Beschrijving
's-Gravenhage, Algemeene Landsdrukkerij, 1827, 1st edition, 29x24cm, liii,102 pages, lithograph frontispiece showing the monument for Brunings, library stamp on titlepage, some staining on titlepage, otherwise text clean, paper on board binding, spine damaged, written by Frederik Willem Conrad (1800-1870), foreword by Prof. Johannes Henricus van der Palm (1763-1840), on the life and achievements of Christiaan Brunings (Mannheim-Neckarau, 3 November 1736 – The Hague, 16 May 1805) was a Dutch hydraulic engineer. In 1769 Brunings became Inspector General of the Government Rivers, giving more attention to water management of the upper rivers. In 1798 he was appointed head of the Bureau voor den Waterstaat (Office of Public Works), the forerunner of the Rijkswaterstaat. Brunings spent more than thirty years as head of Dutch public works, from 1800 as Inspector-General of the Public Works of the Batavian Republic; from 1803 as Director of the country's river and sea works. Brunings played an important role in the negotiations between Frederick the Great, King in Prussia, and the provinces of Holland and Gelderland on the distribution of water from the Rhine in the Waal, Lower Rhine and IJssel. After 22 years of negotiations a treaty was signed in 1771 on the Rhine water distribution, which meant a first step in international water management consulting business. He was also involved in improving the dikes along the Rhine to help prevent damaging floods. Brunings is also known for the invention of an instrument for measuring water flow. In 1789 he published a detailed practical treatise on river flow including an account of his and other water-flow meters. In his house, ‘Zwanenburg’, in Halfweg he conducted meteorological observations, following a tradition established by Noppen.