Abhandlung von der Anlage und dem Bau einer neu eingerichteten, am Brand spahrenden, bei den Vorwerken so nützlichen Pottaschensiederei by CANCRIN, Franz Ludwig von

Two engraved plates. 80 pp. 8vo, cont. boards (spine a little soiled), spine gilt, red leather lettering piece on spine. Frankfurt am Main: Hermann, 1791. First edition and rare. Cancrin (1738-1812), was an engineer and high government official, both in Germany and in Russia, where he was recruited by Catherine the Great to manage the Staraya Russa saltworks. "Despite the press of his civil offices, Cancrin found time (1773-1791) to write an encyclopedic work in twenty-one volumes that covered all aspects of the mining of metals and salt - including mineralogy, assaying, mathematics, and mechanics. This work brought him a European reputation."-D.S.B., III, pp. 41-42. This is one of Cancrin's numerous separate works. It describes newly invented apparatus and procedures used to manufacture potash, which was used in bleaching textiles, making glass and soap, as a baking aid, and as a fertilizer. The finely engraved plates depict the furnaces and leaching pots. Fine copy. Old stamp on verso of title of the "Kaiser-Wilhelm-Bibliothek Posen" with release stamp and their bookplate. ❧ Poggendorff, I, 370.