Christmas lectures.- Faraday (Michael) A Course of Six Lectures on the Chemical History of a Candle: to Which is Added a Lecture on Platinum, first edition, illustrations, ink ownership inscription to front free endpaper, original cloth, spine darkened, spine ends and corners a little bumped, small bump to lower fore-edge and joint some light marking to covers, but still a very good copy, 8vo, 1861.

⁂ Rare first edition of the last and most famous of Faraday's Royal Institution Christmas Lectures one of the first and most successful attempts to popularise science for the masses. Faraday himself began the Christmas Lecture series in 1825, designed to present scientific subjects to a wide audience and especially to children, they were presented in an entertaining manner with an emphasis on experiments that could be duplicated by children in the home. The series quickly became an institution continued to this day and has featured lectures by Desmond Morris, Sir David Attenborough, Carl Sagan and Heinz Wolff.