EIFFEL, Gustave The resistance of the air and aviation. Experiments conducted at the Champ-de-Mars laboratory. Translated by Jerome C. Hunsaker. London, Constable and Boston, Houghton Mifflin 1913. 2nd edn.
4to. xvi + 242pp, photogravure frontis, 28 folding photo and line plates (numbered I-XXVII,XVI*) and some text ills. Contemporary cloth, worn. The rapid development of aviation stimulated Eiffel’s interest in wind resistance and aeronautical research and, as he states in the preface here, it seemed “important to conduct a complete series of experiments starting from fundamentals and directed systematically towards practical applications”. In order to achieve this object he installed an aerodynamic laboratory in 1909 on the Champ-de-Mars at the foot of the Eiffel Tower. In it he built his first wind tunnel, which contained several major innovations, making it possible to conduct more sophisticated experiments than had hitherto been possible. This volume describes all the work Eiffel undertook in his laboratory in 1909-10, opening with a detailed description of the laboratory and its apparatus before going on to describe the experiments themselves. His studies on various aeroplane wings was one of the most important aspects of the book. He gives results for lift, resistance, location of centre-of-pressure and pressure distributions on 18 wings, some designed by him and others by some well-known pioneers in aviation, including Blériot and the Wright brothers. The book was first published in French in 1910, going into a second edition in 1911. This translation of the second edition was made by Jerome Hunsaker, who spent a year at the Champs-de-Mars laboratory working with Eiffel. Hunsaker went on to design and build the first wind tunnel at MIT, where he eventually became head of aeronautical and mechanical engineering. His authorative translation of this book ensured that Eiffel’s work became widely known.
£550
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