Books offered by JF Ptak Science Books LLC

An Early Drawing of a Revolutionary Design--the Modern Propeller, 1855

The U.S.S. San Jacinto--Propeller, Feb 3, 1855.
1855.  New York.  Manuscript drawing on thin tracing paper., by the engineer John Shearman.  Good condition.
20x16"
Drawing in pen and ink, on very thin paper, completed in 1855, by John F. Shearman. Rare. $2500.

This is an extremely early engineering drawing of a modern propeller, executed only a dozen years or so after the creation of the modern screw propeller by John Eriksson. Shearman's creation is devoid of the extra blades that appeared on the edges of the fans of Eriksson's first attempts, and as ultimately adopted as the standard response to this knotty fluid dynamics problem. The propeller pictured here was for the USS San Jacinto, a mail packet that ran along the west coast in the 1850s until it was sunk operating as a blockade runner for the Confederate States in 1864. It was a pretty large propeller--more than 15 feet in diameter--and moved the ship it was attached to more than 22 feet for every revolution of the blade.

The  USS San Jacinto was an early screw frigate in the United States Navy, and was named for the San JAcinto River, of importance during the Texas Revolution. She is perhaps best known for her role in the Trent Affair of 1861...see more here from Wiki. 

Shearman was an engineer who worked at the Brooklyn Iron Works, Roslyn Navy Yard (New York) and a number of other places, practicing his trade from 1845 through 1888. 

The U.S.S. San Jactino:

 

Name:	USS San Jacinto
Builder:	New York Navy Yard
Laid down:	August 1847
Launched:	16 April 1850
Commissioned:	late 1851/early 1852
Fate:	Ran aground, 1 January 1865
General characteristics
Type:	Steam frigate
Tonnage:	1,567 long tons (1,592 t)
Length:	234 ft (71 m)
Beam:	37 ft 9 in (11.51 m)
Draft:	16 ft 6 in (5.03 m)
Depth of hold:	23 ft 3 in (7.09 m)
Propulsion:	Steam engine, screw propeller
Speed:	8 knots (15 km/h; 9.2 mph)
Complement:	278 officers and enlisted
Armament:	• 2 × 8 in (200 mm) guns • 4 × 32-pounder guns

Little Pieces and Superb Design: Rockets, Canons, and other Boom Boom

ITEMS:  two engravings from Heck' Iconographic Encyclopedia.  Each 11x8 inches, each printed in 1851.  Lovely condition.  $75/each.    Ref: JF Ptak Science Books  Post 1420

The Iconographic Encyclopedia of Johan Georg Heck (printed 1851)  turns out to be perhaps one of the best designed books of its type in the nineteenth century.  Seemingly no  matter how much diverse information is hosted per page, whether the items number in the dozens or over a hundred,  the artist managed to distribute them with such grace and apparent ease that it is an absolute pleasure to see it all arranged before you. 

Take for example the following two engravings of artillery fabrication of the early/mid 19th century.  There are 49 complex images on this first  piece of 11x8-inch paper (above), and yet there seems to be also a lot of white space.  It is a full but not crowded display of superb craftsmanship--it is also all very interesting. 

To start, the main figures at top-center shop the plan and elevation of a workshop for casting canons, and we can clearly see the main furnace ("A") for the big guns, surrounded by smaller auxiliary furnaces for smaller pieces.  Off to the side we see "K", which is the drawing room and also the place where the director of the plant would live. Underneath it all in section we see various pipes and drains used to take away water and ash.  The structure on the lower right is for forming the business end and the purpose of the canon or mortar--namely, the ammo, and in particular, the pattern mold of a 50-lb mortar.  The long vertical pole at left used to place he liquid metal under pressure in the hearth, the ball being at the very bottom center.

I've enlarged figures 4 and 5 to show the particulars of a canon (dry sand) mold, #4 being the exterior of the mold and #5 showing a cutaway so that one could see the six-ponder canon that was being formed inside.

There is just so much in this image that a more knowledgeable person could easily go on for pages describing each and every bit. 

The second image displays cartridges and (in general) fireworks--military pyrotechny.  What strikes me right away in this image are the five architecturals in the running vertically down the middle of the sheet.  They show what to do with gunpowder once it has been manufactured, which is an important consideration on handling and safety prior to it being used in battle--the first plan shows a field magazine, while the other four show the disposition of the construction of a permanent magazine, which show plenty of ventilation as well as massive walls which are in turn sunk into the earth and surrounded by ramparts.  It also seems that the roofing is huge, built no doubt to accommodate an earth filler.  Each of the barrels carried a hundred pounds of powder, so there was considerable interest not to allow the magazine to blow up, and if it did, to have the blast go mainly skyward. 

Some other items of interest in the second engraving include the incendiary devices (at bottom, #s 29+30),  signal rockets (#s 32,33,34,35), and the Congreve rocket, (#40 and #52,  which is much bigger and meant to be fired on the enemy, it being an incendiary); #53 is another Congreve, but this one scatters grenades as it is in flight. 

There's a lot that can be described here but it goes a little beyond what I wanted to do with this post--it is also a lot beyond what I know about the subject.

The Display of Information: How Many Planes does a Dreadnought Buy? (1911)

Item:  large (14x11) inch single page illustration fro The Illustrated London News for 1911.  $55.00    ref:  JF Ptak Science Books  Post 1408

There's nothing quite so satisfying as seeing a representation of quantitative data like this where the graphical displays are flying.  "One Dreadnought Buys 52 Dirigibles and 235 Aeroplanes" is a full-page diagram appearing in the 3 June 1911 , making a very strong point that in the new air-age 2 million pounds for one battleship buys a lot of aircraft.  Of course this is a British journal and the ship is flying an American flag--the image originally appeared in the Scientific American just a short while before this publication, and so it also enumerates American and international aircraft, making for a lovely representation of a broad range of airplanes filling up the same sky.