LOT Old Heritage Auctions  /  2008 Feb Grand Format Book & Manuscript #682  / 

56602

[Nicolas Gauger]. La Mechanique du feu L'Art

Currency:USD Category:Books / Antiquarian & Collectible Start Price:500.00 USD Estimated At:750.00 - 1,250.00 USD
[Nicolas Gauger]. La Mechanique du feu L'Art
<B>[Nicolas Gauger]. </B></I><B><I>La Mechanique du feu</B></I></B></I><B>,</B></I> ou L'Art d'en augmenter les effets, & d'en diminuer la depense. Contenant le traite de nouvelles cheminees qui echauffent plus que le cheminees ordinaires, & qui ne sont point sujettes a  fumer, &c. Cosmopoli [i.e., Amsterdam: Chez Henri Schelte], 1714.<BR><BR>Scarce pirated edition (first published in Paris in 1713). Twelvemo (6.0625 x 3.5 inches). x, 267, [9, "Table"] pages. Title printed in red and black with woodcut vignette. Decorative woodcut and typographic head- and tail-pieces and initials. Twelve double-page engraved plates (six plates are by "J C Dehne sc a Nuremberg"). Actual publication data from E. O. Weller, <I>Falsche Druckorte,</B></I> II, 80.<BR><BR>Contemporary sprinkled calf. Spine decoratively tooled in gilt in compartments with four raised bands and with brown morocco label decoratively stamped and lettered in gilt. Board edges decoratively tooled in gilt. Edges sprinkled red. Corners and spine extremities lightly rubbed, foot of spine chipped away. Slightly browned, marginal stains to three leaves. Inscribed in blue ink on front pastedown: "A W Gauger/State College, Pa./Dec. 1949." A very good copy.<BR><BR>Barbier, III, pp. 96-97.<BR><BR>"The Louvre type of fire-place was made the basis of a fire-place designed by Nicolas Gauger [<I>La Mechanique du Feu,</B></I> Paris, 1713]...Gauger [ca. 1680-1730] emphasized the suction effect of a wind blowing past open doors or windows, the deflection of the wind caused by neighbouring buildings or other obstructions so that it passed down the chimney, the collection of smoke in the corners of large fire-places, the usefulness of a <I>soufflet </B></I>to supply additional air to the fire, and the help afforded by cowls fixed to chimney tops" (Wolf, <I>History of Science, </B></I>II, pp. 550-551).<BR><BR>First published in Paris in 1713 by Jacques Estienne and Jean Jombert, this was "the earliest treatise on domestic heating identifying the causes of smoky chimneys and explaining how to build a caliduct, or air-heating fireplace; its usefulness seems to have invited licit and illicit editions across Europe. A 1714 edition has the imprint 'Cosmopoli,' presumably to disguise a piracy" (RIBA, EW Catalogue No. 1181 (Amsterdam: Chez David Mortier, 1714)). "In the summer of 1715 the well-known experimental philosopher Jean Theosophilus Desaguliers published a translation of Gauger's book [<I>Fires Improv'd: being a New Method of Building Chimneys, so as to Prevent their Smoaking...</B></I>London: Printed for J. Senex, and E. Curll, 1715], omitting what he thought superfluous and adding his own improvements to suit the burning of coal in England" (Harris, BABW, p. 204).<BR><BR>Benjamin Franklin acknowledged his use of this book in designing his "Pennsylvanian fireplace": "The Sieur Gauger gives us, in his Book entitled, <I>La Mechanique de </B></I>[sic]<I> Feu, </B></I>published 1709 [sic], seven different Constructions of the third Sort of Chimneys mentioned above, in which there are hollow Cavities made by Iron Plates in the Back, Jambs and Hearth, thro' which Plates the Heat passing, warms the Air in those Cavities, which is continually coming into the Room fresh and warm. The Invention was very ingenius, and had many Conveniencies: The Room was warmed in all Parts, by the Air flowing into it through the heated Cavities: Cold Air was prevented rushing thro' the Crevices, the Funnel being sufficiently supply'd by those Cavities; Much less Fuel would serve, &c. But the first Expence, which was very great; the Intricacy of the Design, and the Difficulty of the Execution, especially in old Chimneys, discouraged the Propagation of the Invention; so that there are (I suppose) very few such Chimneys now in use" (<I>An Account of the New Invented Pennsylvanian Fire-Places </B></I>(Philadelphia: Printed and Sold by B. Franklin, 1744, pp. 10-11).<BR><BR>"The present fireplaces, Franklin concludes, are unsatisfactory because at least five-sixths of the heat goes up the chimney and contributes nothing to warming the room. Now, coming to the basis of his own invention, he credits it to a Frenchman, Nicolas Gauger, described by him in his book <I>Mechanics of Fire,</B></I> which appeared in English translation in 1715. Gauger's design had the air box and the iron plates and jambs which Franklin incorporated in his own design. Franklin praised the invention, for it warmed all parts of the room as a result of the air box with its heated cavities. In addition, cold air was prevented from rushing through the crevices because the flue was sufficiently supplied by the air from the air box. Nevertheless Franklin noted deficiencies: The cost was great due to the intricacy of the design; there was difficulty in the installation and much of the heat still went up the chimney as in the older fireplaces. To avoid these problems he contrived his Pennsylvanian fireplace," (Seymour Stanton Block, <I>Benjamin Franklin: Genius of Kites, Flights, and Voting Rites, </B></I>p. 115).<BR><BR><b>Shipping:</b> Books & Catalogs (<a target="_blank" href="http://www.heritageauctions.com/common/shipping.php">view shipping information</a>)
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