Génie militaire à Constantine. - Génie hydraulique Distribution des eaux de Paris – Canal de l’Ourcq & Seine - 1815-1830

Hydraulic Engineering – Distribution of Parisian Waters – Ourcq Canal & Seine – Watt and Woolf steam engines – 30 large plates engraved by Adam – Plans of Paris. Provenance: Engineering of Constantine – France, early 19th century
Important French technical collection devoted to hydraulic engineering, to the collection and distribution of Paris’s waters, prepared at the beginning of the 19th century, in the context of the great works to improve the capital’s water supply.
An impression lacking a title page and undated, bringing together 30 large technical plates numbered, mostly laid out on double pages, bearing the inscription “Gravé par Adam.”
The whole constitutes a remarkable engineering documentation on the first modern infrastructures for supplying water to Paris.
Contents of the plates
The plates present with great precision different aspects of hydraulic and mechanical works, notably:
Ourcq Canal, cross-sections, hydraulic works and devices, aqueducts and underground galleries, with longitudinal and transverse sections, masonry works intended for the passage and support of pipes, distribution of Ourcq waters in Paris, distribution of Seine waters, networks of main conduits, distributors, service pipes and particular connections, reservoirs and domestic distribution devices,
fountains and urban hydraulic installations, detailed plans of Parisian districts showing the layout of pipelines.
Among the particularly spectacular plates are several large plans of Paris and its surroundings, allowing a graphical trace of the different hydraulic networks.
Notably, “Plan de Paris et de ses Environs avec le Tracé général d'une Distribution des Eaux de l'Ourcq” as well as a “Plan de Paris et de ses Environs avec le Tracé général d'une Distribution des Eaux de la Seine.”
Another large plate represents the network at the scale of a neighborhood: “Plan d'un des quartiers de Paris et tracé de l'ensemble du Système de Tuyaux pour la distribution des Eaux à domicile,” with representations of main conduits, distributors, service pipes and household pipes.
The work is not limited to pipes. It also contains important plates devoted to the mechanical technologies used for raising water.
Thus a large plate represents,
“Élévation d'une Machine à vapeur d'après le Système de Watt,” accompanied by sections and technical details.
A second representation concerns a:
“Machine à vapeur d'après le Système de Woolf.”
These plates constitute a particularly interesting testimony to the dissemination in France of the great innovations of the Industrial Revolution applied to pumping and water supply.
Several plates also concern the hydraulic installations of the Palais-Royal, including a spectacular depiction entitled “Détails du Bassin et de la Gerbe d'eau du Palais Royal,” presenting in section the basin, the subterranean conduits, the assembly systems and the device enabling the water jets.
Other plates show different types of ashlar-lined galleries containing one or more conduits, as well as the techniques used for their underground installation.
Engravings
The plates are executed with great finesse: topographic plans, elevations, profiles, architectural and mechanical sections, masonry details and hydraulic devices.
Several bear distinctly the signature, “Gravé par Adam.”
All 30 plates thus form a particularly rich graphic documentation on the history of Parisian hydraulics, urban planning, and the engineering techniques of the early 19th century.
Particularly interesting provenance
The title page bears two old stamps of the Génie de Constantine, presumably indicating the conservation or use of this work within a library or a technical service of the Military Engineering in Constantine, Algeria.
This institutional provenance is an additional historical element of interest for this copy.
Also visible are several old annotations and manuscript references on the guard.
Large-format volume kept in an old half-leather binding, spine with raised bands simulated/gilt filet and covers covered in dark marbled paper.
The binding shows significant signs of use, rubbing, epidermisations and leather losses, greatly stressed headcaps and corners, worn covers, and an old library label on the back.
The interior bears foxing and signs of time, varying with the pages. The large plates remain particularly legible and preserve all the finesse of their layouts and engravings.
30 plates present in the volume.
Very interesting document for the history of:
hydraulic engineering – the Ourcq canal, Paris’s water supply, the first urban water distribution networks, the Ponts et Chaussées, Watt and Woolf steam engines, Parisian cartography, and the French military engineering.
France, first third of the 19th century, probably around 1815–1830.
The photos are an integral part of the description.
Shipment by Chronopost or other depending on destination with insurance.