‎LA HIRE (P.)‎
‎Traité de mécanique où l'on explique tout ce qui est nécessaire dans la pratique des arts et les propriétés des corps pesants lesquelles ont un plus grand usage dans la physique -- EDITION ORIGINALE‎

‎P., Imprimerie Royale, 1695, un volume in 12 plein veau, dos orné de fers dorés, tranches rouges (reliure de l'époque), (petit accroc à une coiffe, tache brune à la partie inférieure du second plat de couverture, quelques cahier uniformément jaunis, manque de papier d'origine dans la marge inférieure d'un feuillet, ex-libris gratté sur la page de titre), 5 feuillets non chiffrés, 492 pages, figures dans le texte‎

Reference : 2965

‎---- EDITION ORIGINALE ---- "Associated with the leading scientists of the age, La Hire was, for nearly half a century, one of the principal animators of scientific life in France... His diverse observations in physics, meteorology and the natural sciences simply attest to the high level of is intellectual curiosity... His early works in projective, analytic and applied geometry palce him among the best of the followers of Desargues and Descartes. Finally, his diverse knowledge and artistic, technical and scientific experience were factors in the growth of technological thought, the advance of practical mechanics and the perfecting of graphic techniques... The important Traité de mécanique that La Hire published in 1695 represents a synthesis of his diverse theoretical and practical preoccupations. Although passed over by the majority of the historians of mechanics, this work marks a significant step toward the elaboration of a modern manual of practical mechanics, suitable for engineers of various disciplines. La Hire thus partially answered the wish expressed by Colbert in 1675 of seeing the Academy produce an exact description of all the machines useful in the arts and trades... La Hire furnished useful descriptions and put forth the suggestion (already made in his Traité des épicycloides) following Desargues, of adopting an epicycloidal profile for gear wheels". (DSB VII pp. 576/579) ---- "Timoshenko notes that La Hire was responsible for the first application of statics to the solution of arch problems. In the present work we find the funicular polygon used for the first time in arch analysis. His analysis revealed "that under the assumption of perfect smoothness at the wedge surfaces, stability of a semicircular arch cannot exist", but that the cement holding the wedges will contribute to the stability, thereby removing the necessity of complying rigorously with the established ratio for P1:P2:P3". (Bibliotheca Mechanica p. 192)**2965/ARB5‎