ENGINEERING

Some Recent Phases of the Sewage Question, With Remarks on "Ensilage," As applied to the Storing and Preservation of Sewage-Grown Green Crops.

Author: 
Henry Robinson, C.E., F.S.I. [sanitation; Victorian London sewers; silage; sewage; sewerage; cesspools]
Publication details: 
[London:] Reprinted by permission of the Council from the "Transactions" of the Surveyors' Institution.' To be obtained of Messrs. Spon, 125, Strand, W.C. [1885.]
£30.00

Octavo: 28 pp (paginated 203-230). Unbound and stitched. In original orange printed wraps. Fold-out lithographic plate (c.21 x 45 cms, containing figs. 2 to 6) by C. F. Kell of Castle Street, Holborn, and three illustrations in text: fig.1, a 'useful portable silo [...] made by Messrs. Reynolds', fig.7, 'a simple form of silo with Reynolds' pressure', and fig.8, 'a suggested design for a silo'. The aim of the paper is to 'bring before The Surveyors' Institution some recent phases of the sewage question'. Very good, if a tad dusty at head.

Storage of Flood Water.

Author: 
Professor Henry Robinson, M.Inst.C.E., F.G.S. [sanitation; Victorian London sewers; sewage; sewerage; silage]
Publication details: 
Excerpt from Vol. XX., Part IV., of The Journal of The Sanitary Institute.' The Sanitary Institute. Congress at Southampton, 1899. Offices: Parkes Museum, Margaret Street, London, W.
£30.00

Octavo: 5 pps. Unbound. In original grey printed wraps. Very good, with thin strip of discoloration at foot of back wrap. Manuscript correction (by Robinson?) to one word, and pencil diagram of 'Waste Weir & flood Water Channel' drawn on blank verso of final leaf.

Crown Deep Ltd. Insurance Plan', carbon printed on cloth, giving a detailed layout of the gold mine, keyed to seventy-seven entries. With Manuscript table of results of 'Crown Deep tube milling tests, 1907'.

Author: 
Crown Deep Ltd (gold mine) [South African Gold Mining; Mines]
Publication details: 
Insurance Plan' dated in manuscript 1898. Manuscript table covering the period from 1 August to 9 October 1907.
£225.00

The two items rolled into tubes. The 'Crown Deep Ltd. Insurance Plan' carbon printed on one side of a piece of cloth roughly 44 x 102 cm. In good condition: slightly discoloured and frayed. The keyed entries range from '1 No. 1 Headgear & all appurtenances' to '77 Shed near Feedwater tanks', and include '69 Coolie Compound at Dam' and '57 Stable Boy's House'. The table of results of the 'milling tests', approximately 37 x 74 cm, is clear and complete on discoloured paper with closed tears at head repaired with archival tape.

Autograph Letter Signed ('H Fournel'), in French, to unnamed correspondent.

Author: 
Henri Fournel [Henri-Jérôme-Marie Fournel (1799-1876), French civil engineer, geologist and disciple of Saint-Simon] (1799-1876)
Publication details: 
Without date or place.
£150.00

4to: 3 pp. Bifolium. Good on lightly aged and creased paper. Text clear and entire. Eighty lines of text, beginning abruptly, without salutation, 'Vous m'avez demandé ma pensée sur le prospectus que vous avez proposé.

Watt and the Measurement of Power. Being the Watt Anniversary Lecture delivered before The Greenock Philosophical Society, 5 February, 1897.

Author: 
Sir William Henry Preece (1834-1913), 'Engineer-in-Chief and Electrician, General Post Office, London; Vice-President of the Institution of Civil Engineers.'
Publication details: 
London: Printed by William Clowes and Sons, Limited, Stamford Street and Charing Cross. 1897.
£120.00

8vo: 13 pp. Stitched. In original cream printed wraps. On aged, spotted paper, in heavily worn wraps. Facsimile of handwriting at head of front wrap reads 'With the Author's Compliments'. Two diagrams in text.

Autograph Letter Signed ('h. f.') to 'Madame [Eliza] Thomas'.

Author: 
Henri-Jérôme-Marie Fournel (1799-1876), French civil engineer, geologist and disciple of Saint-Simon [Algeria]
Publication details: 
1 September 1842 ('4h du matin'); place not stated.
£200.00

8vo bifolium, 3 pp. 57 lines of text. Addressed on verso of second leaf of bifolium, with circular postmark in black ink, to 'Madame Thomas, chateau de marville, près et par St. Denis (Banlieue de Paris).' Good, on lightly creased and aged paper, with slight damage to second leaf from breaking of wafer. Text clear and entire, in a difficult, indiosyncratic hand. An interesting and significant letter, announcing Fournel's appointment to the post which would result in his greatest achievement.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Colladon' | professeur à l Ecole Centrale') to 'Monsieur le Directeur Général des Douanes, Paris'.

