jonathan hulls (5 Ergebnisse)

Zustand: New.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware.

for carrying Vessels or Ships Out of, or Into any Harbour, Port, or River, against Wind and Tide, or in a Calm. For which, HIs Majesty has Granted Letters Patent, for the Sole Benefit of the Author, for the Space of Fourteen Years. Small 4to. Limited Edition Facsimile Reprint. Folding frontispiece. Light browning, otherwise very good in half red skiver on marbled boards by Rivière, a little rubbed at the extremities. 48pp. N.p. [?London], n.d., As explained in a MS note on the first blank this is one of a Limited Edition of thirty-nine copies, this being one of twelve Small 4to. on "old paper", the rest 12mo. "size of the original edition". "Hulls is remembered principally for having patented the application of the atmospheric steam engine to marine propulsion. A communication from M. de Quet on mechanical propulsion of ships, published in 1734 in Volume VI of the Abridgement of Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, may have spurred Hulls to attempt to apply the Newcomen engine for this purpose. The means to do so eluded him until a neighbour at nearby Batsford Park, Mr. Freeman, contributed about £160 to finance a patent application, granted to Hulls on 21 December 1736. As was required by the grant, Hulls published within three months [the present work]. He proposed a stern-wheeled paddle towboat carrying a boiler coupled to a vertical steam cylinder. Atmospheric pressure depressed a piston towards the bottom of the cylinder when the steam beneath it was suddenly condensed. Through a linkage of ropes over pulleys, this movement turned an adjacent layshaft and simultaneously raised a counterweight, the subsequent descent of which reversed the rotation of the layshaft as fresh steam was admitted beneath the piston. Friction ratchets on the layshaft converted this alternating motion to continuous rotation of the adjacent paddle-shaft mounted on a framework over the stern. When the water was sufficiently shallow, Hulls proposed to employ a pair of mechanical quanting poles operated by the same alternating motion. No conclusive evidence has survived to substantiate the tradition that Hulls experimented with such a vessel on the Avon at Evesham. Had his pamphlet provoked serious trial of his scheme history would certainly have noted it, but the intermittent motion of the Newcomen engine made it fundamentally unsuitable for continuous propulsion, whether on land or water." [ODNB]   Inscribed beneath limitation note, "No.5 Large Paper Copy, Robt. Napier Esqr. with Mr. J. Sheepshanks's Compts. Oct. 27 1860". Napier's bookplate to the front pastedown, together with that of the Scott Collection, Scott Catalogue No. 238. Sheepshanks is best remembered as a patron of British artists, forming a large collection commissioning works from such as Turner, Constable, Landseer, Roberts and Wilkie. He presented his collection to the nation in 1857. The highly suitable recipient, Robert Napier, was a marine engineer remembered as the "father of Clyde shipbuilding".

12mo. pp48. folding engraved plate showing a steam vessel powered by stern paddle wheels towing a man-o-war. a little light foxing and browning, but generally a good clean copy in a lightly rubbed half roan leather binding by Riviere. the very scarce facsimile reprint of the even rarer 1737 edition - the first book on steam navigation. Issued in a very limited printing of 35 copies in total, of which this is number 8 of 27 copies printed to the same size as the original pamphlet. Hull's experiments were conducted on the River Avon at Evesham in 1737, with a Newcomen steam engine mounted on a tow-boat, which would drive paddles mounted at the rear of the craft. [please see our storefront page for shipping information].

First edition; 12mo (17.5 x 10 cm); engraved folding plate (17 x 37.5 cm), woodcut initials, head and tailpiece, contemporary ink illustration to front free endpaper, pen trials to front free endpaper and verso of folding plate; contemporary vellum, MS pen trials to covers, small split to upper cover; 48pp. The first edition of Jonathan Hulls' (d.1758) pamphlet advertising his pioneering work on steamboats. An unsophisticated copy with charming pen trials and a small drawing of a man on the binding, and a face in profile on the front free endpaper. Inventor Jonathan Hull 'inherited mechanical skills from his weaver father and displayed a youthful aptitude for repairing neighbours' clocks. He attended Campden grammar school, earning a reputation as a diligent mathematician and skilled technician' and 'is remembered principally for having patented the application of the atmospheric steam engine to marine propulsion. A communication from M. de Quet on mechanical propulsion of ships, published in 1734 in volume 6 of the abridgement of Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, may have spurred Hulls to attempt to apply the Newcomen engine for this purpose' (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography). Hull was granted a patent on 21st December 1736, printed in full at the beginning of the text, which recognised that 'he hath with much labour and study, and at great expense, invented and formed a Machine, for carrying ships and vessels out from or into any harbour or river, against wind and tide, or in a calm'. He had invented, what was in effect, the first steam-powered tugboat. The machine was to work by harnessing atmospheric pressure: condensed steam would depress pistons connected through a series of ropes and pulleys to a layshaft, a rising counterweight would then reverse the rotation allowing fresh steam to be admitted below the piston. Friction ratchets converted this alternating motion into a continuous rotating force which drove a paddlewheel at the stern of the vessel. Unfortunately, it seems that Hulls' invention never reached open-water trials, although apocryphal tradition states he experimented with his machine on a stretch of the Avon outside of Evesham. Illustrated with a large folding plate showing the hypothetical machine in full effect, with individual figures of the component parts. ESTC T121934.