Four books that will be of interest to historians of technology, came at the end of last year, the Fund of rare and valuable books the Scientific and technical library. G. I. Denisenko of our the University.
The book "the Description of beacons and marks of the Black and Azov seas" (1851) and "Beacons and signs of the Mediterranean sea, with a brief description of the main devices used today for lighting the beacons at all" (1854) came from the printing of the black sea hydrographic depot. This depot was founded in Nikolaev in 1803 for marine filming on the Black and Azov seas, the production of maps of sea coasts, design of city buildings and other Securities issued maps, descriptions of coasts and lighthouses and even works of art.
Both editions are in good condition and contain many illustrations. Description of beacons and signs of the Mediterranean sea has an application: "a Brief description of how the lighting of the beacons extracted from English writings Account of the Skerryvore Lighthouse with notes of the illumination of the Lighthouse, by Alan Stevenson in 1848... a co-Captain by Malihinis".
The book is in English: Thomas Stevenson (Thomas Stevenson) "Lighthouse illiumination being a description of the holophotal system, and of azimuthal condensing and other new forms of lighthouse apparatus" published in 1871 in Edinburgh and is dedicated to the lighting of the beacons. Its author – Thomas Stevenson (1818-1887), innovative projects which marked the beginning of a new era in the construction of lighthouses. He's also dabbled in meteorology (there is a "Stevenson screen" to protect meteorological instruments from atmospheric precipitation) and became the founder of the Scottish meteorological society. The name of Thomas Stevenson, well known to fans of English literature: he was the father of Robert Louis Stevenson, the author of numerous adventure novels. Thomas Stevenson – representative of the famous Scottish family of engineers, built in the XIX century a lot of lighthouses, not only around Scotland. He was very unhappy when the son refused to continue the family business.
Stevenson's book has the original cover (though the spine is not preserved), and we know who owned the issue – in avantitul is embossed with the name of the owner, "Paul A. Samoilov". Since the first report on the activities of the Kiev Polytechnic Institute it is known that in 1898 "...the widow of General Samoilov gave 300 books to the library of the engineering profession". Other information we, unfortunately, have not.
And another foreign book: Renard Leon (Leon Renard) "Les phares," which appeared in 1867 in Paris in the series "Bibliotheque des merveilles (Library of wonders"), and later repeatedly reedition. This is a unique story of the emergence, the spread of lighthouses and the story of the most famous of them. Leon Renard – the librarian of the state Department of maps and plans of the Navy of France. The illustrations in the book – the work of French artists, in particular Jules Noel – famous author of the French landscapes and the so-called marine (marine subjects).
Here are books on navigation, which for over a century are on the shelves of our library, and they contain important evidence is incredibly exciting history of technology.