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2024

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Book, Les raisons des forces mouvantes avec diverses machines tant utilles que plaisantes

This is a Book.

This object is not part of the Cooper Hewitt's permanent collection. It was able to spend time at the museum on loan from Smithsonian Libraries and Archives as part of Tools: Extending Our Reach.

It is dated 1615. Its medium is vellum over paper boards, paper.

French architect and engineer Salomon de Caus studied and wrote about diverse subjects like landscape design, mythology, steam and solar power, and the creation of pipe organs. His theories and inventions were employed when directing construction of the palaces and grounds at Heidelberg for Elector Frederick V around 1613. At that time, de Caus chronicled his ideas in the three books that comprise Les Raisons des forces mouvantes avec diverses machines tant utilles que plaisantes. These theories include the ornamentation of palace grottoes and fountains, the manufacture of pipe organs, and the application of steam, hydraulic, and solar systems—important tools for powering machines, musical instruments, and fountains. This example illustrates a tool for augmenting fountain power: water is heated as the sun streams through glass disks mounted by the window (AB). Heated water rises into a pipe (CD) through the wall, and out from the fountain in the adjoining chamber.

It is credited Courtesy of Smithsonian Libraries, Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Library.

Our curators have highlighted 2 objects that are related to this one.

Its dimensions are

H x W x D (open): 40.5 × 51.1 × 13.1 cm (15 15/16 × 20 1/8 × 5 3/16 in.) H x W x D (closed): 40.5 × 26.7 × 2.8 cm (15 15/16 × 10 1/2 × 1 1/8 in.)

This object was previously on display as a part of the exhibition Tools: Extending Our Reach.

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If you would like to cite this object in a Wikipedia article please use the following template:

<ref name=CH>{{cite web |url=https://collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/35460727/ |title=Book, Les raisons des forces mouvantes avec diverses machines tant utilles que plaisantes |author=Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |accessdate=25 April 2024 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution}}</ref>