THE CONDUCTION OF HEAT

FOURIER, (JEAN BAPTISTE JOSEPH).

Théorie analytique de la Chaleur.

Paris, Firmin-Didot, 1822.

4to. Contemporary half calf with gilt spine. Old paper label to top of spine. Two old stamps to foot of title-page and old inscription to top of title-page. Half-title browned, otherwise just a bit of mild scattered brownspotting. A mild damp stain to lower blank margin of ab. 20 leaves, far from affecting text. A nice copy. Plates with light brownspotting. (4), XII, 639 pp. + 2 plates.

First edition of Fourier's seminal main work, an epochal achievement in the history of science, being "the first outstanding publication on the conduction of heat" (Milestones of Science) and the "source of all modern methods in mathematical physics involving the integration of partial differential equations in problems where boundary values are fixed." (Cajori). "Fourier demonstrated that problems in mathematical physics can be solved for any complex condition when one knows how to solve the simple periodic initial condition." (Milestones of Science).

The great achievements that Fourier presents us with in the present work can be seen as twofold, treating first the formulation of the physical problem as boundary-value problems in linear partial differential equations, which extended rational mechanics to fields outside those Newton had defined in his "Principia", and second "the powerful mathematical toold he invented for the solution of the equations, which yielded a long series of descendants and raised problems in mathematical analysis that motivated much of the leading work in that field for the rest of the century and beyond." (D.S.B.).

Dibner: 154.
Sparrow: p. 31.
Barchas: 740.
Norman: 824.

Order-nr.: 51212