Differential Barometer

MENDELEEV, Dmitri Ivanovich (1834-1907). O barometricheskom nivelirovanii i o primenenii dlia nego vysotomera. [On barometric levelling and on the application of the altimeter.] St Petersburg: Tip. Departamenta Udielov, 1876. Extremely rare first edition of Mendeleev’s monograph on his invention of the "differential barometer" or altimeter -- complete with its folding plate, preserved untrimmed in its original printed wrappers. Mendeleev specifically engaged in research on gas density just after the publication of his Principles of Chemistry. He quickly understood that the exact measuring of the changes in atmospheric pressure would be more useful to him than establishing the meaning of pressure in absolute terms. For this purpose he devised and constructed a highly precise instrument, the precursor of the altimeter, which he called a ‘differential barometer’. This invention enjoyed great commercial success amongst navigators, surveyors, architects and military engineers, but Mendeleev aimed at a much broader audience. In 1876 he attended one of the largest and best-attended scientific events world-wide, the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition. He was sent by the Russian government, which he had been serving as an advisor, as part of a team of scientists and engineers who exhibited a variety of technological inventions applied to mining, metallurgy, agriculture, meteorology. There he had the opportunity to showcase his differential barometer – a launch followed in short order by this now exceptionally scarce monograph, which explained the rationale of the new tool but also pointed to its potential as the enabler of improvements in surveying, railway building, geology and geodesy, and, crucially, in empire-wide barometric weather forecasting (see M. Gordin, A Well-Ordered Thing , revised edn., Princeton: 2019, passim ). The only copy recorded in OCLC is at New York Public Library. No other copy is recorded in ABPC/RBH. Octavo (251 x 160mm). With a folding engraved plate. (Occasional marginal faint soiling, minor creasing to top corner.) Uncut in the original beige printed wrappers (spine worn, lacking a small portion at foot).

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