Matter and Motion.

New York: D. Van Nostrand, 1878. First American edition. Twelvemo (3 3/4 x 6 inches). 224 pp. Publisher's printed green boards. Some light professional spine repair. A very attractive copy.J. Clerk Maxwell, a Scotsman, was the greatest mathematical physicists since Newton. Maxwell’s first scientific paper appeared when he was just 14, which suggests that he was a tremendous mathematical prodigy. A friend of Maxwell's father was so impressed with it that he presented it to the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He moved from one college to the next and was quite productive his entire life. Maxwell was the first to formulate, between 1860 and 1870, the four equations that describe the propagation of the electromagnetic field. " These equations are elegant and symmetrical, for he believed they should mirror the beauty of nature. Building on Michael Faraday’s previous studies, Maxwell was the first to demonstrate that the electric and magnetic fields could be unified into one field and that the energy of the electromagnetic field propagated through empty space as waves. In doing so, he developed a complementary look at the theory of light, which up until then had been predominantly interpreted as if light were made by particles."This primer on physics [Matter and Motion], written in 1877 [sic] by the most eminent physicist of the 19th century, is intended as a brief introduction to Newtonian mechanics for students and educated lay readers. Though by modern standards this small work covers no new ground, it attests to the logical rigor and powers of elucidation of a scientific genius, whose insights into electromagnetism and the chemistry of gases were pivotal to the great discoveries in physics during the 20th century. Einstein described Maxwell's influence on the scientific understanding of the physical universe as "the most profound and the most fruitful that physics has experienced since the time of Newton." Maxwell's ideas also laid the groundwork for Max Planck's subsequent development of the quantum hypothesis" (publisher's blurb).