To Benjamin Franklin from Philippe-Denis Pierres, 19 May 1784
From Philippe-Denis Pierres
ALS: American Philosophical Society
Paris 19 Mai 1784.
Monsieur,
Je vous prie de permettre à Monsr. Baradelle l’ainé porteur de la presente de voir votre petite Presse. C’est un homme très habile & très intelligent pour toutes les pièces de mathèmatiques.3 Je serois bien aise qu’il prît le dessin des bandes,4 &ca.—parcequ’il pourra simplifier les masses de nos presses.5 Je suis persuadé que vous ne serez pas faché de parler avec lui; vous verrez que c’est un homme très instruit.
Je vous renouvelle, Monsieur, les assurances de mon attachement inviolable & du respect avec lequel Je suis, Monsieur Votre tres humble & très obeissant serviteur
Pierres
M. franklin.
Notation: Pierres 9 May 1784.
3. A trade card for “Baradelle l’ainé” among BF’s papers identifies him as “Ingénieur en Instrumens de Mathematique et de Phisique. Au Quartier Anglois Quay de l’horloge du Palais, près la Cour de la Moignon” (APS). Of the three Baradelle brothers who were instrument makers at this time, the most likely one is Nicolas-Eloi, who signed himself l’aîné in the 1780s. Their late father, Jacques-Nicolas Baradelle (d. 1779), was himself a prominent instrument maker and ingénieur du roi: Actes faits en l’hôtel du lieutenant civil, Châtelet de Paris, Minutes, Nov. 23, 1782, and Feb. 20, 1789, Archives nationales, Paris; Jean-Dominique Augarde, “La Fabrication des instruments scientifiques du XVIIIe siècle et la corporation des fondeurs,” in Studies in the History of Scientific Instruments …, ed. Christine Blondel et al. (London, 1989), pp. 52, 64, 65, 66, 70; Jour. de Paris, June 3, 1779.
4. This reference to “bandes”—the “ribs” or “rails”—may indicate that BF’s press featured the improved carriage system that he had described to William Strahan in 1753: V, 83.
5. Pierres was in the process of perfecting a new kind of printing press operated by a vertical lever and cam action, which replaced the standard central screw mechanism operated by a bar pulled horizontally. On May 7, 1784, he presented a prototype to the king, who, after pulling a proof, ordered one for his cabinet. Baradelle l’aiîné was hired to construct it, and the small press was delivered to Versailles on July 2. Pierres continued to improve his design; he had a full-scale press by October, 1784, and in December, 1785, he submitted his invention to the Académie des sciences, which approved it: Académie des sciences, Procès-verbaux, CIV (1785), 75; CV (1786), 109–12. In Description d’une nouvellepresse d’imprimerie … (Paris, 1786), Pierres explained in detail the machine’s development, its mechanisms, and its advantages over ordinary presses. In the same work, he acknowledged BF’s friendship and his expertise in the arts of printing, as well as the debt he owed to BF’s “instructions” (pp. 3–4).