Author: 
Jean-Daniel Colladon (1802-1893), Swiss physicist and engineer, Professor of Mechanics at the École Centrale des Arts et Manufactures, Paris [Eugène Flachat (1802-1873)] [steam engines; railway]
Publication details: 
27 January 1835; 'à Lyon chez Messieurs Pine Des Granges', on letterhead of the École.
£200.00

4to bifolium: 2 pp, with address on otherwise-blank second leaf. Very good on lightly aged paper. Slight wear to extremities. A significant document, casting light on the relative states of engineering in early nineteenth-century France and England, and the role of the scientist in France at that time.

Autograph Letter Signed, in French, to the Paris bookseller Paul Daffis.

Author: 
Eugène Flachat (1802-1873), French civil engineer who worked on the first French passenger railway (Paris-Le Pecq, 1837), on the Paris-Rouen line and the Gare Saint-Lazare, Paris, 1851 [steam engines]
Publication details: 
26/02/59
£85.00

12mo: 1 p. Fifteen lines of text. Good, on aged and lightly-creased paper. Minor foxing. Difficult hand. Begins 'Je voudrais avoir cette année la collection des Documents parlementaire qui seront distribué au corps legislatif. | Autrefois j'étais abonné pour une petite somme [...]'.

Secretarial note in French, signed by Flachat.

Author: 
Eugène Flachat (1802-1873), French civil engineer who worked on the first French passenger railway (Paris-Le Pecq, 1837), on the Paris-Rouen line and the Gare Saint-Lazare, Paris, 1851 [steam engines]
Publication details: 
23 February 1856; Paris.
£56.00

12mo: 1 p. Good, on lightly creased paper. Reads 'Je remets à Mr Pulin, porteur de la présente, la lettre de Mr Savoye pour l'aider à retirer les exemplaires des médailles et les diplômes donnés à MM les Membres du Jury.' Presumably relating to the awarding of prizes at an industrial exhibition.

Autograph Letter Signed ('W Blanchard Jerrold') to 'Hyde Clarke Esq.'

Author: 
William Blanchard Jerrold (1826-1884), English journalist and playwright [Hyde Clarke (1815-1895), English engineer, philologist and author]
Publication details: 
8 July 1852; 9 Bedford Place, Hastings.
£32.00

12mo: 1 p. Text clear and entire on creased and slightly grubby paper. Asks Hyde Clark to 'make the preliminary report you suggest, & speak with Mr Crompton'. He feels that 'the thing is to be accomplished; & that there will be honour & profit to all who may concern themselves in the undertaking'. Asks to hear from Hyde Clarke 'in a few days'. The subject of the letter is unclear.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Cousinery | Ingr en Chf') to 'Monsieur Legrand, Sous Secrètaire d'État des Travaux Publics'.

Author: 
Barthélémy Édouard Cousinéry [Barthelemy Edouard Cousinery] (1790-1851), of the Ministere des Travaux Publics, Ponts et Chaussées, pioneer of projective geometry
Publication details: 
26 September 1839; Paris.
£56.00

4to: 2 pp. Text clear and entire on lightly creased, grubby and dogeared paper. Titled by Cousinéry 'Création d'un Musée des Travaux Publics, Envoi d'une Note à ce sujet.' The note is not present.

Autograph Letter Signed to 'Monsieur Carilian-Goeury, Libraire-éditeur à Paris'.

Author: 
Charles Pražak [Charles Prazak], engineer of Prague, Bohemia [Carilian-Goeury, Parisian bookseller; the French nineteenth-century booktrade; Czechoslovakia; the Czech Republic]
Publication details: 
14 September 1839; Prague.
£75.00

12mo, 3 pp. Good, on browned and lightly creased paper with some wear to extremities. In French. Long thorough order with instructions for delivery, casting light on the logistical problems encountered in international trade in nineteenth-century Europe. Pražak is sending 'six pièces d'or à vingt francs, ou une somme de 120 francs en or', and gives a list of four books he would like sent to him. There follows a discussion of the problems of delivering the books to Prague.

