Hydraulic Architecture, Volume One, Part Two (1737) - Page 8

FOREWORD.

...be regarded as a complete course in Mechanics The branch of applied mathematics dealing with motion and forces. and Hydraulics The science of the conveyance of liquids through pipes and channels, especially as a source of mechanical force..

I shall say nothing of the labor that the composition of this material has cost me, nor of the care taken in the execution of the plates, which I have endeavored to make as beautiful as possible; I find myself well compensated by the honor the public has bestowed upon the first volume, and by the eagerness they have shown for this one.

APPROBATION.

I HAVE read, by order of the Lord Chancellor, the second volume of the Hydraulic Architecture by Mr. BÉLIDOR, which seemed to me worthy of the high opinion the public had conceived of it upon reading the first; the subjects therein are treated with all the clarity one could desire. Indeed, few works appear whose utility is more relevant to the needs of life, and one cannot overly praise the author's tireless zeal for the progress of the sciences. Done at Paris, this 23rd of February, 1739. PITOT Henri Pitot (1695–1771) was a renowned French hydraulic engineer and the inventor of the Pitot tube used to measure fluid flow velocity..

EXTRACT from the Registers of the Royal Academy of Sciences.

Of the eighteenth of February, one thousand seven hundred and thirty-nine.

MESSRS. Nicole and Pitot, who had been appointed to examine the second volume of Mr. BÉLIDOR'S Hydraulic Architecture, having made their report, the Society has judged that this volume—which, in addition to the theory and description of several machines successfully executed, contains a great deal of new research for the perfection of pumps and other hydraulic machines—when joined to the first, comprises an ingenious application of the rules of Mechanics and Hydraulics to a large number of useful subjects: such as the management, distribution, and gauging of water The precise measurement of the volume and flow rate of water., etc., which Mr. Bélidor has explained with great clarity. In witness whereof I have signed the present certificate. At Paris, this 24th of February, 1739. FONTENELLE Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle, the long-serving and influential Perpetual Secretary of the Academy., Perpetual Secretary of the Royal Academy of Sciences.

ROYAL PRIVILEGE.

LOUIS, by the grace of God, King of France and Navarre: to our friends and loyal counselors, the members of our Courts of Parliament, Masters of Requests in ordinary of our Household, Great Council, Provost of Paris, Bailiffs, Seneschals, their Civil Lieutenants, and our other justices whom it may concern: GREETINGS. Our beloved CHARLES-ANTOINE JOMBERT, our Bookseller in Paris, has represented to us that he desired to have printed and reprinted the works entitled: HYDRAULIC ARCHITECTURE;