Mathematics Simplified and made Attractive: or, the laws of motion explained by FISHER, Thomas (1801-1856) - 1854

Philadelphia: The Author, 1854. 2 volumes (8vo text, plus large square folio atlas of plates). 19 plates (10 with hand colouring), lithographed by A. Kollner. Text in publisher's green cloth, covers stamped in blind, upper cover titled in gilt; atlas in half green morocco and period marbled paper covered boards, upper cover with original blue morocco gilt label Very rare American lithographed work and a prize winner at the London Crystal Palace Great Exhibition of 1851. In his single-minded pursuit of diagrammatic explanations of many of the basic tenets of mathematics for pedagogical purposes, Thomas Fisher here produced a series of fascinating and incidentally beautiful illustrations, lithographed by A. Kollner, of a large range of concepts: from the basic illustration of the "Length, Breadth and Thickness" (plate 1) through to the later series of nine plates illustrating the "problem of Pythagoras" and touching on theories by Kepler, Euclid, Galileo, Tycho Brahe, Newton and more. The text volume (xiii, 15-144pp) published in Philadelphia in 1854 offers a specific explanation of each of the plates, and also includes a verbatim reprint of the report of the Great Exhibition jury which awarded Fisher an Honorable Mention in Class X. "Philosophical Instruments, and processes depending on their use" at the Great Exhibition of 1851. Very rare: we find no example of the text and atlas on the market in the last half century.