ROEBLING, Washington Augustus.

Pneumatic Tower Foundations of the East River Suspension Bridge.

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Folding lithographed frontis. & four folding lithographed plates (several with careful repairs to folds with slight loss of image). 92 pp. 8vo, modern boards. New York: G.W. Averell, 1872. First edition. "The foundations of the Brooklyn bridge, no less than its famous superstructure, made a significant advance in the development of construction techniques. The towers were founded upon huge timber caissons from within which the ground was excavated, using compressed air to withstand the external pressures as they sank to nearly 100ft below the river bed under the weight of the masonry above. Although the use of compressed air for excavating at depth was not new, the Brooklyn bridge foundations, with those of the slightly earlier St. Louis bridge, were on a new scale. Roebling's clear account is extracted from his annual reports and presented as a connected narrative; it appeared when the towers had reached more than half their intended height."­Elton, Cat. 4, 61­(this copy). Very good copy. Ex Bibliotheca Mechanica. The printed upper wrapper is bound-in (carefully backed with rice paper). The number of plates seem to vary with each copy with a maximum of twelve, including the frontispiece.

• USD 750.00 > other currencies
• ordernr.: HillBibl-494

• bookseller: Jonathan A. Hill, Bookseller, Inc. (USA)