Maxwell’s classic Treatise returns after 115 years

The opening pages of James Clerk Maxwell’s An Elementary Treatise on Electricity, published 1881 in London and purchased by the library in 1882.

Editor’s Preface, page 1 of 3.

Editor’s Preface, page 2 of 3

Editor’s Preface, page 3 of 3

Maxwell paved the way for making resistance measurements, something many engineers do every day with modern instruments.

Standard resistance coils are some of the measurement instruments that Maxwell used.

More of Maxwell’s notes on resistance measurement.

Maxwell’s notes on electric forces in spherical regions around an electrified physical sphere.

Lines of force and equipotential surfaces.

This drawing shows lines of force and the point of equilibrium,

Lines of force near an electrically charged plate edge.

One of seven drawings showing lines of force.

The record showing dates the book was removed from the New Bedford library. When do you think the book was last taken out?

Maxwell’s Treatise shown with Keithley’s The story of Electrical and Magnetic Measurements, published in 1999.