(HARRIS, WILLIAM SNOW). (Thunder-and-Lightning Harris).

Three experimental Illustrations of a General Law of electrical Discharge.

(London, around 1830 ?). 4to. Original violet blank wrappers, later clothbacked. Edges gilt. Wrappers slightly soiled. 16 pp. including 3 plates with leaves of gold on the plates showing the effects of the electrical discharge through various arrangements of the gold as the gold imitates metallic conductors fixed along the masts of ships.


Extremely scarce. The work relates further experiments as did the authors famous work "Observations on the Effects of Lightning on floating Bodies..." 1823, as it contains 2 more plates with leaves of gold, showing the ways of the electrical discharge.
In 1835 he received the Copley gold medal from the Royal Society for his papers on the laws of electricity of high tension, and in 1839 he was chosen to deliver the Bakerian lecture.
In 1820, William Snow Harris invented a system of fixed lightning conductor plates which were routed along the aft side of the mast down through the hull to the copper sheathing on the bottom of the ship. Harris spent the next twenty-five years trying to persuade the British Admiralty to test his system and require its installation. For years, old prejudices against lightning conductors, notions of economy, and bureaucratic suspicions of technological innovation frustrated his efforts. It took a successful trial installation on eleven ships, an extensive campaign by Harris to publicize the extent of lightning damage to the navy, the favorable recommendations of two study committees, and administrative changes in the Admirality before the Royal Navy finally adopted the Harris conductors in 1842.

Not in Ronalds. - Not in Weaver. - Not in WorldCat.

Order-nr.: 58725


DKK 4.500,00