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Item #42972 Chemical Atlas: or, The Chemistry of Familiar Objects: Exhibiting the General Principles of the Science in a Series of Beautifully Colored Diagrams. Edward L. YOUMANS.
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Chemical Atlas: or, The Chemistry of Familiar Objects: Exhibiting the General Principles of the Science in a Series of Beautifully Colored Diagrams
Chemical Atlas: or, The Chemistry of Familiar Objects: Exhibiting the General Principles of the Science in a Series of Beautifully Colored Diagrams
Chemical Atlas: or, The Chemistry of Familiar Objects: Exhibiting the General Principles of the Science in a Series of Beautifully Colored Diagrams
Chemical Atlas: or, The Chemistry of Familiar Objects: Exhibiting the General Principles of the Science in a Series of Beautifully Colored Diagrams
Chemical Atlas: or, The Chemistry of Familiar Objects: Exhibiting the General Principles of the Science in a Series of Beautifully Colored Diagrams
Chemical Atlas: or, The Chemistry of Familiar Objects: Exhibiting the General Principles of the Science in a Series of Beautifully Colored Diagrams
Chemical Atlas: or, The Chemistry of Familiar Objects: Exhibiting the General Principles of the Science in a Series of Beautifully Colored Diagrams
Chemical Atlas: or, The Chemistry of Familiar Objects: Exhibiting the General Principles of the Science in a Series of Beautifully Colored Diagrams

Chemical Atlas: or, The Chemistry of Familiar Objects: Exhibiting the General Principles of the Science in a Series of Beautifully Colored Diagrams

New York: D. Appleton & Company, 1856. 4to. (12 x 10 1/8 inches). 106 pp. Illustrated with 13 wood engraved diagrammatic plates printed in colours and finished by hand.

Publisher's original gilt-and-blind-stamped brown cloth

A striking American colour-plate book on chemistry and one of the most inventive scientific teaching books published in nineteenth-century United States.

Youmans's Chemical Atlas is one of the most striking American educational books of the mid-nineteenth century. Designed for students and pupils "in all schools where chemistry is taught," it presents chemistry through a series of coloured diagrams accompanied by explanatory essays. The subjects include atomic theory, metalloids and metals, oxygen compounds, organic chemistry, homologous series, fermentation, combustion, illumination, and the chemistry of light. By translating chemical relationships into colour, pattern, and graphic arrangement, Youmans made abstract scientific principles visible to readers who might otherwise encounter them only through dense verbal explanation. The book belongs to a broader nineteenth-century movement to popularize science through accessible textbooks, charts, lectures, and visual aids. Youmans had already worked on a large Chemical Chart, and the Chemical Atlas adapts that pedagogical approach into book form. The plates use colour as a tool for organising information, distinguishing classes of compounds, and clarifying chemical relations. The work is described as "a pioneering publication in the use of color to convey quantitative information," adding that "the result is a striking and effective display of information." Edward Livingston Youmans became one of the leading American advocates for scientific education. A writer, editor, and lecturer, he helped bring contemporary scientific thought to a broad public, later founding Popular Science Monthly and promoting the International Scientific Series. The present work reflects the same mission at an earlier stage: to make modern science intelligible, useful, and visually memorable for students, teachers, and general readers. The 1856 Appleton edition forms part of a small sequence of mid-1850s printings of this rare work. Copies are also recorded with 1854 and 1855 dates.

Reese, American Color Plate Books 82.

Item #42972

Price: $6,000.00

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