Electricity up to date by John B. Verity first edition 1891

VERITY, John B. Electricity Up to Date, for Light, Power, and Traction. London and New York: Frederick Warne & Co., 1891. 
 
First edition. 125 x 150 mm. [vi], 178 pp., with a one page advertisement at rear and a folding coloured map showing the areas allotted to the various electric supply companies operating in London in November 1891. In the original plain paper wrappers, very good, with a brown mark to the upper right corner and a little light spotting and wear. Internally clean and well preserved, the folding map in very good condition. With the exceptionally scarce original printed glassine dust wrapper. The wrapper is in fair condition: the spine is entirely lacking and all four flaps are detached, though present, with some chipping, edge loss and general wear. Both the printed front and rear panels survive. An uncommon survival for a technical publication of this date.
 
A scarce guide to electricity published at an important moment in its development from Victorian novelty into an everyday public utility. Verity wrote for the general reader, noting in his preface, dated November 1891, that while electric lighting was already familiar to the public, the sources and capabilities of electricity remained poorly understood. Domestic electrical supply was still exceptional, and London's infrastructure was only beginning to develop into the network which would eventually make electricity commonplace.
 
The book ranges widely across the emerging electrical world, with chapters on the wiring of houses, private installations, public electricity supply, transmission of power, electric motors, tramways and railways, electric traction and Board of Trade regulation. Particularly striking is the folding coloured map, dated November 1891, showing London divided between the competing electricity supply companies then serving or preparing to serve different districts.
 
Verity was himself closely connected with the electrical trade. The final advertisement promotes Verity's of King Street, Covent Garden and Regent Street, contractors and manufacturers of electric-light fittings, while the author's preface is signed from 31 King Street. The advertisement boasts of installations for leading London clubs and institutions and records the use of Verity's electric switches aboard the Royal Yachts "Osborne" and "Victoria and Albert".
 
Institutionally scarce: there are copies at the British Library, Trinity College and Oxford, with no first edition presently traced in commerce. A scarce first edition enhanced by its original printed glassine wrapper and  coloured map of London's electricity supply.