Credit: © The Royal Society
Image number: RS.9807
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Boat sailed by aerostatic ‘wings’
Date
March 1784
Object type
Archive reference number
Material
Dimensions
height (painting): 199mm
width (painting): 324mm
width (painting): 324mm
Subject
Content object
Description
Plate 21 for the paper “Sur un moyen de donner la Direction aux machines aerostatiques”, by Comte de Galvez [Bernardo de Gálvez y Madrid, Viscount of Galveston and Count of Gálvez (1746-1786)], Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, vol.74 part 2 (1784), pp.469-470. The original paper in which this illustration appeared was in the form of a certificate signed by five witnesses to the experiment of trying the boat. The illustration shows the vessel under way with three pairs of ‘sails’ being operated manually. The papers states that these were inspired by “the use birds make of their wings in flying & fish of their fins and tail in swimming”. The sails are on three whalebone ribs or spars sitting on a central beam which runs the length of the boat mounted on A-frames. Within the hull, two gentlemen can be seen drinking from flagons. The boat was trialled on the Canal de Manzanares, Madrid, Spain.
Inscribed above “Dessin de la Chaloupe et machine qui a servie a l’experience faite sur le canal de Manzanares le 1er Marz 1784”. Inscribed lower left “C de Galvez”. A possible artist’s signature in pencil lower centre, only partly legible,“Dic-“.
Inscribed above “Dessin de la Chaloupe et machine qui a servie a l’experience faite sur le canal de Manzanares le 1er Marz 1784”. Inscribed lower left “C de Galvez”. A possible artist’s signature in pencil lower centre, only partly legible,“Dic-“.
Associated place