AERONAUTICS.

AERONAUTICS.
Richardson's Accelerated Steamboat. Office Corner of Chambers and Centre Sts., New York. [New York, 1841.] Printed broadsheet, 545 x 352 mm. Recto in four columns of text; verso in one centered large column of text; both sides with large engravings of the "accelerated steamboat," including stern views (one signed "N. Johnson"). Fine.

SPLENDID ADVERTISEMENT FOR AN EARLY VERSION OF A HOVERCRAFT, promoting the stock subscription with the support of early scientific experts such as Rufus Porter, James Renwick and James Gordon Bennett, as publisher of the Herald. Aside from the engravings the recto contains "Opinions of the Press" and the verso a more detailed explanation of how to subscribe. From the press: "Col. I.S. Richardson has invented a new and valuable improvement in vessels, whereby the resistance of water and other obstacles are avoided, saving an immense power and enabling the vessels to proceed with double or even four times the velocity."
Ithiel S. Richardson also invented a "self-acting fire alarm," as well as an atmospheric telegraph, propelling "mail balls" according to one contemporary account, for which he received Congressional approval in 1854 to build a tube from Baltimore to Washington in order to test its viability. The tube was never built, but his efforts in aviation and communication were well-regarded by their communities and pushed the boundaries of possibility in an age of innovation.