First Edition. 2 vol. 4to. Vol. I, 354 leaves, 15 folded engraved plates, numbered, by Benard; list of errata on 2 pages at the end, followed by a Catalogue of books on hydraulic and civil architecture to be found chez
Firmin Didot; vol. II, 122 leaves, folded engraved plates, some signed by Géoffroy, numbered 16 to 52; the title of the second volume gives a longer
description of the author than that of the first volume:
Par. R. Prony, de l’Institut National des Sciences et des Arts, ingénieur en chef des ponts et chaussées, chargé de la direction du cadastre
.
Jefferson bought this book and the
Mécanique Philosophique
by the same author in 1806. He ordered them originally from
Reibelt of Baltimore on June 24, 1804: “
. . . There are two works by Prony, viz Architecture Hydraulique, & Mechanique Philosophique which I should be glad to get
if you have them . . .
”
On January 20, 1806, Jefferson sent to Reibelt a list of books to be brought from Bordeaux in which these two by Prony were included.
On June 16 of the same year a bill presented to T. H. Backer on Jefferson’s behalf by
Dufour of Amsterdam included “
Architecture hydraulique de Prony tomes 1 & 2 4
o. fig. relié
,” price
42, and “
Mécanique philosophique du même 1 vol. 4
o. relié, price
7.10.
”
Prony’s
Architecture Hydraulique was one of the books used by Jefferson in his arguments concerning Oliver Evans and his invention of the elevator, in his
letter to Isaac McPherson, already quoted in regard to other entries, dated from Monticello August 13, 1813: “
. . . the last book I have to quote for it is Prony’s Architecture Hydraulique I. Avertissement vii. and §
648. 649. 650. in the latter of which passages he observes that the 1
st. idea which occurs for raising water is to lift it in a bucket by hand. when the water lies too deep to be reached by hand,
the bucket is suspended by a chain, and let down over a pulley or windlass. if it be desired to raise a continued stream of
water, the simplest means which offers itself to the mind is to attach to an endless chain or cord a number of pots or buckets,
so disposed that, the chain being suspended on a lanthorn or wallower above, and plunged in water below, the buckets may descend
and ascend alternately, filling themselves at bottom, and emptying at a certain height above, so as to give a constant stream
. . .
”
[For § 648, 649 and 650, see Volume I, pages 306-8.]
Gaspard Clair François Marie Riche, Baron de Prony, 1755-1839, French engiener, was educated at the École des Ponts et Chaussées, where he eventually became the director. He
was in charge of several important engineering works including the draining of the Pontine Marshes and regulating the course
of the Rhone. He undertook the direction of the Cadastre in 1792.
In the working copy of the Library of Congress 1815 Catalogue, these volumes are not checked as present, and the entry has
the word
missing written beside it in ink.
[3744]
28
Report on the Canal between Forth & Clyde. pamphl.
1815 Catalogue, page 114, no. 36, as above, reading
pamphlet, 4to.
BRINDLEY,
James.
Reports by James Brindley, Thomas Yeoman, and John Golborne . . . relative to a Navigable Communication betwixt the friths of Forth and Clyde, Edinburgh 13th, 23d, 30th September, 1768.
With Observations.
Edinburgh: printed by
Balfour,
Auld and
Smellie,
1768.
4to. 24 leaves, engraved folded map as frontispiece; no copy was seen for collation.
James Brindley, 1716-1772, one of the earliest English engineers. Reports on the same subject by the same three engineers were prepared
in 1767 and printed by John Smeaton in his report concerning the rivers Forth and Clyde, published in 1767.
[3745]
29
Mechanique philosophique par Prony
4
to.
1815 Catalogue, page 113, no. 33, as above.
PRONY,
Gaspard Clair François Marie Riche, Baron de.
Mécanique Philosophique, ou analyse raisonnée des diverses parties de la science de l’Équilibre et du Mouvement; par R. Prony, de l’Institut national des
