Boys' Second Book of Inventions Ray Stannard Baker 1903 Illustrated Hardcover

Boys' Second Book of Inventions is Ray Stannard Baker's 1903 collection of nine chapters on the science of the day, a fully illustrated hardcover from McClure, Phillips and Co. of New York.

The red cloth cover is still bright and the black lettering on the spine reads clearly, but the book itself is rough: the front hinge is split with the mull showing and many pages are loose through the volume, all of it shown in the photos.

The nine chapters take on radium and the Curies, Santos-Dumont's steerable balloons, Professor Milne's seismograph, the electrical furnaces hot enough to make diamonds, the solar motor at Los Angeles, nitrogen fixing, Marconi's wireless, lighthouse building, and Peter Cooper Hewitt's mercury arc light. It suits a reader who wants the 1903 view of the future, or a collector who keeps a reference copy of a book too fragile to read from.

Details

• Item: Hardcover book
• Title: Boys' Second Book of Inventions
• Author: Ray Stannard Baker
• Publisher: McClure, Phillips and Co., New York
• Publication Year: 1903
• Edition and Printing: Copyright 1903, published November 1903, with no later printing statement shown
• Format and Binding: Hardcover, red cloth boards with black lettering and a pictorial front
• Dust Jacket: No dust jacket present
• Genre: Science and invention, juvenile nonfiction
• Language: English
• ISBN: None printed
• Dimensions: 8 by 6 by 2 inches

Condition Grade: Fair

Positives

• Graded Fair: a reading and reference copy with heavy wear to the binding, every flaw named below.
• The front cover is bright, with the red cloth still strong and the black dirigible illustration and title sharp.
• The copyright page reads Copyright, 1903, by McClure, Phillips and Co., with Published, November, 1903 below it.
• The title page is complete, with the author line, the note that he wrote Boys' Book of Inventions, the McClure, Phillips and Co. imprint, and the MCMIII date.
• The frontispiece portrait of the author is present and still has its tissue guard.
• The table of contents is intact and lists all nine chapters, from The Miracle of Radium through The Newest Electric Light.
• The plates survive, including The Work of the Great Earthquake of 1891 in Neo Valley, Japan, and the Front View of the Los Angeles Solar Motor.
• The spine still reads Boys' Second Book of Inventions and Ray Stannard Baker, with McClure Phillips and Co. at the foot.
• The text reads cleanly where the pages are held together, from the radium chapter through page 320 and the printed THE END.

Issues / Wear

• The front hinge is split open, with the cloth mull and dried glue showing between the endpaper and the text block.
• Many pages are loose through the volume, and the binding is split in more than one place.
• The paper lining of the inside back cover is torn diagonally, with a loose piece of paper resting over it.
• The book carries an ink inscription on the front flyleaf, dated Christmas Day, 1905.
• Page 17 has a light brown stain in its upper left corner, and page 251 has a small stain near the middle.
• Page 320 and the inside back cover carry scattered brown stains and smudges along the edges.
• The top edge of the text block is heavily darkened and spotted, and the page edges are tanned throughout.
• The board corners are bumped and frayed, with the red cloth worn through at the lower corners.
• The back cover shows scuffs, fine scratches, and a few small dark spots near the lower left corner.
• The cloth is worn and creased along the spine edge.

The pages come with an inscription dated Christmas 1905, and the plates alone would make this one worth keeping on a shelf of early science writing. If it's the right copy for you, it's ready to come home.