FRESNEL (Augustin). Complete works. Published by Henri de Sé - Lot 289

FRESNEL (Augustin). Complete works. Published by Henri de Sénarmont, Émile Verdet and Léonor Fresnel. Paris, Imprimerie impériale, 1866-1870. 3 volumes in-4, red chagrin, Du Seuil decor, Concours général des Lycées & Collèges des départements 1874 gilded on the front cover, interior roulette, gilded edges (Period binding). First edition of the complete works of Augustin Fresnel (1788-1827), physicist and academician whose research had a decisive influence on the history of optics. In particular, it includes his experiments on the diffraction of light, the starting point for research that rapidly extended to all fields of optics, and which enabled him to lay the foundations of vibratory and wave optics in less than a decade (cf. En français dans le texte, no. 230). Much of the work presented in this edition had previously remained unpublished. The edition features a fold-out table, an appendix plate and 19 plates, including a large color fold-out map of the French coastline with the positions of various lights: the latter plates relate to Fresnel's research on lighthouses and Fresnel lenses, a technological revolution that has equipped lighthouses the world over. A copious and invaluable analytical table for all three volumes appears on pp. 527-740 of volume III. A fine copy. Small tear on the edge of the map and at the fold of a fold-out plate. Enclosed: a handwritten account of the August 3, 1822 meeting of the Société philomatique (3 pages in-8), in which we read that M. Fresnel gave some extracts on his new lighting apparatus for lighthouses, and a one-and-a-half-page note concerning Fresnel's Mémoire sur un nouvel appareil d'éclairage pour les phares; all preserved in a bifeuillet with printed letterhead Mémoires lus à la Société philomatique dans la Séance du ... [date August 3, 1822 completed in pen], with, on the reverse, the autograph signatures of each of the members present that day, including Fresnel.