HIGGINS, Bryan.

Experiments and Observations made with the View of Improving the Art of Composing and Applying Calcareous Cements and of preparing Quick-lime; Theory of these Arts; and Specification of the Author's cheap and durable Cement, for Building, Incrustation or Stuccoing, and artificial Stone.

xi, [1], 233 pp. 8vo, cont. speckled calf, joints neatly repaired, flat spine gilt, red morocco lettering piece on spine, initials of the Royal Geological Society of Cornwall on both covers. London: T. Cadell, 1780. The true first edition; see Cole 642 for details regarding how to determine the first edition from the reprint which was issued in 1796 or later. Cole himself did not own the first edition. This is an account of the author's patented invention of a cheap and durable cement, which was composed of washed sand, slaked lime, limewater, and bone ash. Higgins provides numerous descriptions of chemical experiments which he conducted. Higgins (1737-1820), chemist and physician, opened a "School of Practical Chemistry" in 1774 and offered regular lectures for a number of years. His auditors included Edward Gibbon, Joseph Priestley, and Benjamin Franklin. "Beside lecturing, experimenting, consulting, and advising across a broad range of chemical topics, Higgins also developed a considerable business in the manufacture and supply of reagents and chemicals."­D.S.B., VI, pp. 382-84. Very good copy with half-title. Minor spotting to half-title and final leaf. Partington, III, pp. 727-36.

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