Rare books from Kuenzig Books

Washington, D. C.: The National research Council, 1943. First Edition. Wraps. Near Fine. First Edition. We offer a nearly complete run of this important early computer serial: Numbers 1, 2, 5-59, 66-70, each in the original wrappers as published. Small quarto and octavo sizes, approx 12 inches shelf space. Occasional minor soiling. From the library of Frank M. Verzuh, with his name on some covers. Wraps. MTAC is the first period journal devoted entirely to the literature of computation. The journal had a very small subscription base in the early years. Through 1946, it's subscription list was less than 350 readers. Many were discarded as computing advanced at a rapid pace. As of this writing, Worldcat shows less than 80 institutions with even partial runs. The first volume contains lists and descriptions of printed tables, where they were published, as well as new errors discovered in the published sources. These errors, introduced by humans whose job description were "computers", continued to… Read More

Paris: Crochard, 1820. First Edition. Flexible paper boards. Near Fine. First Edition. 448 pages. Early temporary binders paper boards (light blue paper over very thin pasteboard), laid endpapers and stub. Evidence that the textblock was originally stab-stitched and then sewn when the binding was applied. Paper spine label with manuscript titling, and paper label and 2 chalked numbers on the spine. Annales de Chimie et de Physique, Tome XIV complete with half title, entire volume offered. Protected in a 1/4 leather over cloth professionally made clamshell case with gilt spine titling. Flexible paper boards. Contains Oersted's "EXPERIMENTA CIRCA EFFECTUM, etc. Experiences sur l'effet du conflict electrique sur l'aiguille animantee" on pages 417-420, a very important work that led to the Discovery of Electromagnetism and informed subsequent work done by Ampere, Arago, Maxwell and Faraday. Initially published in a rare Latin pamphlet (known to Bern Dibner in only a few copies), this important discovery… Read More

A Paris: Chez Jean Boudot, Jacques Collombay, et Jean Boudot fils rue S. Jacques, 1709. First Edition. Full calf. Very Good. First Edition. [8], 347, [6] pages + 28 plates. 8vo. Full calf binding with red spine label, raised bands and gilt decorations. Light rubbing to leather, stain to front leather lower right. Speckled edges. Previous owner name scratched out on front flyleaf. Bookplate of "D. de Romand" on front pastedown. Occasional early ink underlining and marginal highlights with occasional manuscript notation in a neat hand. Full calf. A first edition of this exceptional work that went through five editions. Many beautifully illustrated plates (27 finely engraved plates plus an additional map plate). "The best illustrated account of the scientific instruments in use at the beginning of the XVIIIth centry, including the compass of proportion, surveying and astronomical instruments, the micrometer, a machine showing solar and lunar eclipses, etc. The whole of the VIIth [section] is on the… Read More

Springfield: D. B. Spooner & Co., Photographers, 1858. First Edition. Boards. Very Good. First Edition. Title page and "statistics" (four pages) plus 62 portraits w/tissue guards and interleaved blank leaves (most with signatures or inscriptions from the sitter). Frontispiece engraving of the college signed: "Thos. Chubbuck, Engr. Springfield, Ms." and "Published by J.S. & C. Adams" Statistics leaf signed in print on verso "Samuel Bowles and Company, printers." 4to. 9 1/2 x 12 inches. Decorated leather binding (worn at extremities). "Andrew Josiah Clapp" in gilt on front cover [his album]. "Portraits | Amherst | 1858" in gilt on spine. Two library stamps ("Southampton Public Library") crossed out with no other markings. Photographs are salt prints, oval format, approximately 4 ¾ x 6 inches. Tonality varies, with scattered fading and foxing. Boards. Leaf titled "Statistics" has a list of each student, residence, and when they entered and left college (and if graduated). It also notes that there are… Read More

[London]: [C. Davis, Printer to the Royal Society], 1753. First Edition. Extract. Very Good. First Edition. 565-568 pages. 4to. 19 x 24 cm. (7 1/4 x 9 1/4 inches). An extract from "Philosophical Transactions Giving some Account of the Present Undertakings, Studies, and Labours, of the Ingenious in Many Considerable Parts of the World ... Vol. XLVII For the Years 1751 and 1752...London: Printed for C. Davis, MDCCLIII" The article offered here, "A Letter of Benjamin Franklin, Esq; to Mr. Peter Collinson, F. R. S. concerning an electrical Kite" is found on pages 565-567 and is complete. Browned at the edges, leaves separated. Extract. "Until the middle of the eighteenth century electricity was known only in its static form, [often experimentally collected in Leiden jars]...The most dramatic result of [Benjamin Franklin]'s researches was the proof that lightening is really an electrical phenomenon. Others had made such a suggestion before him - even Newton himself - but it was [Franklin] who provided… Read More

