Geometrical and Graphical Essays [and] Plates to the Geometrical and Graphical Essays.; By the late George Adams, Mathematical Instrument Maker to his Majesty, &c

London: W. & S. Jones, 1813. Fourth Edition. Very good. Two volumes, 8vo, 9 x 5 3/4 in. (228 x 145 mm); 9 x 5 ½". Text volume: pp. frontispiece, xii, 534, [16] ads; Plates vol.: pp. title page and 34 folding plates. Previous owner's name penned on the first free flyleaf. Uniform contemporary paper-covered boards, untrimmed, housed in a felt-lined custom clamshell box, 9 x 5 1/2 in. Occasional browning to the edges of some of the plates in Vol. 2, 1/2 inch tear to fold of Pl. VIII and 1 inch tear to the edge of Pl XIV, none of these minor flaws affecting the images. Frontispiece "The Great Theodolite, by Ramsden, Used by the late Gen.l Roy &c. in the great English Trigonometrical Operations." This is the "Fourth Edition, corrected and enlarged by William Jones, F. Am. P. S.

[ESTC T88416, 1791 edition]. The last chapter of these fascinating volumes includes conversion tables to various standard national measure ranging from the Paris foot to the Russian archine, to the Venice braccio, the Egyptian stadium to 'The mathematical foot of China'.

GEORGE ADAMS the younger (1750-1795) was an English scientist, optician and scientific writer. In politics Adams was a Tory, and as such was received with favour at court by George III, who made him his official mathematical instrument maker, succeeding his father George Adams in the post. George III was personally interested in instruments and had Adams produce items for him exclusively, many in silver. These instruments now form a collection which is housed in London's Science Museum Royal collection Adams was also known for making globes, and for inventing the lucernal microscope, a type of projection microscope where the image is projected on a screen by a large oil lamp, to make it easier to draw or trace the images. "G. Adams in Fleet Street London" is the signature on some of the finest scientific instruments of the 18th century. In 1787, Adams was also appointed optician to the Prince of Wales (the future George IV).