David Bushnell & His Turtle - Hardcover

Swanson

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0689316283 ISBN 13: 9780689316289

Publisher: Atheneum, 1991

Synopsis

A biography of the eithteenth-century Connecticut farmer who invented the submarine first used in naval warfare during the American Revolution.

About this title

From Kirkus Reviews:

After his father's death, Bushnell sold his share of the Connecticut farm where he was born, using the money to go to Yale. There, in the early days of the American Revolution, he began work on an extraordinary invention--an egg-shaped underwater vehicle with a treadle-operated screw propeller to be used to transport mines. Bad luck caused the several attempts to blow up British ships with this device to fail, but not because of faulty technology; barely paid for his pains, Bushnell went on to another life, but his inventions were valued by Washington himself and later adopted by Fulton, who didn't bother to credit their creator. With meager margins and carefully drawn but undistinguished illustrations, this has a textbook air; but Swanson's clear descriptions of how Bushnell worked at solving his many problems make a fascinating story that illuminates both the technology and the society of his day. Bibliography of sources. (Nonfiction. 7- 10) -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From School Library Journal:

Grade 3-6-- Who built the first submarine--and when, where, and why? Swanson and Eagle have combined efforts to give readers a most informative sketch of the first working underwater craft and its inventor. The son of a Connecticut farmer, David Bushnell attended Yale just prior to the American Revolution, where he proved that explosives could be detonated underwater. After graduation, he built a craft that could be used to attach mines to British ships in Boston Harbor. The missions were never totally successful, but the Turtle did prove itself as a "submarine." The book has an appropriate vocabulary for its intended audience and well-paced text. The illustrations alternate spreads of black-and-white pencil drawings with those washed in watercolor. The intriguing cover will attract readers. --Eldon Younce, Harper Elementary School, KS
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Atheneum
• Publication date: 1991
• ISBN 10: 0689316283
• ISBN 13: 9780689316289
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 40