DEPARCIEUX, Mémoires lus à l’Académie Royale sur la rivière Yvette, [1763-1768]

First edition.
Collection of three memoirs presented by Antoine Deparcieux (1703-1768) to the Academy of Sciences. In 1762, Deparcieux proposed a project to bring the waters of the Yvette River to Paris to alleviate the lack of drinking water in the capital. He envisioned capturing the water upstream from Gif-sur-Yvette and transporting it to Paris via an aqueduct approximately 30 kilometers long, ending near the Observatory. Despite its proven technical feasibility and the support of figures such as Voltaire, the project was never realized, mainly due to financial constraints and a lack of political will during the reign of Louis XV. After his death, the project was taken up by his great-nephew, but still without success. It was only several decades later that Parisians were finally supplied with drinking water thanks to the construction of the Ourcq Canal to the north of Paris, and then even later, by the Vanne aqueduct, which follows part of the route studied by Deparcieux to the south of the Paris region.