[no place of publication stated]: [no publisher stated], 1953. Wraps. Very Good. Throbac I: [1]-5 pages. Throbac - Circuit Operation: [1]-7 pages + 1 plate leaf. 10 7/8 x 8 3/8 inches. Both are typescript carbons on thin paper, printed recto only. Paper clipped upper left. Includes small note: "Thank you for lending this to us. However, our plans have changed & we are thus unable to build a "super modern" Throback. T R Baskhear". Cyanotype plate with ink stamp on rear "Printed Apr 15, 1953 Murray Hill" surrounded by 4 concentric circles. Wraps. Apparently published only in the Sloane and Wyner bibliography, this paper describes at a high level what THROBAC I is (THROBAC stands for THrifty ROman-numeral BAckward looking Computer) and what it can do. The second paper "THROBAC - CIRCUIT OPERATION" contains a detailed description of the circuit operation, and the plate in the rear is a circuit diagram showing how the pieces interact. "Throbac...is a relay desk calculator operating entirely in the Roman… Read More

Murray Hill, N. J.: Bell Telephone Laboratories, Incorporated, 1953. Wraps. Very Good. [1-cover sheet], [1-abstract], [1]-14 leaves + 4 plates (2 folding). Stapled upper left. 10 7/8 x 8 3/8 inches. Reproduced typescript. Plate slightly larger at 11 x 8 1/2 inches. The main text leaves and abstracts have fours holes punched at the spine. The plates in the rear are not hole punched. There is some mild paper toning and fold creasing to the rear pages near the staple. Wraps. The Proceedings of the I. R. E., Vol 41, pp. 1348-1351, October 1953 first published a description of the Relay Circuit Analyzer under the title "Machine Aid for Switching Circuit Design." The Bell Laboratories Monograph series (#2159: March 1954) also published that description. We were delighted to discover this internal Bell Laboratories Memorandum, "The Relay Circuit Analyzer - Case 22108," among Shannon's files. It not only precedes the first public description in the Proceedings of the IRE by several months, but it includes… Read More

Murray Hill, N. J.: Bell Telephone Laboratories, Inc, 1949. Wraps. Very Good. [1]-40 leaves + four plates. 10 7/8 x 8 3/8 inches (plates slightly larger). Mimeographed typescript printed on recto only. Ink stamped "May 2-1949" on upper right corner. Text with four holes punched at spine, double stapled upper left. Plates are detached, not hole punched, but do have round ink stamped "Printed May 10, 1949 Murray Hill" on verso. Several short edge tears. Graphic on page 35 is hand penciled in. Figures (plates) 1, 2, and 4 are the original cyanotypes. Plate 3 is provided in facsimile. Price reduced. Wraps. During World War II, Bell Lab scientists worked on classified government-funded cryptography research. Shannon's research resulted in the classified internal technical memorandum "A Mathematical Theory of Cryptography" dated Sept. 1, 1945. (Sloane and Wyner #24) Never published, the Bell System Technical Journal in October 1949 first published a declassified abstract of this paper titled… Read More

New York: American Institute of Electrical Engineers [AIEE], 1938. Wraps. Near Fine. [1]-11, 12 pages. 10 15/16 x 8 1/2 inches. Stapled self-wrappers. Hand-applied ink-stamp upper left "A Reprint from the Dept. of Electrical Engineering 141 Mass. Institute of Technology" partially covering the title and author of the paper. An excellent copy of this offprint, with just a touch of wear to the extremities, soft crease lower corners, and minor smudge on rear panel. Wraps. We offer an example of the very rare MIT preprint of Claude Shannon's AIEE paper "A Symbolic Analysis of Relay and Switching Circuits," a pivotal paper in the history of computing. (see #1.5 in COLLECTOR'S NOTES below for printing precedence). This paper (often referred to as Shannon's famous Master's Thesis) is a fundamentally important work in the history of computing. It demonstrates how to combine the mathematical rigor of Boolean logic with the engineering practice of building circuits, a discipline previously more of an… Read More

New York: American Institute of Electrical Engineers [AIEE], 1938. Wraps. Good. [1]-11, 12 pages. 10 15/16 x 8 1/2 inches. Stapled self-wrappers. Hand-applied ink-stamp upper left "A Reprint from the Dept. of Electrical Engineering 141 Mass. Institute of Technology" partially covering the title and author of the paper. Spine refolded many times (presumably for reading), multiple marginal edge tears, fraying and several marginal chips. There is also sun darkening to the foreedge of the front wrapper. The text is effectively complete except for a paper puncture/tear to the last two leaves with minor effect to the text of a figure and table but with no loss of meaning. With all a rare survival of an important item. Wraps. We offer an example of the rare MIT preprint of Claude Shannon's AIEE paper "A Symbolic Analysis of Relay and Switching Circuits," a pivotal paper in the history of computing. (see #1.5 in COLLECTOR'S NOTES below for printing precedence). This paper (often referred to as Shannon's… Read More

