The principles of mechanics. : Explaining and demonstrating the general laws of motion, the laws of gravity, motion of descending bodies, projectiles, mechanic powers, Pendulums, Centers of Gravity, &c. Strength and Stress of Timber, Hydrostatics, and Construction of Machines.

Quarto. x, [2], 284, [4]p., 43 pl. Third edition. Bound in contemporary full calf. Restoration to spine, bands and hinges. Good binding and cover. Owners name to FFEP. Some pencil marginalia. Scattered foxing and soiling to some plates. BM 8: 122 (444); ESTC T77169 William Emerson was an English mathematician, who, unsuccessful as a teacher, devoted himself entirely to a studious retirement. Possessed of remarkable energy and forthrightness of speech, Emerson published many works which are singularly free from errata. In The Principles of Mechanics, he shows a wind-powered vehicle in which the vertically mounted propeller gives direct power to the front wheels via a system of cogs. In mechanics he never advanced a proposition which he had not previously tested in practice, nor published an invention without first proving its effects by a model.