Sowerby Catalogue Volume I : page 500

“ which have been made for some years past. I flatter myself you will find in it many things agreeable & useful . . .”

The Bibliotheque Physico-Économique was a periodical publication, which, with certain intervals ran from 1782 to 1824. During the years 1782 to 1797 it was edited by A. A. Parmentier (q.v.) and N. Deyeux. Several of the articles relate to America.

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Journal Polytype pour l’annee 1786. 9. v. 8 ^vo.

1815 Catalogue, page 53. no. 80, [ i.e. “30”-- Ed.] as above.

Journal polytype des Sciences et des Arts, pour l’anné 1786 [edited by Hoffmann and Bailly de Benfield]. Paris, 1786.

8vo. 9 vol.

Inventaire des Périodiques scientifiques des Bibliotheques de Paris, no. 896.

Entered without price on the undated manuscript catalogue as 6. v. 8vo.

Joseph Francis Ignatius Hoffmann, a native of Alsace who settled in Paris, experimented with inventions in the art of stereotyping. He started the Journal Polytype in 1786, but in 1787 was deprived of his printing office by a decree of the council and the Journal expired. Before its publication he had issued a Prospectus, accompanied by numerous specimens of the art of Polytype. Jefferson “ knew Hoffman well,” and “ went often to see his works.”

Hoffmann was closely associated with the Abbé Rochon. Letters written by Jefferson during the year 1786 to Franklin, Rittenhouse, Hopkinson, Dr. Currie and others, mention the experiments of the two men.

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Arts tracts. 8 ^vo. Inventors. Dorsey. Lippi. Polymathique. bridge. Guest. Cutting. Mongolfier. Boaz. Useful cabinet. Dynamometer.

1815 Catalogue, page 52. no. 77, Arts, Tracts, Inventors, Dorsey, Lippi, Polymathique, Bridge, Guest, Cutting, Montgolfier’s belier Hydraul, Boaz, Useful Cabinet, Dynamometer, 8vo.

These tracts were originally bound in one volume 8vo. which is no longer in the Library of Congress. Such as can be identified through Jefferson’s correspondence or by other means are as follows:

i. DORSEY, John.

Report, from a Committee of the Senate, on the Subject of Weights and Measures. 1808. [[ Harrisburg, Pa.]: W. C. Smyth.-- Ed. ]

First Edition 8vo.

Jefferson’s copy was sent to him by the author, who wrote from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, on March 26, 1808: “I have herewith forwarded a Copy of my attempt on the subject of Weights and Measures . . .

"I did not reply to the letter which you had the goodness to address to me in the early part of the present session, because I knew that the printed Report would be more complete--beside I was conscious of the value of your time at this momentous crisis . . .”

The letter referred to by Dorsey was written by Jefferson on January 21, and mentioned that: “ It will give me real pleasure to see some good system of measures & weights introduced and combined with the decimal arithmetic . . . your plan presents as few innovations as any I have seen. ”

Jefferson expressed his opinion of this Report in a letter to Thomas Cooper, from Washington, October 27, 1808. “ m( ^~ r) Dorsey was so kind as to send me his pamphlet, by which I found he was for the arbitrary standard of one third of the standard yard of H. I. of England, supposed to be in the Exchequer of that nation, a facsimile of which was to be procured & lodged in Philadelphia. I confess myself to be of the other sect, and to prefer an Unit bearing a given relation to some fixed subject of nature . . . ”

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