This is a great book for anyone who wants to design and build devices that work on the energy of the Sun!. M. Augustin Mouchot invented solar-powered steam engines, solar-powered refrigeration, water pumps, cookers and distillers. Many of these devices are described in this book; However the focus is to teach the reader about the engineering issues encountered in solar devices, and to provide the history of solar engineering-- what worked, what didn't, limitations and advantages.
Until now, it has only been available in French, but there is a new English translation available as an e-book under the title, "SteamPunk Solar - Solar Heat and its Industrial Applications" at www.smashwords.com.

The 1869 version has illustrations that appear to be printed with some sort of blueprint-like method. Other than that, and a few typo's, it's a great book!