Autograph Letter Signed ('C. N. Allou') to unnamed male correspondent [perhaps the Abbe Moigno of "Cosmos")

Author: 
Charles-Nicolas Allou (1787-1843), engineer and author ['Ingénieur au Corps royal des mines (en 1821); inspecteur en chef des travaux souterrains du département de la Seine']
Publication details: 
30 August 1829; Paris.
£35.00

12mo, 1 p, 16 lines. In French. Very good. Cancelling an appointment, and sending 'l'article que vous m'avez demandé pour la Revue': 'vous êtes parfaitement libre de tailler, couper, et rogner'.

Seven Typed Letters Signed (all 'R. W. Dana', and one of the signatures cyclostyled) to Sir Henry Trueman Wood, Secretary, Royal Society of Arts.

Author: 
Robert Washington Dana (1868-1956), British naval architect, assistant to Barry on the construction of Tower Bridge, London, and 'Resident Engineer for reconstruction of Kew Bridge'
Publication details: 
1911 (3 letters) and 1913 (4 letters); all on letterhead of the Institution of Naval Architects (of which Dana was the Secretary).
£100.00

Six of the letters are 4to, 1 p; the other is 12mo, 1 p. All good, on lightly aged paper. All bearing the Society's stamp and most docketed. On a variety of subjects: a proposed paper by 'Herr Frahm', the use by the Institution of the Royal Society's library for a council meeting, the delivery to the Society of a 'model tank that is coming from Germany' ('the reader of the paper is sending his representative over from Germany to superintend matters'), and a 'Proposed Memorial to the late Sir William White' ('with reference to Mr. Bailey Saunders and Mr. C. R. Graves.

Autograph Letter Signed ('J. de la Gournerie') to an unnamed male correspondent ('Mon cher ami').

Author: 
Jules de la Gournerie [Jules Antoine René Maillard de la Gournerie] (1814-1883), French mathematician and engineer, member of the Academie des Sciences
Publication details: 
22 July 1870; Ecole Impériale Polytechnique.
£45.00

12mo, 1 p, 7 lines. Good, on lightly aged paper. He has received at the Ecole Polytechnique ('où je passe toutes mes journées les examens') his correspondent's 'important travail'. He sends his best wishes and thanks him for 'ce beau souvenir'. Loose in blue paper folder with catalogue entry for the previous sale of the letter laid down on front.

Autograph Letter Signed ('J. de la Gournerie') to 'Monsieur Pingard'.

Author: 
Jules de la Gournerie [Jules Antoine René Maillard de la Gournerie] (1814-1883), French mathematician and engineer, member of the Académie des Sciences
Publication details: 
27 October 1875; Martigné.
£45.00

16mo, 3 pp. Text clear and entire on aged, creased paper. In French. He was not able to go to the Académie on the day the tickets were distributed for the 'Séance annuelle des beaux arts'. He asks for his two tickets to be sent to his friend 'M. Canon', a professor at the Ecole Polytechnique. Canon's address ('29 Rue Jean de Beauvais') in another hand on otherwise-blank verso of second leaf of bifolium.

Autograph Letter Signed ('L. Lalanne') to 'Monsieur Sisson' ('Mon cher capitaine').

Author: 
Léon Lalanne [Léon Louis Chrétien Lalanne] (1811-1892), French engineer and mathematician [or, I'm told, his brother!]
Publication details: 
9 February [no year]; no place.
£56.00

12mo, 2 pp, 11 lines. Concerns the 'porteur de ce billet', a 'M. Laudet', who has been the victim of 'un affreux malentendu'. 'Le malheureux perdait sa femme au moment où il manquait une garde'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('henri Fournel') to the Parisian publisher and bookseller Duprat.

Author: 
Henri-Jérôme-Marie Fournel (1799-1876), French civil engineer, geologist and disciple of Saint-Simon [Algeria]
Publication details: 
4 August 1861; 'rue de la Chaussée d’Antin 58 bis', Paris.
£56.00

16mo (13 x 10.5 cm), 1 p, 8 lines of text. Good. Ordering a geographical work and referring (obscurely) to words with an arab flavour (hard to read).

Autograph Letter Signed ('J. Cor<dier>'), 'A Monsieur <Jukeur?> opticien - rue de Conde Paris'.

Author: 
Joseph Cordier (1775-1849), French engineer, in charge of work on the Simplon Pass in 1800
Publication details: 
Without date or place [Paris].
£45.00

12mo bifolium: 1 p. 11 lines of text. Address and docketing on second leaf. Good, but with 1 cm hole in first leaf of bifolium, possibly caused by breaking open of blue wafer, which still adheres. Hole causing loss to two words, including latter part of signature. Asks the recipient 'de remettre a Mr. Pousin conducteur des ponts et chaussees, un double demi metre en Cuivre et un metre en cuivre avec quatre petites roulettes pointilles'. He will pay for the order in a few days time.

