Bramblebush ForumsFAQ
Posted by bpfink on January 11, 1999 at 12:48:44:
In Reply to: To the wayback machine: SANDCASTING c. BC posted by bruce paul fink on January 11, 1999 at 12:39:48:
I just located a source for the Diderot books just
mentioned. It is such a fascinating set of plates showing the
way things were made in the 1700's that I felt others would love
to know the source. It covers not just the items and media from
gold and silver smithing to pile driving, to weaving to glass
blowing to wig making to the nobility's stone work patterns to
metal casting to power sources to farming, etc. but also the
buildings, layout, principles, etc. in exploded view and diagram
form Also the designs of the tapestries, the ornamentation's on
the armaments, the many ways water wheels worked, etc..
(The one I liked best and used for casting metals was a blower
system for the furnace. The foundry was located near a stream
with a high head of water. The flow was captured into a
hollowed log or pipe and dropped down into a much larger sealed
barrel with the bottom under water and open in the deep stream
below. At the near top of the pipe were small venturi holes
that sucked air in as the water entered so the flow dropping was
filled with bubbles which then became released but under
pressure once the flow entered the barrel. Another pipe left
the top of the barrel and ran over to the forge or melting
furnace burner where the coal or charcoal or wood was set and
the forced air now was controlled by opening or shutting a cock
valve. No bellows with this one, no workers pumping like crazy
all day to compress air, no pulse of a bellows and no multiple
bellows to mute the pulse, no horse shit lying on the ground
around where they worked to pump a bellow, no flies around the
shit. Of course you had all that extra ozone knocking out the
hole above the Arctic circle but hey it's France in 1750 .)
The original 17 volume set was the first Encyclopedia ever
made and printed and was the turning point for science and
scientific investigating. Prior to this the kings or wise men
and scholars simply told you how it was (seldom with any first
hand knowledge) and there were so many totally bull shit
concepts held as truth that it is amazing man could rise above
it or even get to that point. Just one reason man progressed so
slowly back then. Luckily the common man paid more attention to
what worked vs. what didn't so he did raise above it but Diderot
was the (very unpopular) universal kickoff. His writings
covered all aspects of life (starting out on the first pages and
revealing that there was absolutely nothing to the established
medical King's wisdom saying that male and female babies each
said ohh vs. ahh as their first uttered sounds. His
L'Encyclopidie was already under fire.)
His works took the dedication of many (over 140 ) to go to the factories and sit for months to do the engravings of all they could see to explain it to others. This of course also flew in the very secretive face of those in the know of each little process or step as these were their secret knowledge that defined them above the masses and allowed them to individually be of a higher respect and wealth. Can you imagine anyone today being like that? Hoarding knowledge I mean. It must have been awful. Boy I'm glad we're not like that.
Anyhow... This is a two volume sample with 485 plates and
this is one place you can find it. bpfink
A Diderot Pictorial Encyclopedia of Trades and Industry in
Two Volumes
by Denis Diderot
Diderot's Encyclopedia was one of the monumental publishing
ventures of the 18th century.
$35.00 / 936 Pages / Softcover found at
http://www.antiquetools.com/
http://commerce.trilux.com/cgi-bin/tools
if interested go to book store and order from there
bruce paul fink Sculptor / Designer 860 974-0130
http://www.fink.com/bpfink
: A Diderot Pictorial Encycloedia of TRADES AND INDUSTRY covering Manufacturing and the Technical Arts in Plates Selected from "L'Encyclopedie, ou Dictionnaire Raisonne des Sciences, des Arts et des Metiers" of Denis Dederot
: Dover Publications of New York has put out a two volume set in soft paperback
: ISBN 0-486-27429-2
: Diderot's Encyclop�die
: The Encyclop�die ou Dictionnaire raisonn� des sciences, des arts et des m�tiers, par une Soci�t� de Gens de lettres was published under the direction of Diderot, with 17 volumes of text and 11 volumes of plates between 1751 and 1772. Containing 72,000 articles written by more than 140 contributors, the Encyclop�die was a massive reference work for the arts and sciences, as well as a machine de guerre which served to propagate Enlightened ideas.
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