Short Treatise
Item #36724
RUMSEY, James. A Short Treatise on the Application of Steam, Whereby is Clearly Shewn, From Actual Experiments, That Steam May Be Applied to Propel Boats or Vessels of Any Burthen Against Rapid Currents With Great Velocity. Philadelphia: Printed by Joseph James, 1788. 26pp. plus final blank leaf. 19th-century three quarter morocco and marbled boards. Extremities somewhat worn. Contemporary ownership signature on titlepage. Tough of dust soiling on titlepage. Else a very good, untrimmed copy. From the collection of Haskell F. Norman, with his bookplate. Evans 21442. Rink 2924. Norman 1859. This is one of the pioneering works on steamboats, a revolution in technology of profound implications. Rumsey, a machinist by trade, was a pioneer in steam propulsion. As early as 1784 he exhibited to George Washington a model of a boat for stemming the current of rivers by steam power. The Short Treatise initiated a controversy in the late 1780's between Rumsey and John Fitch over who had priority over their respective steam-powered boats. Fitch was the first to publicize his invention and obtained a fourteen-year privilege for the manufacture of steam vessels, giving him a virtual monopoly of its production in America. As a reply to Fitch's Original Steamboat Supported (1788), Rumsey issued the present pamphlet. This is the corrected reissue of Rumsey's A Plan, Wherein the Power of Steam is Fully Shewn (1788).
Price: $9,500.00