An Essay Explanatory of the Tempest Prognosticator

London: John Churchill. 1851. First Edition; First Printing. Hardcover. Very good+ with repaired spine, soiling and small spots on boards. This copy contains Merryweather's book plate pasted on the front end paper. The invention was presented at the Great Exhibition of 1851 at the Crystal Palace in London. This book contains Merryweather's lecture on the instinctive nature of animals and on how his instrument worked (with leeches!) Finally he deferred to Faraday and Pelletier's studies "On the Electricity of the Air," concluding that they support his revelations in his own experiments resulting in The Tempest Prognosticator. Reportedly the lecture took nearly three hours in which Merryweather had hoped to convince the Royal Navy to use his invention for predicting storms, but, alas, they chose the simpler Fitzroy's Stormglass. A print of the invention appears as the frontispiece. ; 8vo 8" - 9" tall; 63 pp . (Inventory #: 34021)