part of this book is a translation of part of the first-century work Astronomica by Marcus Manilius along with annotations by Edward Sherburne. The second part of the book presents a catalog of astronomers ancient and modern. Includes fold out moon maps and astronomical charts.
Philosophiae naturalis principia mathematica
By Isaac Newton. First edition copy of Newton’s 1687 work on physics.
Experiments & observations on electricity
By Benjamin Franklin. This book is a collection of letters written by Franklin to various people describing his experiments with electricity and his observations derived from those experiments. Includes some pictures of experimental apparti.
A continvation of Nevv experiments physico-mechanical, touching the spring and vveight of the air, and their effects
By Robert Boyle. This is a 1669 volume expanding on his experiments with an air pump that Boyle undertook with Robert Hooke.
New experiments and observations touching cold, or an experimental history of cold begun
By Robert Boyle. 1665 edition of Boyle’s treatise examining the nature of coldness.
A tutor to astronomy and geography.
By Joseph Moxon. Includes information on using sundials, and ancient stories about the origin of the stars and constellations.
Sphæra Iohannis de Sacro Bosco
By Johannes de Sacrobosco, an astronomer who wrote on the Ptolameic universe and the problems of the Julian calendar.
La sfera del mundo
By Alessandro Piccolomini. In Venetia: Per Giouanni Varisco e compagni, 1566. This is an early star atlas.
Ohnvorgreiffliche Gedancken über den im Monath Novemb. und Decemb. An. 1680. und 1681. im Jenner erschienenen Cometen : nebenst vier erörterten Fragen über das vorgestellte Bedencken von Cometen
Rotenburg ob der Tauber: Druckts und verlegts Friedrich Gustav Lipss, 1681.