Details
FULTON, ROBERT. Original ink and wash drawing of Fulton's underwater marine torpedo being used against a naval vessel. N.p., n.d. [probably 1806-1815]. 1 page, oblong folio, 340 x 620 mm. (13¾ x 24½ in.), finely rendered in ink and blue-gray watercolor washes, several small spots to blank portion of drawing, WITH A SECOND PENCIL DRAWING ON THE VERSO depicting Fulton's underwater cannon in use, neatly matted in a double-sided frame to display both front and back.
Fulton was an extremely competent draughtsman, as strongly evidenced by the dramatic large-format drawings he executed during his years in America. The attractive ink and wash rendering, en grisaille, shows in clear detail the structure and method of Fulton's revolutionary design for a ship-to-ship spar deployed torpedo. At the left side Fulton has drawn the side perspective of the torpedo boat, a small, shallow-draft craft with a bowsprit of 17 feet. Attached to her bow on a hinge is a long boom (Fulton writes: "Length of this boom 32 feet.") The boom extends obliquely towards and beneath the hull of a much larger vessel which Fulton has rendered in beam cut-away view to the right of the sheet (its draft, Fulton has noted, is 12 feet). Attached to the boom is a large oval device, not labeled, which represents the explosive charge to be detonated by the operator.
Fulton's first submarine craft was tested in 1800 and he soon devoted himself to a variety of marine weaponry: mines, torpedoes, underwater cannon and submersible warships). The torpedoes were tested with success in France and England, but the design was not of interest to those nations. Returning to America in 1806, Fulton continued his experiments. Various devices were tested in New York harbor and Fulton published an important treatise on the subject: Torpedo War and Submarine Explosions (New York 1816).
Provenance:
1. Samuel Alofsen, engineer, an associate of Fulton's during his latter years, to whom this and other drawings were given
2. New Jersey Historical Society, gift of the Alofsen in 1855 (sale, Sotheby's, 26 October 1983, lot 46 (with the following drawing)
3. The present owner.
Fulton was an extremely competent draughtsman, as strongly evidenced by the dramatic large-format drawings he executed during his years in America. The attractive ink and wash rendering, en grisaille, shows in clear detail the structure and method of Fulton's revolutionary design for a ship-to-ship spar deployed torpedo. At the left side Fulton has drawn the side perspective of the torpedo boat, a small, shallow-draft craft with a bowsprit of 17 feet. Attached to her bow on a hinge is a long boom (Fulton writes: "Length of this boom 32 feet.") The boom extends obliquely towards and beneath the hull of a much larger vessel which Fulton has rendered in beam cut-away view to the right of the sheet (its draft, Fulton has noted, is 12 feet). Attached to the boom is a large oval device, not labeled, which represents the explosive charge to be detonated by the operator.
Fulton's first submarine craft was tested in 1800 and he soon devoted himself to a variety of marine weaponry: mines, torpedoes, underwater cannon and submersible warships). The torpedoes were tested with success in France and England, but the design was not of interest to those nations. Returning to America in 1806, Fulton continued his experiments. Various devices were tested in New York harbor and Fulton published an important treatise on the subject: Torpedo War and Submarine Explosions (New York 1816).
Provenance:
1. Samuel Alofsen, engineer, an associate of Fulton's during his latter years, to whom this and other drawings were given
2. New Jersey Historical Society, gift of the Alofsen in 1855 (sale, Sotheby's, 26 October 1983, lot 46 (with the following drawing)
3. The present owner.