| Description | Steam Boat Engines (11 items).
1244c. Robert Fulton - Description of Discoveries, Patent Drawings. Jan. 1809, Oct. 1810, 1811. 11 items.
"Robert Fulton's description of his discoveries, inventions & improvements on Steam Boats" - transcripts of papers by Fulton submitted for patent applications [?], 1 Jan. 1809 and 2 Oct. 1810.
"1809 Patent" drawings.
Set of 11 coloured drawings and "view of the Steam Boat passing the highlands" on 6 sheets - drawings of methods of propelling boats, resistance experiments, paddle wheels, engines etc. These drawings are referred to in the 1809 descriptions above.
"1811 Patent" drawings.
Set of 8 coloured drawings on 4 sheets - drawings of engines, shafts and wheels, boat hulls etc. These drawings are referred to in the 1810 descriptions above.
These drawings and documents were probably acquired from a Mr. Dyer of Manchester in 1817, as letters from William Creighton of 19 Jun. 1815 [3/248/99] and Peter Ewart of 30 Apr. and 5 Sep. 1817 [3/249/105] mention Dyer having them. Ewart notes that Dyer would be happy to let Boulton Watt & Co. borrow them and "return it at your leisure," and in his second letter he says that Dyer has no objection to them being copied.
They were kept with Boulton Watt & Co.'s own drawings for Fulton's engines, as in the Catalogue of Old Engines, Henry Hazleton noted of the Fulton portfolio "[it] contains interesting paintings and writings by Fulton." However the drawings were later mis-placed in Portfolio 17, where they were found by the Archives staff in 1994. They were then moved to the Steamboat Box, where they were listed as Item 68. They have now been renumbered as part of Portfolio 1244. |