(SCIENCE ENGINEERING) John J Walsh Manuscript patent for an

Sale 2546 - Lot 199

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Estimate: $ 400 - $ 600

(SCIENCE & ENGINEERING.) John J. Walsh. Manuscript patent for an "improvement in gun carriage" issued just before the war. 4 leaves, 20 x 15 inches, bound with ribbon: partly-printed cover page completed in manuscript with engraving of Patent Office, signed by the Secretary of the Interior and Commissioner of Patents with embossed seal over ribbon, slightly smaller ink drawing on architectural vellum signed by Walsh and witnesses, and Walsh's 3-page manuscript letter describing the invention; minor wear, repairs on horizontal fold of final leaf, moderate foxing and toning. Washington, 25 September 1860

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Walsh was a New Yorker who had invented "a new and improved carriage for working, training & elevating cannon on shipboard in fortifications, redoubts and other places. . . . The important feature of this invention consists in arranging a supporting and propelling wheel under the breech of the gun, and connecting therewith a hand wheel, like a steering wheel." The signer of this document, Buchanan's Secretary of the Interior Jacob Thompson, was on the brink of defecting to the new Confederacy, publishing a letter from North Carolina urging secession on 20 December. He went on to serve as a Confederate officer and head of its secret service operations in Canada. Patent commissioner Philip Francis Thomas was a Marylander with Copperhead leanings; his son joined the Confederate Army.