Autograph Letter Signed ('A. Picard') to Georges Berger (1834-1910), Directeur général de l'Exploitation de l'Exposition de 1889.

Author: 
Alfred Picard (1844-1913), Vice-Président du Conseil d'État [Exposition Universelle de 1889; Paris Exhibition]
Publication details: 
24 April 1890; Paris. On letterhead of the Conseil d'État.
£150.00

8vo: 3 pp. Bifolium. Very good. Written in French. After an 'etude attentive de rapport de M.M. de Lacretelle et Millas et des autres documents en ma possession' on the Exposition's foreign returns he finds 'certaines lacunes et certains points douteux' concerning which he hopes Berger can enlighten him. He gives a list of seventeen officially-participating countries, each with the subsidy it has received in francs, complaining that 'huit de ces chiffres sont douteux'. This is followed by a similar list of six countries which did not participate officially.

Autograph Letter Signed ('F. d'Olincourt.') to 'Monsieur Bance, aine, Editeur & Proprietaire, rue Saint-Denis, No. 271, a Paris.' In French.

Author: 
F. Gigault d'Olincourt, Ingenieur Civil [Lithographie, Imprimerie et Librairie]
Publication details: 
23 Janvier 1839; Bar-le-Duc. On elaborately printed letterhead.
£100.00

4to: 2 pp. Eleven lines. Good, on lightly creased and discoloured paper. Column of printed advertisements in left-hand margin of first page, which is headed by a printed description of d'Olincourt's qualifications, enclosed in an engraving of a jumble of disparate items including a book-press, beehive, scientific instruments, laurel wreath and sailing mast. He has begun to publish an 'immense ouvrage d'architecture', and he hopes Bance will subscribe for a number of copies which he will be able to sell 'chez vos clients'.

On the Drawing Office. Received 13th March, 1895; Read 26th March, 1895.

Author: 
Sir Archibald Denny (1860-1936), Scottish shipbuilder who chaired a 1912 British committee to investigate the Titanic sinking [Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland (Incorporated)]
Publication details: 
Offprint 'Reprinted from the Transactions of the Institution.'; Glasgow: Wm. Asher, Central Printing Works, 80 Gordon St. 1895.
£85.00

Thirteen pages, octavo, and fold-out 'PLATE XXI' (eight and a half inches by twenty-two and a half wide), with nine illustrations, headed 'THE DRAWING OFFICE BY MR. ARCHIBALD DENNY.', by Robert Gardner & Co., Engineering Lithographers, Glasgow. Unbound and stapled. Good, on aged and lightly foxed paper. Original pink printed wraps detached, chipped and with minor loss. PRESENTATION COPY, with front wrap (which has minor offsetting in ink) headed in pencil 'With the Authors Compts'. Ownership inscription of 'H. J. Young | Nov: '95' at head of first page.

Inauguration du Nouvel Hotel de la Societe; le 14 Janvier 1897.

Author: 
M. A. Mallet; M. F. Delmas; Societe des Ingenieurs Civils de France [Civil Engineering]
Publication details: 
Paris: Aulanier et Cie, Editeurs; 13, Rue Bonaparte, 13. [Imprimerie de la Construction Moderne.] 1897.
£150.00

Octavo: 27 pages. A rather nice production, with nine double-page plates, frontispiece and double-page table. Unbound. In original grey printed wraps, with gold foil seal of the society laid down as part of cover design. Good, in lightly aged wraps. Some tissue guards. Two essays: 'La Societe des Ingenieurs Civils de France de 1848 a 1896' by M. A. Mallet, and 'Le Nouvel Hotel de la Societe des Ingenieurs Civils de France' by M. F. Delmas ('Architecte de la Societe').

Seven Autograph Letters Signed, one Letter in a secretarial hand Signed, and two Typed Letters Signed to Sir Henry Truman Wood, Secretary, Society of Arts.

Author: 
Fritz Bernhard Behr [High-Speed Mono-Rail System]
Publication details: 
February to November 1901; all on letterhead '5, Queen Anne's Gate, | London, S.W.'
£380.00

Anglo-German engineer (1842-1927), who administered 'a portion of the conquered territory for the German Government' following the Franco-Prussian War, and who, following his naturalisation as a British citizen in 1876, 'invented practically the mono-rail, now known as the High Speed Mono-Rail System, and obtained two acts of Parliament for the construction of the Manchester and Liverpool Electric Express Railway in 1901 and 1902' ('Who was Who'). No items by this important figure are present in the British Library Department of Manuscripts.

