Description des expériences de la machine aérostatique de MM. de Montgolfier, et de celles auxquelles cette découverte a donné lieu [...]. Ouvrage orné de neuf planches en taille-douce, représentant les diverses machines qui ont été construites jusqu'à ce jour, particulièrement celle de Versailles, & celle dans laquelle des hommes ont été enlevés jusqu'à la hauteur de 324 pieds, &c. &c. Seconde édition [- Première suite de la Description des expériences [...]. Ouvrage orné de cinq planches en taille-douce].

2 vol., 8vo: xl-302-[2], front.-[2]-366-[1] pp.; 1 table and 13 pl. (occ. foxing, brown staining to the pl. of vol. I, tear strengthened and corner repaired to front. of vol. II, soiling to pp. 44-45 of vol. II and to some other margins).

Mod. half marbled sheep, marbled paper covers, gilt orn. spines with raised bands, brown spr. edges (occ. traces of use).

Second edition (1st: 1783) of the "first serious treatise on aerostation as a practical possibility" (PMM), complete of its "Suite" in first edition. Illustrated with 14 plates (incl. the 2 frontispieces) by Sellier depicting, in vol. I (9 pl.): the flight of the aerostat "Réveillon" by Étienne Montgolfier with the first living beings (a sheep, a duck and a rooster) in Versailles on 19 September 1783, the balloon, its assembly, instruments, mathematical sketches, a flying boat and the balloon in which the scientist Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier, Jean-Baptiste Réveillon and Giroud de Villette took the first balloon flight with people on board on 19 October 1783; in vol. II (5 pl.): the first three aerial journeys (by Pilâtre and the Marquis d'Arlandes on board on 21 Nov. 1783, Jacques Charles and the Robert brothers on 1 Dec. 1783 and J. Montgolfier on 19 Jan. 1784) and the balloons created by J.-P. Blanchard and M. Vallet. With a fold. comparative table of the balloon movements in vol. I and the 4 pp. of "Supplément". The geologist and traveller Faujas de Saint-Fond (1741-1819), was also interested in aeronautics and helped the Montgolfier brothers to earn money in order to continue building their balloons.
Ref. PMM 229. - "En français dans la texte", 175. - Tissandier, Bibliogr. aéronautique, p. 21 (1st ed. and "Suite"). - Cohen 372 (id.; "On rencontre assez rarement la seconde partie"). - Honeyman collection 1271. - Maggs Bros., 39.