D'ALEMBERT, Nouvelles expériences sur la résistance des fluides, 1777

First edition.
Collection of hydrodynamic experiments carried out in a basin of the Military School by D'Alembert, Condorcet and Bossut. Turgot had commissioned them to look for ways to improve river navigation. The results of these experiments led to establish what will become the D'Alembert paradox, which will only be solved with the theory of wakes.
Indeed, according to the hydrodynamic equations of the time, "a body should be able to progress in a fluid without experiencing any resistance or, which amounts to the same thing, that a bridge pier plunged into the course of a river should not. Undergo no pushing on his part ", which the experiments carried out denied.
Beyond the treatise on hydrodynamics, this book bears witness to a science in progress which intricates theory and experience.

French copy, full margin, as issue.