Two documents signed ("Walckenaer" and "Bn Walckenaer"), one manuscript with printed heading "Prefecture de la Seine" and other detail, the other a printed form with heading Institut de France / Academie Royale des Inscriptions et Belles-lettres".

Author: 
Baron Walckenaer [Charles Athanase Walckenaer]
Publication details: 
{Paris} 1816 and 1846 respectively.
£300.00

Geographer, entomologist, pioneer biographer, etc. ("In 1839 he was appointed conservator for the Department of Maps at the Royal Library in Paris and in 1840 secretary for life in the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres.") Total three pages, folio (2) and 4to (1), some damage, but texts clear and complete. (Ist ITEM, 1816) a "Conseil de Prefecture,Seance du Jeudi 17 Octobre 1816 / Present M. Narchand, Champion & LeConte, membres du Conseil, etc".

Two Typed Letters Signed, the first to G. K. Menzies, Secretary, Royal Society of Arts, the second to S. Digby, R.S.A.

Author: 
Sebastian Ziani de Ferranti
Publication details: 
12 January 1918, on letterhead 'HOLLINWOOD, | LANCASHIRE'; 23 August 1918, on letterhead 'FERRANTI LIMITED, | ELECTRICAL & GENERAL ENGINEERS, | HOLLINWOOD, | LANCASHIRE.'
£95.00

British scientist (1864-1930); patented the Ferranti alternator, 1882; chief electrician to the London Electric Supply Corporation. Both items one page, quarto. Both very good, though dusty; one with small pinholes in one corner. Both bearing the R.S.A. stamp, and one docketed. ITEM ONE: He has received Menzies letter of 11 January, 'from which I note that you are sending me one dozen copies of Mr.

Autograph Letter Signed to Sir H[enry]. T[rueman]. Wood, Secretary, Royal Society of Arts.

Author: 
John Allen Harker
Publication details: 
9 February 1916; The National Physical Laboratory, Teddington (on deleted letterhead of the National Liberal Club).
£28.00

Inventor and engineer (1870-1923), whose papers are held by the Royal Society. During the war Harker was in the Inventions Department of the Ministry of Munitions. One page, 12mo. Good, if slightly grubby. Docketed in pencil and bearing the Society's stamp. Reads 'I send herewith a short contribution to the discussion of Dr Flemings paper at which I was present but in which on account of lack of time I did not feel it desirable to take part verbally.' Signed 'J. A. Harker'.

Autograph Letter Signed to Don Wauchope.

Author: 
General Sir George Keith Buller Elphinstone
Publication details: 
10 January 1891; on letterhead '86, CANONBURY ROAD'.
£36.00

Engineer (1865-1941) whose inventions include the speedometer for motor-cars. Two pages, 12mo. Good, though slightly grubby. Docketed on reverse. Small ink smudge beneath letterhead. Reads 'Dear Don Wanchope | Thanks for your letter. My full name is/ | George Keith Buller Elphinstone and by profession I am an Electrical Engineer & Maker of Electrical Instruments | So I hope that will be full enough information for you'. Signed 'G K B Elphinstone'.

Two Autograph Letters Signed to G[eorge]. K[enneth]. Menzies, Secretary, Royal Society of Arts.

Author: 
Sir John Benton
Publication details: 
Both letters 14 January 1918; Westeroft, Liverdale Road, Eastbourne.
£40.00

Scottish hydraulic engineer (1950-1927), of the India Public Works Department; Chief Engineer and Secretary to Government, Punjab Irrigation Branch. Both letters 12mo. Both very good, docketed and bearing the Society's stamp. LETTER ONE (two pages): Benton and a friend will make use of the two cards of invitation to A. Newland's paper on 'Water Power in Great Britain'.

Twelve Typed Letters Signed to the Secretary, Royal Society of Arts.

Author: 
Percy Dunsheath
Publication details: 
Between 28 October 1925 and 30 June 1926; all on letterhead 'W. T. HENLEY'S TELEGRAPH WORKS COMPANY, LIMITED. | RESEARCH DEPARTMENT. | Gravesend, | Kent.'
£120.00

English electrical engineer and research scientist and writer (1886-1979), Member of the Senate, University of London. All items one page, quarto. All but one very good; one item discoloured and creased at head, and with several closed tears. All signed 'P Dunsheath' and most docketed or bearing the Society's stamp. The letters concern a lecture at the Society Dunsheath agreed to give following a conversation with Sir George Sutton entitled 'Science in the Cable Industry'. Dunsheath suggests that L. B.

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