Torino: Dall Stamperia Reale, 1841. Boards. Very Good. Four volumes, each uniformly bound in 1/4 leather over marbled boards. Flat spines with labels in green and brown (now faded). Gilt titles and ruling. Volume 1 with minor worming to the base of the rear panel resulting in some separation of the leather at the joint. Volume 2 with some bumping to the board edges and a touch of worming at the base of the front panel. Volume 3 with some worming damage to the front hinge at the head. All are fundmentally sound. Bookplate of Prof. Giovanni Ferraris on front pastedown of each volume. Vol. 1: [4], [I-IV], [V]-XXXI, [1], 1-910 pages plus nine folding plates. (published 1837) Vol. 2: [4], V-XV, [1], 1-980 pages plus 5 folding plates. One plate with marginal tear. (published 1838) Vol. 3: [4], V-XIII, [1], 1-932 pages plus two folding plates. (published 1840) Vol. 4: [4], V-XIII, [1], 1-926, [2-blank], LIII, [1] pages plus two folding plates plus [1-con permissione],[1-blank] pages. (published 1841)… Read More

[New York]: [The Institute of Radio Engineers, Inc.], 1949. First Separate Edition. Wraps. Good. First Separate Edition. [9]-22 pages. 11 x 8 1/2 inches. Self-wrappers, last page (rear cover) blank. Two staples near spine printed on buff paper. Light soiling and creasing to wrappers. Thumbing crease. Staples rusted. Wraps. Shannon presented this paper at the IRE National Convention, New York, N. Y. on March 24, 1948, and IRE New York Section on November 12, 1947. The Institute of Radio Engineers received the original manuscript of this paper on July 23, 1940 [sic 1948?]. The "Proceedings of the Institute of Radio Engineers" (Volume 37, pp 10-21, January 1949) first published this paper. Here offered in the offprint form. The Bell System Technical Monograph series (#B-1644: 1949) later reprinted this paper. "In 1948, C. E. Shannon ... published his classic paper "A Mathematical Theory of Communication" in the Bell System Technical Journal. [That first] paper founded the discipline of information… Read More

New York: D. Appleton & Co, 1905. Sixth edition, first state. Cloth. Very Good. Sixth edition, first state. 1 leaf (presentation copy leaf), xvii, [1], 1143 pages. Original (red) cloth. Professionally rebacked with original spine laid down. Original boards preserved with color toning mostly to the rear board to address mild dampstaining. Light marginal dampstaining to the inside lower gutter prelims through pp69, pp 1085-1143, and occasionally otherwise. Occasional smudges/stains not affecting readability as befits a book designed to be used. Blue colored ring stain pp 655-672. The first state of this edition with signed PRESENTATION Leaf. The printed presentation leaf, bound at the very beginning, reads as follows: "Presentation Copy | This is Number 30 [number filled in, in ink] | of the first 105,000 copies printed." INSCRIBED in ink by WILLIAM OSLER "Dr. James Stewart | from | Wm Osler" below the printed presentation notice. Cloth. "Two states of the sixth edition (1905) were produced. The first… Read More

[Philadelphia]: [Francis Childs], 1795. First Edition. Disbound. Good. First Edition. [1]-7, [1 (blank)] pages. Extracted from a bound volume (stab holes evident at the spine) with leaves detached from one another. Inked 1795 above caption title. penciled "JKL 81-43" in lower margin. Signed "Go.: Washington, United States, 8th December, 1795" in type on page 7. First lines: "Fellow Citizens of the Senate, and House of Representatives, I Trust I do not deceive myself, while I indulge the persuasion ..." Disbound. President Washington's State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress. He touches on many areas, with the first page devoted almost entirely to the war with various Indian tribes, including the "termination of the long, expensive and distressing war, in which we have been engaged with certain Indians, northwest of the Ohio, [now handled by] a treaty which the commander of our army has concluded, provisionally, with the hostile tribes in that region. In the adjustment of the terms,… Read More

[London]: [Taylor & Francis], 1950. First Separate Edition. Wraps. Near Fine. First Separate Edition. [1], 256-275, [1-blank] pages. 9 15/16 x 6 3/4 inches. Self-wrappers stapled and glued. The five examined offprints [as here] have been oddly but consistently constructed. The first leaf (wrapper title) is tipped onto a gathering formed by pages 257-272 (signed 'U'). Pages 273-276 (276 is blank) are formed by folding a single sheet once and tipping that unsigned gathering to the verso of the ‘U' gathering. This example with hard creases on pp 271-274, soft creasing to upper right corner, and light soiling to (mostly) the upper third of the front wrapper. A remarkable survival of a fragile item. Supplied with a custom folio protector with leather spine and gilt titles over light grey cloth boards. NOTE: The offprint wrapper title introduced a typographical error: "Programming a Computor (sic) for playing chess" - mis-spelling Computer. On the verso (the first page of the paper), the title is… Read More