The moon :
considered as a planet, a world, and a satellite /
by James Nasmyth and James Carpenter ; with twenty-four illustrative plates of lunar objects, phenomena, and scenery, numerous woodcuts, &c.
Description
- Related Names
-
Carpenter, James, 1840-1899, author.
Wilson, F. M., former owner.
De la Rue, Warren, 1815-1889, photographer.
Carpenter, James, 1840-1899.
- Language(s)
-
English
- Published
-
London : John Murray, 1874.
- Edition
-
2d ed.
- Summary
-
Nasmyth’s wonderfully evocative representations of the lunar surface are the most realistic ever produced by earthbound observers. James Nasmyth was not only the inventor of the steam hammer, that great symbol of victorian engineering, but was also an enthusiastic astronomer. He built a series of increasingly powerful telescopes and won a prize medal at the Great Exhibition for his drawings of the lunar surface (he had inherited a talent for drawing from his father, the painter Alexander Nasmyth.) He then made models of the lunar surface, based on his observations and drawings and the prints in this book are from photographs of these models taken in bright sunlight. Besides the plates the book is important for the discussion of the origins of the moon’s physical geography.
- Note
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See Goldschmidt & Naef, Truthful lens, 125.
The plates are essentially the same, with minor differences, as those in the 1st ed. (also London, 1874), except that 10 are reproduced using variant illustration processes.
The 20 photographs include: 2 Woodburytypes (pl. III, XIX) of the moon's surface from a negative taken through a telescope by W. De La Rue, 2 Woodburytypes (pl. II) of a man's hand and shriveled apple from negatives by Nasmyth, and 8 Woodburytypes and 8 autotypes (?) from negatives by Nasmyth of deceptive models of the moon's surface.
The plates consist of 1 photogravure, 2 lithographs, and 1 chromolithograph after drawings by Nasmyth; and 22 mounted photographs on 20 leaves (8 autotypes (?) by Brooks, Day & Son and 12 Woodburytypes) with printed captions.
- Physical Description
-
xvi, 189 p., [1], 23 leaves of plates :
ill. ;
29 cm.
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