The Art of Preserving All Kinds of Animal and Vegetable Substances for Several Years. A Work published by the French Minister of the Interior, on the Report of the Board of Arts and Manufacturers. Translated from the French.
London: Black, Parry and Kingsbury; [printed by Cox & Baylis], 1812.
Octavo (18 x 11 cm.), xxv, 164, [2] pages. Illustrated with a folding frontispiece. Publisher's advertisements at rear. Second English Edition. A pioneering work on food preservation which describes “the first workable process for canning foods, the foundation of today’s vast canning industry. Pasteur later admitted that his process of “pasteurization” was chiefly a refinement of, and scientific explanation for, Appert’s invention” (J. Norman, Catalogue 10. Science and Medicine, San Francisco, 1982, no. 8). "Appert, a confectioner and cordial maker, began experiments aimed at preserving food in hermetically sealed containers in 1795. His success was regarded as being of strategic importance to Napoleon's armies and therefore not published until 1810. Appert opened the world's first commercial preserved food factory in 1812. He initially used glass jars and bottles, but soon changed to tin-plated metal cans" (Wellcome II, page 51). “Appert mit au point un procédé [called after his name appertisation] qui consistait à dégager l’oxygène des substances en les faisant boullir au point juste de leur cuisson, et à les enfermer ensuite dans des boîtes de fer-blanc, chauffées au bain-marie, puis fermées hermétiquement” (G. Oberlé, Les Fastes de Bacchus et de Comus 184). ~ Text block and folding plate clean and sound. In full speckled calf, worn at edges, and cracked at hinges but holding; early paper repair to hinges. Gilt-titled red paper spine label chipped. With early ink stamp "HLSQ" to front paste-down, and gilt stamp "Quebec Library" to front panel of binding. Good. [OCLC locates thiry-four copies of this edition; Bitting, page 14; Cagle 545; Norman, Catalogue 10 10; Oberlé 184 (original edition); Oxford, page 141; Simon 135; Vicaire, pages 34-35; Wellcome II, page 51].
Price: $600.00