Le grand ballon captif à vapeur de M. Henry Giffard. Cour des Tuileries - Paris, 1878. Avec de nombreuses illustrations par Albert Tissandier.

8vo: 67 [front. incl.]-[1] pp.; 12 pl. (brown staining, some foxing).

Mod. half black morroco, gilt marbled paper on covers, gilt titled spine with two raised bands orn. with a central tool depicting Icarus, red top-edge, wr. pres.

First edition of the description of the captive balloon designed and made by Henri Giffard for the "Exposition universelle de 1878" (the third Paris World Fair). Illustrated with 10 plates, 2 double-page pl., 8 full-page ill. and in-text by Albert Tissandier (1839-1906), brother of Gaston, also aeronaut and architect. The aviator, chemist and meteorologist Gaston Tissandier (1843-1899), who escaped from besieged Paris in a balloon in September 1870, beat, together with his brother Albert, the record time for a balloon flight; theirs lasted 22 hours and 40 minutes. In 1883, he added an electric motor to an airship, creating the first electric-powered flight. He is the author of several books and of a bibliography on aeronautics.
Ref. Tissandier, Bibliogr. aéronautique, p. 36. - Maggs Bros., 258.