Spectrum Analysis Explained. Its Uses to Science Illustrated, Showing its Application in Microscopical Research, and to Discoveries of the Physical Condition and Movements of the HEavenly Bodies, and Including an Explanation of the Received Theory of Sound, Heat, Light, and Color

12mo. Offprint (or continued) publication of a larger work. Pages 55-177, (3), as issued. Hardcover bound in original brown cloth with spine titles in gilt. Moderate rubbing and wear to the binding. The spine has some white shelf numbers partly rubbed off at the headcap. An ex-library copy with a removed bookplate on the front pastedown and a library blind stamp on the title page. A sound copy with secure inner hinges and clean text. Contains two color plates (including the frontis) and several black and white text illustrations. This appears as an offprint, but in fact it was published this way as a regularly published stand-alone work. It details the science of ascertaining information of distant stars (the composition of their gasses, etc.) through analysis of the the light through telescopes. This was a ground-breaking tool in observing the universe beyond our solar system in the 19th century.