RUMFORD (Benjamin Thomson, Earl of). Political, economic and - Lot 108

Lot 108
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RUMFORD (Benjamin Thomson, Earl of). Political, economic and - Lot 108
RUMFORD (Benjamin Thomson, Earl of). Political, economic and philosophical essays. Geneva, Manget, An VII, 1799. 2 volumes in-8, green half calf, spine decorated, marbled edges (Binding ca. 1840). Coquelin et Guillaumin, t. II, p. 562. - Vicar, col. 760. - Livres en bouche, n°165. First edition of the French translation, decorated with 8 folding plates. Rumford (1753-1814), an American physicist and philanthropist, is mainly known for his soup and economical stoves, to which he devotes several chapters in his Essays. It was in Bavaria, where he was once a great chamberlain, that the author developed an economical method of making soups to alleviate the misery of soldiers and the poor: I found that the cheapest, most pleasant & most substantial food that can be provided to the poor is a kind of soup made of pearl barley, peas, potatoes, small slices of white bread, vinegar, salt & water in certain proportions (p. 206). The Essays can be read as an attempt to link technical considerations, related to wood or food consumption, with moral and political considerations about maintaining social order and integration into civil society. In it, Rumford explained how he had applied this method to integrate two groups that were excluded from civil society: soldiers and the poor. In both cases, reform began with consumption, which is inseparable from production (Vincent, "A Consumer Counter-Revolution? Le comte Rumford à Boston, Munich, London et Paris", in Histoire, économie & société, 2013/3, pp. 13-32). Little marginal wetness in the last three sections of Volume I, a few freckles. Minimal rubbing at the binding, small skin peeling with halo at the edge of one volume.
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