Olmsted, Denison. An Introduction to Natural Philosophy: designed as a Text Book, for the Use of the Students in Yale College (2 volume set). New Haven: Printed by B. L. Hamlen, 1838. Third Edition. [9229]
Two volumes in full leather, joints very good, red title & brown volume no. labels on spines, 9 x 5 3/4 inches. Vol. i. lacks the frontispiece. Vol. I - xvi., 348 pp., no free end papers, 188 illustrations; Vol. II - folding frontis of Watt's Double Acting Steam Engine, torn with some loss of top corner margin; ix., 348 pp., lacks the free end papers, final leaf torn at bottom affecting a footnote, illustrations nos. 189-296. Both volumes with dark foxing, some pencil notations. Good. Hardcover.
Vol. I. - Mechanics and Hydrostatics; Vol. II. - Pneumatics, Electricity, Magnetism, and Optics.
Denison Olmsted (1791-1859), b. East Hartford, CT; d. New Haven, CT. Educated at Yale College (1813); appointed professor of chemistry, mineralogy and geology in the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (1817), where he performed the first state geological survey, publishing his results in 1825. He returned to Yale as professor of mathematics and natural philosophy that same year, and in addition to his teaching obligations, was prominent for discoveries and observations regarding the aurora borealis, meteors, hail-stones, and Halley's Comet.