ANDRAUD, Chemins éoliques, 1847

First edition.
For Andraud, compressed air was an energy whose force was destined to change the face of the world. A visionary inventor, he developed a system of automobiles using compressed air as a propulsion system, the air was brought first by pipes along the route, then by tanks.
On August 26, 1844, Andraud and Tessié du Motay launched on the Paris-Versailles line (Left Bank) a new compressed air "locomotive-waggon". Weighing five tons and resembling a cylindrical boiler. As represented in the engravings in this book, Andraud planned to compete with the railways with "air-powered railways".
It was in fact in the tramway networks, after Andraud's death, that compressed air propulsion was developed in the 1860s-1870s
Presentation copy.