MINING ENGINEERING
HUMBLOT, F.
Journal de voyage ...
France, June-September 1866.
Manuscript on paper, in French, folio (372 x 242 mm), pp. [2], 157, with 13 coloured drawings bound in (some folding), 2 drawings on tracing paper loosely inserted, and over 100 marginal and in-text drawings; neatly written in brown and occasionally red ink, 38 lines per page; loosely inserted a folder titled ‘Croquis’ with 9 further drawings on squared paper; a little occasional light foxing; very good in contemporary quarter black cloth over marbled boards; spine detached (remaining portion loosely inserted), some rubbing to corners and edges.
A handsome manuscript on mining engineering, apparently unpublished, recording visits undertaken by the engineer F. Humblot to coal mines and iron works in eastern and southern France in 1866, containing well over one hundred beautifully executed technical drawings.
In June 1866 Humblot visited the coal mines of Sainte Marie and Cinq-Sous at Blanzy, moving on in August to the mines at Montrambert and La Béraudière near to Saint-Étienne, and finishing in September with a trip to the iron works at Bessèges. The text contains detailed descriptions of the workings of each site, with statistics, while the accompanying illustrations include site plans, maps, geological cross sections, barrows and wagons, rails, pulleys, hand tools, cross sections of galleries, pumping engines, headframes, furnaces, boilers, and steam hammers, all executed with considerable skill.
The author of this manuscript was perhaps related to Edmond Humblot (1830–1899), engineer of bridges, reservoirs and railways who served as directeur général des services des eaux in Paris.
