Wednesday, October 19, 2005

Hydromechanica

Machine fort necessaire par laquelle l'on peut donner grand
secours aux maisons qui seroyent enflambées

Machine, par laquelle les soufflets de la
precedente, se pourront hausser pour
donner le vent aux tuyaux d'orgues

Machine par laquelle on fera sonner
un jeu d'orgues, par le moyen de l'eau

Autre moyen de lever l'eau par le moyen d'un ruisseau



UPDATE: The three de Caus volumes are now available in page image format from the University of Heidelberg.

4 comments :

Anonymous said...

I first heard of De Caus from Frances Yates’s book The Rosicrucian Enlightenment mentions De Caus, who seems to have been a fascinating figure.

Anonymous said...

Err, ignore the words ‘mentions De Caus’ and that comment might make sense.

peacay said...

Now I feel slack, not having gone into the background. I'll add a couple of linkies.

George Goodall said...

Les raissons has the rare distinction of being one of the few machine books with an English correlate. Isaac de Caus was also an architect. He is best known for his work in England where he collaborated with Inigo Jones. His Nouvelle invention de lever l'eau was published in 1657. An English translation, New and Rare Inventions of Water Works appeared in 1659, the same year as Les raissons. It's unclear to me if the text of the two works is identical but many of the plates are. Similarly, the exact relationship between Isaac and Solomon is unclear. Were they brothers? Uncle and nephew?

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