London, The Royal Society, 1795. Large 4to (29.5 x 23.2 cm). Title page to the Volume. pp. 347-399, plus 19 folding plates (numbered XXIV - XLII) showing a total of 47 figures, including the famous huge foldout plate of this enormous telescope. Later marbled boards. Front board with printed title mounted.

The forty-foot reflector telescope that Frederick William Herschel (1738-1822) built at Slough (near Windsor) in the late 1780's was at that time the largest in the world. It was compared in the popular press to the Colossus of Rhodos and other wonders of the world. The telescope is even mentioned on the Ordnance Survey map. The construction was supported by King George III, and built by Herschel and his assistant and sister Caroline. In this paper, Herschel gives detailed insight into the construction and functionality of the telescope. The article is illustrated with 19 plates, including the famous enormous foldout view of the telescope, and was published in the Philosophical Transactions for the year MDCCXCV (1795), Part II. This is the original edition, not the abridged one, with just one plate included in the Herschel paper. Additional papers of interest include the massive paper titled An account of the trigonometrical survey carried on in the years 1791, 1792, 1793, and 1794, by order of his grace the Duke of Richmond..., presented by the Duke. This includes a very large folded map of southern England from Dorchester to Hastings, and including the Isle of Wight. This edition also includes the illustration of a new transit instrument, and a rare early paper on marsupial ontogeny titled Some observations on the mode of generation of the Kanguroo, with particular description of the organs themselves, by Everard Home, with fine illustrations. Short, closed tear near the adhesion point of plate XXIV, otherwise an excellent, clean, unmarked copy. DSB VI, p. 329; Houzeau & Lancaster, p. 918.