JF Ptak Science Books // Blog Bookstore

Original Drawing for Raising a Screw Propeller of the HMS Esk (1854)

Original drawing on oilskin of a device used to raise the propeller of the HMS Esk, an early-use example of a modern screw propeller, 1854. 

32x24", in original color. There are some nicks and short tears, but in overall GOOD (or better) condition. $2250

"HMS Esk was a 21-gun Highflyer-class screw corvette launched on 12 June 1854 from J. Scott Russell & Co., Millwall...She served in the Mediterranean Station between 1854 until 1856 and was in the Black Sea during the Crimean War. She was part of the East Indies Station between 1856 until 1863, where she participated in Second Opium War at Canton. Afterwards she went to the Australia Station, where she participated in the attack on Gate Pā during the Tauranga Campaign in New Zealand. Her commanding officer Captain John Fane Charles Hamilton was killed in the attack. She left the Australia Station on 2 July 1867.”--wikipedia

The words of the Admiralty Order stated she should be "a wood screw vessel complete of Highflyer's... In common with other screw corvettes of the time, she was envisaged as a steam auxiliary, intended to cruise under sail with the steam engine available for assistance. Commensurately she was provided with a full square sailing rig. Her oscillating two-cylinder inclined single-expansion steam engine...drove a single screw.”

--28 October 1854-25 February 1856: commanded  by Captain Thomas Francis Birch in the Baltic during the Russian War.
--1 March 1856-26 June 1861: commanded by Captain Robert John le Mesurier McClure, East Indies and China (Pacific).
--22 May 1863-29 April 1864: commanded by Captain John Fane Charles Hamilton, New Zealand.

 

Iron Lighthouses, Aluminum, Engineering and Farm Implements, Non-photographic Photographs, and more (1856)

Journal of the Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, Vol 31 (third series), volume 61 (overall), January-June 1856, 443 pp.,with text illustrations, and three plates, including one folding.. Half-calf, with raised bands. Ex-library, with some scuffing on the spine; also a few stamps on the title page. Nice copy. $225 Contains many articles of interest, including an early report on industrialized aluminum, “nature printing”, the McCormack reaper patent case, lighthouses, the Suez Canal, and a lot more, including:

“Aluminum, the So-Called New Metal”, pp 27-31 and “History and Properties of Aluminium”, pp 65-7. I'd like to point out that I rarely see the hyphenated word “so-called” in the JFI. That said, aluminum had been around for 100+ years at this point, and then first truly described by Wohler, though it wasn't until the period of this vol of the JFI that aluminum was produced in such a way as to be industrially useful.

Henry Bradbury, “On Nature Printing”, pp 37-39. This was a style of printing in which a sample was impressed on a sheet of soft lead and then electroplated and use as a printing block, the result being some very defined imagery. Bradbury perfects a style of this printing and found it very useful even in the early age of mass-produced photo images. 

“The Canal through the Isthmus of Suez”, pp 150-155, with a lovely litho view of the canal;

G. Herbert, “On the Construction of Buoys, Beacons, and other stationary floating bodies”, pp79-84;

J. Vaughan Merrick, “On the History and Construction of Iron Lighthouses, with a description of Coffin's Patches Light”, pp 145-150, with a lovely lithographic plate.

George Simmons, “Method of Calculating Excavation and Embankment”, pp 1-4;

Edward Allen, “Mechanical Engineering as applied to Farm Implements”, pp 41-45, 138-142 (with text illustrations), 186-190, 258-260, 334-338, 397-406 (to be concluded in the next volume)

C.H. McCormick vs. J.H. Manny, “Law Reports of Patent Cases: the Reaper Case”, pp 176-186;

David Stevenson, “Remarks on Floating and Fixed Lighthouses”, pp 221-227; John W. Nystrom, “Experiments on Sound for the Application of Ringing Bells”, pp 260-266; R.D. Thomson, “On the Condition of the Atmosphere during Cholera”, pp 202-204.

Also:

Erastus W. Smith, “United States Steam Mailer Fulton”, pp 339-340, with a beautiful folding plate of the ship.

 

A Highlight of Circular Ships, 1880.

