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Horologium Oscillatorium Sive De Motu Pendulorum Ad Horologia Aptato Demonstrationes Geometricae 1673 by Huygens Christian (2 results)
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Horologium oscillatorium, sive de motu pendulorum ad horologia aptato demonstrationes geometricae. 1673.
Published by Dawsons of Pall Mall, GB, 1966
Seller: Richard Sylvanus Williams (Est 1976), WINTERTON, United Kingdom
Seller Rating:
Hardback. Condition: nrFine. Dust Jacket Condition: No DW. Facsimile Edition. Looks unread but white ?leatherette slightly dust marked.
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Horologium oscillatorium sive de motu pendulorum ad horologia aptato demonstrationes geometricae. [Paris: F. Muguet, 1673.]
Published by Bruxelles: Culture et Civilisation/ London: Dawsons of Pall Mall, 1966., 1966
Book First Edition
Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. No Jacket. 1st Edition. Facsimile Reprint of the 1673 Latin First Edition. 7 leaves, 162 pp; illus. Leatherette, 4to. Very Good. Huygens 'studied the relation between period and length of the pendulum and developed the theory of the center of oscillation. By this theory the notion of 'length' of a pendulum is extended to compound pendulums, so that Huygens could investigate how the period of a pendulum can be regulated by varying the position of an additional small weight on the arm. These studies form the main contents of Huygens' magnum opus, Horologium oscillatorium. . Huygens posed the question of what form the path of the pendulum bob should have, so that the approximative assumption would cease to be an approximation and would describe the real situation. He found a condition for the form of the path related to the position of the normals to the curve with respect to the axis; and he recognized this as a property of the cycloid, which he had studied in the previous year in connection with a problem set by Pascal. He thus discovered the tautochronism of the cycloid -- 'the most fortunate finding which ever befell me,' he said later. He published his discovery, with a scrupulously rigorous Archimidean proof, in the second part of Horologium oscillatorium. . In 1659 Huygens collected in a manuscript, De vi centrifuga, the results of his studies on centrifugal force, which he had taken up that year in his investigations on the cause of gravity. He published the most important results, without proofs, in Horologium oscillatorium. . In the second part . Huygens gave a rigorous derivation of the laws of unresisted descent along inclined planes and curved paths . Horologium oscillatorium stands as a solid symbol of the force of the mathematical approach and was recognized as such by Huygens' contemporaries. Compared to the relatively simple mathematical tools which Galileo used in his works, the wealth of mathematical theories and methods that Huygens was able to apply is significant, and herein lies the direct and lasting influence of his work' (H. J. M. Bos in D.S.B. VI: 597-613; Bos does not take note of this facsimile, perhaps further indication of its scarcity in spite of the relative availability of other facsimiles from the same publisher). As for other printings of the original Latin text, Horologium oscillatorium is Vol. XVIII in Huygens' 22-volume Oeuvres (The Hague, 1888-1950); as of this listing (1/28/06) there are only five expensive individual volumes of the Oeuvres on ABE and none are Vol. XVIII (I am not sure if that is a facsimile or just a plain reprint). Printing and the Mind of Man 154; Horblit 53; Dibner, Heralds of Science, 145.
