B. FAUJAS DE SAINT-FOND - HOT AIR BALLOON EXPERIMENTS (FIRST EDITION) - 1783

Subject: Book from the second half of the 18th century. Text in French. Description of experiments. Hot air balloon - Barthélemy Faujas de Sant-Fond.

Publication: Paris, chez Cuchet, 1783-1784. First edition.

Description: 8th. Two volumes. Vol. I: XL (includes engraving, cover, prologue, table and explanation of the engravings), 299 pages, 2 sheets, 9 engravings in total + folding table (p. 156). Vol. II: Cover, 367 pages, 5 engravings. The signatures of the intaglio engravings: "Dessiné par le Ch. de Lorimier, engraved by N. de Launay" and "Sellier sculp." Dutch leather binding, with double stitching and gilding on the spine.

Conservation: Good condition.

Author Biography: Barthélémy Faujas de Saint-Fond (1741-1819) was a geologist and volcanologist, but like many great minds of his time, he immediately fell in love with hot air balloons. In the beginning, he supported the financing of the manufacture of the balloon and the carrying out of the first experiment by the French physicist Jacques Charles in Paris, from the Champ de Mars, on August 1, 1783. He then took sides with the experiments carried out by Étienne de Montgolfier and Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier. For this reason, he wrote this work in 1783 under the title "Description of the experiments of the aerostatic machine of MM. de Montgolfier", before doing so again in 1784 with a second volume under the title "Première suite de la description des experiments MM aerotaux of Montgolfier". He died in 1819 after having also taught as a professor and then administrator of the National Museum of Natural History.

Other information: This flight is the first free balloon air trip, carried out by Pilâtre de Rozier, with a 25-minute flyover over the Champs de Mars in Paris and an altitude of one thousand meters.

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