Discovery of oxygen
Carl Wilhelm Scheele, 1772
SCHEELE, Carl Wilhelm (1742-1786). Chemische Abhandlungen von der Luft und dem Feuer. Introduction by Torbern Bergman. Uppsala and Leipzig: M. Swederus for S.L. Crusius, 1777. [Bound with:] Bemerkungen der Kuhrpfälzischen Physikalisch-Ökonomischen Gesellschaft, vom Jahr 1774. Lautern: 1776 [And:] RUTHERFORD, Daniel (1749-1819). Dissertatio inauguralis de aere fixo dicto, aut mephitico. Edinburgh: 1772.

First edition of the discovery of oxygen by Scheele, its "true discoverer" (Norman), bound with the first description of nitrogen. Scheele’s work, made independently of Priestley, was delayed in publication by two years waiting for the preface by Torbern Bergman, thus permitting Priestley to publish the first account of the isolation of oxygen. Scheele identified carbon dioxide, oxygen, and nitrogen in air, as well as providing an account of hydrogen sulfide gas, "which he was the first to describe correctly and the first to synthesize" (Norman). This copy is bound with Rutherford’s dissertation on "fixed air" (carbon dioxide). Although both Cavendish and Scheele had previously isolated nitrogen, this is the first published description of a gas that could extinguish both life and combustion, but which was recognizably not carbon dioxide. Even Rutherford did not recognize this gas to be a separate entity, but thought it only a combination of common air and phlogiston. The second work bound in here is a volume of the proceedings of the learned society of Lautern. Among the scientific papers it contains are those by the physicist and mining engineer G.A. Sukow on quicksilver, Stork on the cultivation of flax, and Schmid on pruning dwarf trees. I: Norman 1905 (stating that the half-title, sometimes found, is a later addition); Dibner 41; Grolier/Horblit 92; Gedeon pp.120-23. II: VD-18 90293479. III: Garrison-Morton 921; Norman 1869.

Three works in one volume, octavo (174 x 102mm). I: engraved vignette on title, folding engraved plate (occasional faint browning); II: engraved vignette on title, folding engraved plate (first work with occasional faint spotting, and small stain on C8, ink deletion on title, 3rd work title folded up at bottom edge). Contemporary marbled calf, gilt edges, red leather spine label, red edges (a few small wormholes at spine); modern box. Provenance: inscription deleted in ink from first title – Collection of Peter and Margarethe Braune (bookplate).