Adams, John Couch | An Explanation of the Observed Irregularities in the Motion of Uranus, London, 1846, first edition

Adams, John Couch

An Explanation of the Observed Irregularities in the Motion of Uranus, on the Hypothesis of Disturbances Caused by a More Distant Planet. London: W. Clowes & Sons, 1846

First edition of the first appearance of Couch's celebrated report of his famous mathematical discovery of the planet Neptune.

Despite the discovery of Uranus as a planet by Sir William Herschel in 1781, contention began to arise within the scientific community due to the planet's continual deviation from its predicted orbit, as laid out by laws of Newtonian gravity. The cause of this deviation was not due to incorrect measurements but rather the eighth and farthest known planet orbiting the sun: Neptune. Upon graduation from Cambridge in 1843, Adams sought to parse out “the irregularities of the motion of Uranus which are yet unaccounted for; in order to find whether they may be attributed to the action of an undiscovered planet beyond it, and if possible, thence to determine approximately the elements of its orbit, &c., which would probably lead to its discovery"(4).

Though Couch arrived at the revolutionary conclusion earlier, French astronomer Urban LeVerrier was given priority for the discovery of Neptune. Couch's paper also appeared as an appendix to the Nautical Almanac and Astronomical Ephemeris for the Year 1851 (London, 1847), pages 265–93, and in the Memoirs of the Astronomical Society, vol. xvi (1847) pages 427ff.

Large 8vo (229 x 147 mm). 31 pages, stitched, not bound; light foxing to edges and last few leaves. Original printed wrappers; a few stains.

REFERENCES

Dibner, Heralds of Science 16; DSB 1:53; Honeyman sale 1:14; Sotheran/Zeitlinger 1:560; cf. Buffalo/Sparrow 1 (the Nautical Almanac); Houzeau & Lancaster 1479 (Memoirs)

PROVENANCE

Robert S. Dunham (inscription to front; Sotheby's New York, 11 December 1993, lot 631)