ØRSTED (OERSTED), H.C.

Naturlærens mechaniske Deel.

Kjøbenhavn, Reitzel, 1844. Samtidigt hldrbd. Rygforgyldningen lidt svag. lettere brugsspor. XXII,360,(1) pp. Talrige tekstillustrationer i træsnit. Enkelte tilskrifter i teksten. Lille indhug øverst på titelblad (navn bortklippet).

Contemporary half calf Gilding on spine a bit vague. Numerous woodcut illustrations in the text. A few annotations in the text. Old owner's name cut out of top of title-page (far from affecting lettering). XXII,360,(1) pp.

First edition of Ørsted's textbook on his primary field, "On the Mechanical Part of the Philosophy", which served as the authoritative textbook on the field for about 50 years in Denmark.

Due to his previous work and discoveries, Ørsted had never actually had the time to compose a textbook within his actual field, although his wish to do so kept growing over the years. Thus, he finally decided to begin his work on this and hired a helper (C. Petersen, who had followed his lectures intensely) to do part of the work, namely expanding and editing Ørsted's own material, collecting from other works (mostly foreign textbooks, especially German) the areas on which Ørsted had not written anything, making the index and the corrections. In the preface, Ørsted himself states that "Naturally, a textbook composed in this manner cannot in all its parts achieve the completeness that could have been achieved, had the author devoted all his time to this; but since this has not been possible, one will probably be tolerant, as long as the work advances the spreading of that science in the home country." (the Preface, p. V).

Ørsted himself advised against translating the work into other languages (especially German, which would be the language closest to Danish), since many equally good textbooks of this sort already existed in other countries. The book, however, was translated into German and appeared with Ørsted's consent.

Order-nr.: 36145