Motion of Fixed Stars Drayson Edinburgh Institution Prize, 1874

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Presented here is a handsomely bound copy of Lieutenant-Colonel Alfred Wilks Drayson's The Cause of the Supposed Proper Motion of … Read more Presented here is a handsomely bound copy of Lieutenant-Colonel Alfred Wilks Drayson's The Cause of the Supposed Proper Motion of the Fixed Stars, and an Explanation of the Apparent Acceleration of the Moon's Mean Motion; with Other Geometrical Problems in Astronomy Hitherto Unsolved, published in London by Chapman and Hall in 1874. A sequel to Drayson's better-known Cause, Date, and Duration of the Last Glacial Epoch, the work lays out the author's unorthodox theory of a second terrestrial motion, put forward as an explanation for glaciation, the precession of the equinoxes, and irregularities in the moon's mean motion. Drayson, an artillery officer and Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, developed his ideas outside the astronomical mainstream, and this volume remains a distinctive artifact of Victorian scientific speculation.

The book is bound in full tan calf, the front board stamped in gilt with the armorial crest of the Edinburgh Institution — a bust of Pallas Athena encircled by the motto Doctrina Vim Promovet Insitam ("Learning develops innate power") beneath a ribbon reading EDINBURGH INSTITUTION. The spine carries raised bands and a black morocco title label lettered in gilt, MOTION OF THE FIXED STARS / DRAYSON, with further gilt floral tooling above and below. Edges and endpapers are marbled throughout.

The volume carries a rich chain of school provenance. A printed prize label pasted opposite the title page records that it was awarded the Seventh Prize in Practical Mathematics, Fifth Class, at the Edinburgh Institution, 8 Queen Street, in July 1876, presented to a pupil named John French over the signature of Wm. Fyfe, Master. Decades later, in November 1926, the book was given again — this time as a gift from a preceptor to "an excellent pupil, with hearty congratulations on his progress," inscribed on the front free endpaper and localized to Leppington House School, Hertford. Pencilled ownership names, "Alfred H. Barley" and "Sir Wm. Salmond, K.C.B.," appear on a preceding leaf, adding a further layer to the book's long history of ownership and reward. See less