"The Russian Imperial Yacht, 'Livadia'", an article in Nature, July 22, 1880, appearing on pp 270-274, with several large illustrations, including an elevation and a plan of the ship.  Offered in the weekly issue of Nature, with the (scarce) original front and rear wrappers, removed from a larger bound volume.  Very crisp copy, and an interesting assessment of this odd-looking ship.  Very Good copy. $45

“The Livadia was an imperial yacht of the House of Romanov built in 1879–1880...intended for service on the Black Sea...a radically novel ship conceived by Vice Admiral Andrey Popov, designed by naval architect Erast Gulyaev and built by John Elder & Co. of Govan on Clyde. The Livadia continued Popov's line of circular shipsalthough this time Popov sacrificed geometrical perfection for seagoing capabilities. She had a beam of 153 ft (47 m) against overall length of only 259 ft (79 m). An extreme example of tumblehome architecture, she sported a conventionally shaped superstructure mounted on a wide, flat-bottomed, turbot-shaped submerged hull or pontoon. The Livadia turned out a surprisingly maneuverable and stable ship with a respectable maximum speed of 15.7 knots and her efficiency was comparable to conventional ships. Her performance at sea trials surprised most naval architects and was attributed to the favorable placement of the propellers.”--Wikipedia

Rare London Naval Conference Document, 1930 (H.L. Mencken's copy)

JF Ptak Science Books  

Summary of Memoranda Setting Forth Policy of His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom at the Naval Conference. No publisher or place of publication indicated, and not dated, though printed in 1930. 13x8 inches, 6 leaves. WorldCat/OCLC locates 0 copies.  Two old horizontal folds; the cover has a chip missing in the upper left making it detached from the brass and twine paper-gatherer.  Good copy. $150

This was the fifth in a series of naval conferences of global concern (1921-1937) involving Great Britain, the United States, Japan, France, and Italy, the representatives gathering in London for January/February to work out revisions and extensions of the Five Power Treaty adopted in 1922. Although billed as a peace/disarmament conference, it really didn't work out that way, or so it seems—much of what was discussed was on the limiting of tonnage production of ships and subs, but it seems that the upper limits were designed above the actual production capacity of some nations.

This was H.L. Mencken's copy, with a small penciled note to that effect in a librarian's hand on the back of the title page, along with a date. Mencken covered the proceedings, and evidently, soon afterwards (March 19^th) gave this copy of the outline memoranda to the Library of Congress.

Provenance: H.L. Mencken, then to the Library of Congress, de-accessioned in 1998. There are no internal L.C. Or Mencken markings; there is a L.C. surplus/duplicate rubber stamp on the rear cover of the document.

 

 

 

Tubular, Streamlined Ship Constructiuon, 1930's

JF Ptak Science Books  

Leonard R. Bester was a marine architect and naval engineer who produced this very interesting document on his highly-stylized concepts for boat/ship design. The vessels are all  certainly streamlined, and are long and narrow, and share the same "tubular" hull construction. He recorded them in these documents (below) which were sent by him to secure copyright protection to the U.S. copyright office, one copy of which was sent on to the Library of Congress.  They were certainly produced on a very small production scale, perhaps only a few copies made, given what looks like their home-cooked flavor--in any event, they did not receive any circulation that I can find, and are not listed anywhere in WorldCat (which is a librarian's tool for recording and documenting books) showing that nothing by Bester is listed in any contributing library worldwide.  SOLD

Bester was definitely a working naval architect who possessed at least several patents¹ who worked for the Todd Shipping Company (NYC) and who was listed by 1919 as a member of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers² . The work looked interesting and intriguing to me, but is also in a field that I know basically nothing about, so I thought that given the possible interest in it to designers and engineers that I would at least enter the information about the work here in internettubewebland where it might be findable to someone interested in this sort of creative thinking. 

• The work seems to be divided into two section, each section with three parts,  and although not dated per se the title pages such as they are are copyrighted 1935 and 1936, with the later having a copyright/Library of Congress acquisitions stamp for 1936. The blueprints, on the other hand, date back as far as 1931, so there's a bit of a mix. The work certainly is not passed 1936.  Altogether there are 19 folding blueprints of boats, 36 pages of text, 12 photographs on three leaves, and several folding charts.  Section one is loose sheets with three-ring punched holes; section two is very similar but bound in the original back brass-clasp paper wrappers.  Provenance:  the Library of Congress, "the Pamphlet Collection". 

