[FRISI, Paul] GARSTIN, General John A treatise on rivers and torrents; with the method of regulating their course and channels. To which is added, an essay on navigable canals, by the same. Translated by Major-General John Garstin. London, Longman, Hurst, Rees etc. 1818
4to. vi + xx + 184pp, 2 folding engraved plans. Publisher’s boards, a little worn and joints repaired. Skempton No. 518. First published in Italian in Lucca in 1762, this highly practical work was known and used throughout Europe. Frisi, a Barnabite mathematician, acknowledges his indebtedness to the founders of hydraulic science, notably Castelli, Manfredi, Viviani and Guglielmini, and draws freely on the great corpus of their work. Taking as examples some of the major Italian waterways, Frisi describes rivers flowing over gravel and rivers carrying mud and sand, together with experiments to determine their nature and behaviour, slopes and velocities, and methods of improvement, successful and unsuccesful. The essay on navigable canals contains a useful historical survey, describing such achievements as the 15th century Martesana canal in Milan, the double-gated locks on the Brenta canal near Padua, the Canal du Midi and the Bridgewater canal. There is also a good account of the cut made to avoid the Trollhatten Pass on the Gotha River in Sweden, later superseded by Telford’s Gotha canal. The book was translated from the second edition of 1770 into English by Garstin, who was concerned at the lack of information in Britain on the subject of river control, though he initially intended it for use by young engineers in Bengal, where he was stationed and where the great Jumna canals were being restored by the British. Although he was interested in the similarity of the Italian rivers as described by Frisi with the rivers in Bengal, the book in his translation became a standard British text. This is a fine example of the now rare first edition in a generous quarto format. From 1860 onwards it formed part of Weale’s Rudimentary Series, though much reduced in format.
£450
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