[WORCESTER, Edward Somerset, Second Marquis of].

A Century of the Names and Scantlings of such Inventions, As at Present I can call to mind to have tried and perfected, which (my former Notes being lost) I have, at the instance of a powerful Friend, endeavoured now in the year 1655. to set these down in such a way as may sufficiently instruct me to put any of them in practice.

Woodcut royal arms on verso of first leaf of supplement. 10 p.l., 72 pp., [7] leaves (first & last blank); 1 leaf, 34 pp. 12mo, early 19th cent. russia (rebacked & with some wear). London: J. Grismond, 1663. First edition and rare, especially with the supplement which is not present in almost all copies. Among the remarkable projects in this repository of contemporary inventions are a calculating machine, a universal language, repeating firearms, time bombs for use against enemy ships, a mechanical flying bird, a device for enabling a man to fly, burglar-proof locks, and eight different mechanical alphabets. The book is most famous for Worcester's description of his famous "water-commanding engine," an apparatus for raising water by means of steam which, it has been claimed, gives him the right to be credited with the invention of the steam engine. Very good copy, lacking the first blank. The Norman copy lacked the supplement. Ex Bibliotheca Mechanica. Roberts & Trent, Bibliotheca Mechanica, pp. 360-61-"Rare original edition...a fascinating and uncommon work...The text consisting of short accounts or outlines of ideas of one hundred inventions claimed by the author...The present copy is complete with the thirty-four page section in which he gives a [further] description of his water-commanding engine." Wing W-3532.

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