(SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING.) Catlin, George. Partial manuscript patent application for a "Submarine Battery" with illustrations. Autograph Document Signed, 4 pages on 2 leaves, 9 x 16 inches; both leaves with mount remnants at fore-edge and repaired full vertical tears at center, unevenly cropped with slight loss to signature, apparently missing at least one sheet. Ostend, Belgium, circa 1861
George Catlin (1796-1872) is best known as the artist who painted the Plains Indians in the 1830s. By the 1860s, he was a broken man, suffering from serious health problems and lack of income. He arrived in Ostend, Belgium in April 1861. Though not known as an engineer or inventor, he apparently cast upon this concept for "an engine of warfare for the protection of towns and harbours on the sea coast, against the bombardment by vessels of war." The first sheet offered here is a retained draft cover letter to the Commissioner of Patents of the United States signed by George Catlin of New York, "now residing in Ostende, Belgium." He applies for letters patent and explains that he has paid the requisite $20.00 fee. On verso is written simply "Caveat." The second sheet has 3 illustrations numbered 1, 2, and 3, which show the submarine battery on the water, as well as a cutaway profile showing a 4-man crew within the battery preparing to fire its cannon. These illustrations come with no description; the style is reminiscent of the line-drawing illustrations in some of the later editions of Catlin's "Illustrations of the Manners, Customs & Condition of the North American Indians." On verso are detailed descriptions of illustrations 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8; the illustrations are not present. Both sheets are signed by Catlin. We have traced no filed copies or press mentions of these patents, which represent an interesting late detour in the career of an important American artist, and an apparently untraveled path in the history of Civil War coastal defenses.
