Report to the Directors of the Great Western Steam-Ship Company on the advantages of adopting the Screw Propellor, written in a secretarial hand, the verso of the final page with a conclusion in Brunel's own hand, signed ("I. K. Brunel"), 24 pages, large 4to, October 1841.

Details

Report to the Directors of the Great Western Steam-Ship Company on the advantages of adopting the Screw Propellor, written in a secretarial hand, the verso of the final page with a conclusion in Brunel's own hand, signed ("I. K. Brunel"), 24 pages, large 4to, October 1841.
The directors of the Great Western Steam Ship Company had asked Brunel to carry out experiments with the Archimedes. Launched in November 1838, she was the first considerable sea-going vessel in the world to be screw propelled. Although Brunel found many faults with the Archimedes, he expresses himself very strongly in the report in favour of adopting screw propulsion on the Great Britain. His conclusion
acknowledges the help of Berkley Claxton "it would have been impossible for me to have given you such clear and positive facts on many most
important points -- without the very detailed observations made and
recorded by Mr. Berkley Claxton on the several voyages of the Great
Western and on board the Archimedes -- The information obtained from these logs -- has been and may still be of the greatest importance to us in our future working ... I have also to express my thanks to my friends Mr. Claxton and Mr. Guppy for their assistance in the various experiments which have been made and in working out the result."
Signature holed, creased on folds, some soiling to outer pages.

Lot Essay

Rolt, in his biography of I. K. Brunel, states: "His long report to the directors on the results of these experiments reveals the masterly thoroughness of his investigation and the correctness, in the light of history, of his conclusions" (p. 203). "My friends Mr. Claxton and Mr. Guppy," referred to in the conclusion to the report, were Captain Christopher Claxton, R. N., and T. R. Guppy who, with Brunel himself, constituted the "Building Committee" of the Great Western Steamship Company formed in 1836.

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