GALON, M.; DUHAMEL DU MONCEAU; RÉAUMUR.

L’Art de Convertir le Cuivre Rouge ou Cuivre de Rosette, en Laiton ou Cuivre Jaune. [Bound with] Art de Réduire le Fer en Fil; Art de l’Épinglier. Three Works in One Volume.

Paris? NP, 1764-1768. Folio. 78 pp. + xviii plates; 32 pp. + v plates; 77 pp. + vii plates. Bound in recent white boards and in a plastic protective cover. A substantial 18th-century folio volume comprising three important French technical treatises on metallurgy and early industrial manufacture, forming a coherent sequence from copper refining to brass production, wire drawing, and the manufacture of pins.

The first work, by M. Galon (1764), consists of 78 pages followed by 18 engraved plates detailing furnaces, alloying processes, crucibles, sectional diagrams, and mechanical apparatus for converting red copper into brass. The second, the 1768 wire-drawing treatise attributed to Henri-Louis Duhamel du Monceau, comprises 32 pages and 5 engraved plates illustrating draw benches, tools, and industrial mechanisms for reducing metal into fine wire. The third work, Art de l’Épinglier, associated with René-Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur, contains 77 pages and 7 engraved plates depicting the full process of pin manufacture — from wire preparation and cutting to head formation, polishing, and finishing.

Together the volume contains 187 pages of letterpress text and 30 engraved folio plates. The engravings are finely executed technical studies typical of the great Enlightenment industrial publications and document in precise detail the mechanical processes that underpinned 18th-century manufacturing. Pin production, in particular, would later become one of the classic examples of division of labor cited in economic literature.

Though now bound in recent plain boards for preservation, the contents appear complete as issued. A substantial and visually striking record of early modern metallurgical and manufacturing practice, appealing to collectors of industrial history, metallurgy, Enlightenment science, and the history of technology. Some minor discoloration and foxing, tear to front free endpaper, else in good + condition. Item #211

Price: $1,850.00