Section I:  The Streamline Fleet (1935), divided into three sections.

Part I

• "Features and Advantages of the New Tubular Type Boat", pp 3-6
• Tech illustrations in 12 figures, pp 7-9, followed by 6 leaves  of 2 figur/leaf of various cross-sections
• "Design Features", pp 10-14, with a folding plate: "Comparative plate of tubular type hull structure", 13x18"
• "Main points of advantages of tubular design", pp 15-17
• "Summary of the Streamline Tubular Boat", pp 18-19
• "High Speed Yachts", p. 22
• "Future of the Yachting Industry", pp 23-26
• Conclusion, p. 27

Part II

• "Propulsion Machinery, Diesel Power", pp 28-30, with 3 leaves of tables and 2 folding plates on the turbine

Part III

• "Navy Boats", pp 31-36.

Part IV (folding plates)

• "High Speed tubular 50' to 60' streamline diesel cruiser, twin screw", 11x17", 1931
• High Speed tubular 54' streamline diesel cruiser, twin screw", 11x17", 1931
• "Strealine 85' Diesel Yacht", 11x17", 1932
• "Tubular steel 100' streamline diesel commuting yacht, twin or triple screw" 11x17 inches (1931)
• Schematic: "tubular design showing strong and light construction", 12x16"
• "Tubular steel 120' streamline diesel yacht,  triple screw" 1931 11x17
• "High Speed Turbine--Tubular--110 to 130' Streamline Diesel Yacht, quadruple screw", (1931)  11x24"
• "High Speed Turbine--Tubular--150' Streamline Diesel Yacht, quadruple screw", (1931)  11x24"
• "Quadruple screw diesel powered auxiliary torpedo boa", 1935, 12x30"

 

Section II:  Streamlined Tubular Hull Structure, Design, Layouts, and Interior Arrangement of Cruisers and Yachts

Part I contains seven folding plans and cross section blueprints of the design, includes the following sections:

• Streamlined Diesel Cruiser, 1936, 34x8', 10x13 inches
• Streamlined Diesel Cruiser, 1936, 40x8', 10x13 inches
• Streamlined Diesel Cruiser, 1936, 45x9', 10x13 inches
• Streamlined Diesel Cruiser, 1936, 50x10', 10x13 inches
• Streamlined Diesel Cruiser, 1936, 57x11', 12x17 inches
• Streamlined tubular twin screw diesel commuting yacht, 23x16 inches
• another copy of Streamlined tubular twin screw diesel commuting yacht, 23x16 inches, though with different applications.

Part II contains 3 leaves, each with four original photographs each, with tissue guards. These are photos of scale models of Bester's designs, though the dimensions are unfortunately not mentioned.

Part III concentrates on "express transportation yachts", and contains five folding cross section blueprints:

• 65' Express Transportation Yacht, drawing measuring 17x11 inches
• 65' Express Transportation Yacht for 60 people, 19x11 inches
• 75' Express Transportation Yacht for 75 people, 10x22"
• 85' Express Transportation Yacht for 85 people, 10x23"
• 100' Express Transportation Yacht for 110 people, 10x30"

Express Transportation Yachts

Notes:

1. Bester patented an approach to "tubular" hull construction ("Ship hull design", filed in 1936 and patented in 1939, US2158214A), which seems reasonable to me (as a non-engineer). He describes it so:  "It has been the practice in the making of steel vessels such as are commonly used, to provide framework consisting essentially of transverse web frames coupled with longitudinal members, whereby to give form and rigidity to the vessel. Even where the vessels were oval or cylindrical in general cross-section, the framing invariably embodied straight pieces. This type of construction had the considerable disadvantage that it was quite heavy and it was not possible to attain any great amount of saving in weight by variations in the arrangement and size of the several frame members. It was also impossible in such construction to reduce the labor cost in the building there of and also to reduce the cost of propulsion or materially increase the speed of the vessel without overstraining the hull structure."   Source:  Google Patents, http://www.google.com/patents/US2158214

2. Proceedings of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers, volume 25, 1918, listing of the Society's leadership and membership.

