Henry Cavendish (1731-1810), the grandson of the second duke of Devonshire, wrote papers on electrical topics for the Royal Society, but the majority of his electrical experiments did not become known until they were collected and published by James Clerk Maxwell a century later, in 1879, long after other scientists had been credited with the same results. Among Cavendish's discoveries were the concept of electric potential, which he called the 'degree of electrification'; an early unit of capacitance, that of a sphere one inch in diameter; the formula for the capacitance of a plate capacitor; the concept of the dielectric constant of a material; the relationship between electric potential and current, now called Ohm's Law; laws for the division of current in parallel circuits, now attributed to Charles Wheatstone; and the inverse square law of variation of electric force with distance, now called Coulomb's Law.

Henry Cavendish (1731-1810) was an English scientist whose published work was mostly concerned with electricity. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1760. Cavendish was a prolific scientific investigator, performing experiments on not only electricity but also magnetism, thermometry, gases, heat potential and the chemical composition of water. Although he published some of his research, including his discovery of hydrogen, the majority of his work remained unpublished until 1879, when James Clerk Maxwell published a collection of Cavendish's electrical experiments. These papers showed that Cavendish had discovered many important electrical concepts which had since been credited to other researchers, including the concept of electric potential. First published in 1921, these volumes are a collection of Cavendish's results from his many experiments. Volume 1 is a revised edition of James Clerk Maxwell's 1879 volume Electrical Researches of Henry Cavendish, also reissued in this series.

This biography of Britain’s spy chief during the Revolutionary War sheds new light on his conspiracy with Benedict Arnold—and his mysterious capture. John André was head of the British Army’s Secret Service in North America as the Revolutionary War entered its most decisive phase. In 1780, he masterminded the defection of the high-ranking American general Benedict Arnold. As the commander of West Point, Arnold agreed to turn the strategically vital fort over to the British. André and Arnold also conspired to kidnap George Washington. The secret negotiations between Arnold and André were protracted and fraught with danger. Arnold’s wife Peggy acted as go-between until September 21st, 1780, when the two men met face to face in no-man’s-land. But then André was captured forty-eight hours later, having broken every condition set by his commanding officer: he was within American lines, wearing civilian clothes, and carrying maps of West Point in his boots. When he announced himself as a spy, the Americans had no recourse. Tried by a military tribunal, he was convicted and hanged. André’s motives for his apparent sacrifice have baffled historians for generations. This biography provides a provocative answer to this mystery—explaining not only why he acted as he did, but how he wished others to see his actions.