# Is "Experimental Researches in Electricity" by Michael Faraday a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Experimental Researches in Electricity by Michael Faraday (Richard and John Edward Taylor, 1839) is identified by: Issued as three separate volumes over sixteen years, each with its own title-page date and, for volume III, a different imprint: volume I, 1839 (Richard and John Edward Taylor), collating vi, 574, [10] pages with 8 folding engraved plates; volume II, 1844 (Richard and John Edward Taylor), collating viii, 302, [2] pages with 5 engraved plates, 2 of them folding; and volume III, 1855 (Richard Taylor and William Francis), collating viii, 588 pages with 4 further plates. The individual papers collected here first appeared in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society (1832-1852) and a handful of other periodicals; the three Taylor-imprint volumes are the first collected book edition of this material rather than its first appearance in print.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- Issued as three separate volumes over sixteen years, each with its own title-page date and, for volume III, a different imprint: volume I, 1839 (Richard and John Edward Taylor), collating vi, 574, [10] pages with 8 folding engraved plates; volume II, 1844 (Richard and John Edward Taylor), collating viii, 302, [2] pages with 5 engraved plates, 2 of them folding; and volume III, 1855 (Richard Taylor and William Francis), collating viii, 588 pages with 4 further plates
- A complete first-edition set therefore shows three different dates and two different publisher's names across the volumes, and totals 17 plates
- The volumes reprint, essentially unaltered, the papers on electricity and magnetism Faraday had already published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society and other periodicals between 1831 and 1852
- Publisher imprint reads Richard and John Edward Taylor
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Michael Faraday |
| Publisher | Richard and John Edward Taylor |
| Year | 1839 |
| True first | — |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | Issued as three separate volumes over sixteen years, each with its own title-page date and, for volume III, a different imprint: volume I… |
| Book-club edition exists? | — |

## Points of issue
Issued as three separate volumes over sixteen years, each with its own title-page date and, for volume III, a different imprint: volume I, 1839 (Richard and John Edward Taylor), collating vi, 574, [10] pages with 8 folding engraved plates; volume II, 1844 (Richard and John Edward Taylor), collating viii, 302, [2] pages with 5 engraved plates, 2 of them folding; and volume III, 1855 (Richard Taylor and William Francis), collating viii, 588 pages with 4 further plates. A complete first-edition set therefore shows three different dates and two different publisher's names across the volumes, and totals 17 plates. The volumes reprint, essentially unaltered, the papers on electricity and magnetism Faraday had already published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society and other periodicals between 1831 and 1852.

## Is this the true first?
The individual papers collected here first appeared in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society (1832-1852) and a handful of other periodicals; the three Taylor-imprint volumes are the first collected book edition of this material rather than its first appearance in print.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
Beginning around 1878, bookseller Bernard Quaritch issued close facsimile reprints of all three volumes after acquiring the remaining rights and sheets from the Taylor firm; these reprints keep the original 1839, 1844, and 1855 dates on their title pages even though they were printed decades later, with only the publisher's name changed to Bernard Quaritch. A genuine first-edition set must show Richard and John Edward Taylor (volumes I-II) or Richard Taylor and William Francis (volume III) as the title-page publisher, not Bernard Quaritch.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Experimental Researches in Electricity* by Michael Faraday a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/experimental-researches-in-electricity
CC BY 4.0. Part of the Canonical First-Edition Points of Issue dataset (https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/api/first-edition-titles.json). Last reviewed 2026-07-04.