Manuscript Lecture Notes on Maritime Law, 1849

JF Ptak Science Books

The odd thing about this "find" this morning is that only yesterday I was asking a question regarding what I saw (or imagined) to be the equality of vessels in maritime law and how interesting it would be to have those laws transferable to land. That said, in clearing out a backlog in one of the bookcases I found a series of lecture notes on admiralty law from 1849.  Clearly they belonged to a lecturer in the subject, as there are broad statements on involved topics, with room to spare in going from one subject to the next--these are not "notes" in the sense that someone would lecture by reading from them; they are the notes of a person for moving through time inside of a lecture, references for what needs to be covered. With this the case most of them are too advanced for me to make much sense of....but there was plenty there to distract and attract--perhaps the least of that is the string used to tie everything together.  

Lecture Notes on Admiralty Law.  4 parts:

• Admiralty Law No. 1, dated August 4, 1849. 9x7, 9pp  Bound with string.
• Admiralty Law No. 2, dated September 6, 1849, 9 3/4x 7 1/2 inches, 22pp.
• Admiralty Law No. 3, dated September 23, 1849. 10x8 inches, 20pp.
• "Abbot on Shipping" and related, dated October 9, 1849, 10x8 inches, 140pp, bound with strong. 
• Two shorter, supplemental works from the same period.

Altogether six manuscript booklets, all int he same hand, totaling at least 190pp, and all from 1849.  

There are no indications of ownership, or place.  SOLD

The stuff of old books can be very attractive in their own way--just the fact that they have made it in this relatively now-fragiler form is remarkable. (I am certain that these will make it hundreds of years more if cared for, or simply ignored, because that is what most books with do.)  In any event I find the found bits like this to be fascinating. 

Classic Work on the Discovery of Australia

Ernest Scott, editor. Australian Discovery.  London, JM Dent, 1929.  First editions.  Volume 1:  By Sea; Volume 2: By Land. 8vo; pp. xxxvi, 412, xxxii, 422; b/w portrait frontispieces, 10 b/w plates, 19 maps.  Maps include Tasman's chart, Dampiers map, Ptolemy, Desceliers map, routes of Mendana, Quiros and Torres, Orbis Terrarum Otelius 1589, Thevenots map 1663, and more.

Very nice copies, in the original (white) dustjackets, and so very uncommon.  $275.00

Micro-worlds in Prints: sub-millimeter Action Figures, ca. 1660

ITEM:  Engraving, Slagh in Vlaenderen.  4x3 inches.  Printed ca. 1660.  $200.   Ref:  JF Ptak Science Books  Post 1435

This small engraving, Slagh in Vlaenderen (Battle in Flanders or thereabouts), is about 3x4 inches, a tiny engraving (on copper, I believe) depicting a large action between what I would guess to be the Dutch, or the army at Flanders, and the Spanish, sometime in the late 15th century to the early/mid 17th century.  There were a number of different years in which this action could have taken place, so I'm not sure what this image actually depicts.  The print was made sometime in the mid 17th century, possibly earlier. 

What attracted me to this print was the minuteness of the figures in the background--the horse depicted here is not a millimeter long in the original, but we can see that the artist took enough care and had the imagination to make the horse run.

Ditto for the soldier just to the left of the horse and out of formation--even when you hold the print close, you really can't see that there's a figure there unless you use a magnifying glass.  This sample was scanned at 1000 dpi and represents a section of the print that is maybe 8 mm across. 

The next sample shows an island that in the original is about an inch across, and as you can well see the sub-detail from the image above is just a fragment of this detail.

And the print in all of its glory, appearing on your monitor at about full scale. 

I am constantly amazed at the precision and care and artistry of these early engravers, and how much they cared to include interesting details that were all but invisible to the majority of its viewers.  But that's not the point. 

Massive Display of All of the Ships of the Royal Navy, 1909

Panorama of the British Navy at its Height  1909, 15 x 90 inches

The Illustrated London News Panorama of the Force We Must Maintain:  a Navy Adequate in Strength to ensure our Shores from Invasion, our Empire from Hostile Attempts, and our Trade from Destruction in War.

Two long, folding sheets published as a special supplement in the “Illustrated London News”, March 27, 1909, after paintings by Norman Wilkinson.  Each sheet 45 inches long and are intended to be joined,  and so make a very impressive 15”x90” display.  

The images of the ships are very detailed, and the key at the bottom identifies 183 warships (with notes on tonnage, armament, speed and age).   The pair, $450

 

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.  SOLD   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.