A decorative woodcut headpiece featuring symmetrical floral scrolls and foliage patterns, framing a central blank space.

FOREWORD.

Having been unable to avoid extending by one year the deadline at which this second Volume was to appear, it is only right to account for this delay by showing that the primary motive was to ensure this work is in a state to deserve the favorable opinion that the Public seems to have conceived of it.

When one is somewhat protective of one’s reputation, and sensitive regarding the precision appropriate to the subject being treated, it often takes only a single judicious reflection to find mediocre a work that one had believed worthy of some consideration; then, if one is still in possession of his manuscript, he considers himself fortunate to be the master of suppressing it, or of giving it a new form. The manuscript for this volume was already in the hands of the Printer, and I believed I had nothing more to revise, when an unforeseen opportunity disabused me of a feeling that seemed all the more natural as I had neglected nothing to make it ready to see the light of day at the prescribed time.

The Provost of Merchants original: "Prévôt des Marchands." Historically, this was the head of the municipal government of Paris, roughly equivalent to a mayor today. and the Aldermen original: "Echevins." These were the municipal magistrates who assisted the Provost in governing the city. of the City of Paris, having learned that I had made observations regarding the defects of the pumps in the machine applied to the Notre-Dame bridge original: "pont Notre-Dame." This bridge formerly housed large waterwheels and pumps used to provide water to the city's fountains., which supplies water from the Seine River to the greatest number of public fountains, did me the honor of inviting me in 1737 to communicate to them my views on the way to rectify this machine, in order to make it capable of a greater output. As, while working on the project that was ultimately executed, I happened to make several new discoveries regarding the movement of waters and the perfection of machines suitable for raising them,