An Account of the New Method of Extinguishing Fires by Explosion and Suffocation [.] Wherein a Description is given of the several Machines and their Uses, together with the plain and sufficient Directions for the proper Application of them. A method easily practicable, certain in its Effects, and so universally useful to the Publick, that his Majesty has been moved to authorize and incourage this happy Discovery, for the general Advantage of his Subjects, by his most gracious Letters Patents [.]

FIRST EDITION. Title within double-ruled border, woodcut headpiece with portrait of 'Guttemberg', p.1 with engraved headpiece of a house on fire with Godfrey's machines, woodcut tailpieces and initials; nick to head of title, neatly repaired, uniformly browned, with the odd marginal spot; pp. xvi, 40, 8vo; twentieth-century quarter brown morocco and marbled boards. An overview of German emigré chemist Ambrose Godfrey's patented 'fire annihilator', which comprised a wooden barrel full of aqueous solution and a pewter container of gunpowder fitted with a pipe and fuse. Godfrey reports on two highly successful full-sized demonstrations of his invention in 1723, the first of which was carried out on a specially built house in Marylebone Fields on 30 May 1723, at which several members of the Royal Society were present. The work closes with invective against Charles Povey of Hempstead, who allegedly stole his 'watch engine' from Godfrey. Born Ambrose Godfrey-Hanckwitz (1660–1741), the author was for many years employed as operator in the laboratory of Robert Boyle, and later set up his own outfit where he made and sold the white phosphorous for which he became famous. In the introduction to the present book he expresses his indebtedness to Boyle 'for the first hints of the matter whence it was made'. Hanson 3411; Neville I, p. 537. Partington II, p. 543. Not in Cole.…