[Manuscripts, Naval] The Report of the Committee for Conducting the Experiments of the Society for the Improvement of Naval Architecture

[4], [i]-ii, 3-38 pages. + Table 1 parts 1-4 (all folding plates, "Form and Dimensions.") + Table 2 ("On friction") + Table 3 parts 1-3 ("Analysis of the total Resistance.") + folding Plates A + Plate (not numbered). Table 1, Part 1 is on distinctly darker and somewhat smaller paper. Textblock is 13 x 10 1/4 inches. Binding is 34cm tall. Leather bound, with marbled endpapers. Tables and plates in rear are attached by tabs to the binding, and are all folding. An inked manuscript in a uniform hand. Several of the tables and plates have penciled notations on them in a fine, but different and unknown hand. Illustrations are fine watercolors, the balance in ink. Wove paper with "J Whatman" watermark. Price ten shippings and six-pence inked at base of title page. Date of c1799 is based on one table recording work done in 1798. A total of 38 pages of manuscript text, seven double page tables inked and in watercolor, and two double page plates. Laid in separately is a sixteen page French manuscript (watermarked "Sainte Marie") with notes in both ink and pencil and dated June 1862, apparently on the same topic. In an effort to place this manuscript in context (What is It?), we checked OCLC for Beaufoy's works. There are three primary - one with similar title from 1794 which is a clear mismatch (the current manuscript records experiments from 1798). The second work c1799 is titled "The report of the Committee for conducting the experiments of the Society for the Improvement of Naval Architecture" : London, Printed by order of the Society, by Bunney and Gold, Shoe-Lane, and sold by J. Sewell, Cornhill, circa 1799. [2] leaves, 38 pages 2 plates, 7 tables, 31cm. It appears to be a close match without examining the content. OCLC finally notes Beaufoy's 1834 "Nautical and hydraulic experiments, Vol 1." which reissues the c1799 work. Comparing our manuscript text to a digitized version of the 1834 book, the content is essentially the same noting layout and rearrangement of footnotes, etc. Our conclusion is that the current manuscript is either a) the original manuscript of the c1799 paper sent to the printer or more likely a fair copy of the same. The pencilled notes in the manuscript and the laid in French manuscript pages we have not investigated other than to note they are in the same vein as the manuscript. Calf. [Mark Beaufoy] "astronomer and physicist, was the son of a brewer near London.He began experiments on the resistance of water to moving bodies before he was fifteen, in the coolers of his father's brewhouse, and it was mainly by his exertions that the Society for the Improvement of Naval Architecture was founded in 1791. Under its auspices an important series of experiments was conducted at the Greenland Dock during the years 1793-8 by the care, and in part at the cost, of Colonel Baufoy. Many useful results in shipbuilding were thus obtained, as well as the first practical verification in England of Euler's theorems on the resistance of fluids. The details were printed in 1834, at the expense of Mr. Henry Beaufoy (son of the author), in a large quarto volume entitiled 'Nautical and Hydraulic Experiments, gratuitously distributed to public bodies and individuals interested in naval architecture. In the laborious calculations conected with this work, Beaufoy was materially assited, up to the time of her unexpected death in 1800, by his gifted wife.He was admitted to the Royal Society in 1815, was a fellow of the Linnean Society, and one of the earliest members of the Astronomical Society." (DNB) Beaufoy also published many articles in the Annals of Philosophy among other scientific journals. This manuscript documents work done by Beaufoy and others under the auspices of the newly formed Society for the Improvement of Naval Architecture (he heartily suggests members in arrears pay their dues now that they see some of the results of this arduous labor). Provenance: Caravan-Maritime Books, 1973 and in a private collection since.…