A Philosophical Dissertation on the Diving Vessel Projected by Mr. Day, and Sunk in Plymouth Sound;

Image de l’article 1 de 4

Vendeur : Maggs Bros. Ltd ABA, ILAB, PBFA, London, Royaume-UniMaggs Bros. Ltd ABA, ILAB, PBFA

Vendeur avec une évaluation de 5 étoiles

Vendeur AbeBooks depuis 15 mai 2015

Membre d’une association professionnelle : ABAPBFAILAB

Livre relié

Etat: Occasion

EUR 3 641,31

EUR 31,82 expédition 
Expédition depuis Royaume-Uni vers Etats-Unis

Quantité disponible : 1 disponible

Ajouter au panier
Retours gratuits sous 30 jours

A propos de cet article

2 folding engraved plates, 4to., lacks half title and errata slip, quarter calf over marbled boards, red morocco label to spine titled "Miscellanies" with number 49 in the panel below, paper to boards scuffed and peeling in two small areas, otherwise very good. Bound between two unrelated contemporary works: LANGHORNE. The Country Justice. A Poem . Part the First - Third. London, T. Becket, 1774-7. & BLAYNEY (Benjamin). A Dissertation by way of Inquiry .&c. Oxford, At the Clarendon Press, 1775. [iii]-vi, 58, [4]pp. London, Printed by the Author, and sold by B. Law, . E. and C. Dilly, . and J. Walter, The sorry tale of a Yarmouth labourer John Day, who though "illiterate and indigent in his circumstances" had a bold and unshakable confidence in his ability as a submariner. His efforts did find him the fame that he was "jealous of" - but alas - his notch on the belt of history was the unconverted title of first recorded submarine shipwreck fatality.    Day's initial experiments involved using the tide to submerge him in a diving-bell style vessel, which perhaps contributed to his crucial misunderstandings of the pressure implications of vertical submersion. After a modest but much exaggerated success, he took his expanded proposition to professional gambler Christopher Blake Esq. as "an affair by which money might be won". Blake took the bait - he advanced Day £350 to construct the vessel and offered 10% of all winnings from wagers. With this, Day purchased a 50 ton sloop, the Maria, and employed a Plymouth shipwright Mr. Hunn to modify and refit her to his specifications.   These modifications entailed the creation of a sealed internal chamber of 12ft by 9 by 8, with a volume of "75 hogshead" of air - "the whole frame of the chamber was seared, bolted, and secured with knees on all sides within." Alongside this, an internal ballast of 10 tons of limestone was added, plus an additional mechanism by which "twenty rough stones, each of a ton weight" were suspended beneath the sloop with a means to detach from them rigged to the internal chamber, ostensibly with a thought to allow Mr. Day to loose them and rise at the end of his submersion. There were three coloured bouys also rigged to controls in the chamber which could be released to indicate the aquanaut's state of health: white for very well, red for indifferent, and black for very ill.    At 2pm on the afternoon of 20th June 1772, the Maria was towed into out into Plymouth Sound, and was sunk. At this point, as Falck concisely puts it, "Mr. Day descended with her into perpetual night". The locals gathered on the cliffs to await his triumphant emersion, but no boat nor bouy was seen. Much was made of the possible effect of the dramatic drop in temperature at the depth Mr. Day submerged to, but the essential miscalculation was in reality a simple one of pressure. As Edwn Gray puts it in his book Disasters of the Deep: A Comprehensive Survey of Submarine Accidents & Disasters: "Water pressure increases by 15 pounds per square inch for every 30 feet of depth. At 130 feet Day's boat would have been subject to pressure of more than 60 pounds per square inch and it is highly probable that Maria broke up long before she ever reached the bottom of the sea."   Thereafter is an extensive account by the author, naval doctor Nikolai Falck, of his attempts to raise the wreck. His hope was that in examining the cause of failure, it might be possible to "do justice to the memory of this unfortunate man". He also suggested, in a projection every bit as fantastical as Day's own, that there might still be a chance of reviving the long drowned man "whose death I presumed not to be real, but a mere cessation of the animal functions, and whose congealed mass of blood would remain a considerable time, in so cold a region, before a chance of putrefaction could take place". Falck's efforts are unsuccessful on every count, but he does record many interesting observations on the problems and conditions.…

N° de réf. du vendeur 228925

Détails bibliographiques

Titre
A Philosophical Dissertation on the Diving Vessel Projected by Mr. Day, and Sunk in Plymouth Sound;
Auteur
FALCK (Nikolai Detlef).
Année de publication
1775
Reliure
Couverture rigide

Maggs Bros. Ltd ABA, ILAB, PBFA

London, Royaume-Uni

Vendeur avec une évaluation de 5 étoiles

Vendeur AbeBooks depuis 15 mai 2015

Membre d’une association professionnelle :

Frais d'expédition de Royaume-Uni vers Etats-Unis

Article2 à 5 jours ouvrés1 à 2 jours ouvrés
Premier articleEUR 31,82EUR 35,35
Les délais de livraison sont fixés par les vendeurs et varient en fonction du transporteur et du lieu. Les commandes transitant par les douanes peuvent être retardées et les acheteurs sont responsables de tous les droits ou frais associés. Les vendeurs peuvent vous contacter au sujet de frais supplémentaires afin de couvrir toute augmentation des coûts d'expédition de vos articles.

Modes de paiement

  • Visa
  • Mastercard
  • American Express
  • Carte Bleue
  • Apple Pay
  • Google Pay

Description de la boutique

Established in 1853, Maggs Brothers is one of the world's oldest antiquarian booksellers still operating today. We sell books worldwide through the internet as well as from our regularly published catalogues, and we are delighted to welcome customers to our two premises in Bloomsbury and Mayfair.

Spécialité

Travel Books, illustrated books, Illuminated manuscripts and miniatures, Bookbindings, Continental books including incunabula, Fine printing, Autographs and Manuscripts, English-language literature of all periods, books of the Far East including Japanese photobooks

Membre d’une association professionnelle

  • Antiquarian Booksellers' Association
  • Provincial Booksellers Fairs Association
  • International League of Antiquarian Booksellers
Les membres de ces associations s'engagent à respecter des critères de qualité particulièrement contraignants. Ils se portent garants de l'authenticité de tous les articles proposés à la vente. Ils fournissent des descriptions détaillées et professionnelles, signalent tous défauts et/ou traitements de restauration importants, établissent des prix clairs et précis et font preuve d'équité et d'honnêteté lors de l'achat d'un article.

Profil professionnel du vendeur

Maggs Bros. Ltd ABA, ILAB, PBFA, BA

Maggs Bros. Ltd., 48 Bedford Square
London, Royaume-Uni WC1B 3DR