(SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING) Jennison William H Jennisons Paten

Sale 2505 - Lot 191

Price Realized: $ 344

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 500 - $ 750

(SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING.) Jennison, William H. Jennison's Patent 1846 Diaphragm Filters. Illustrated broadside, 12 x 7 1/2 inches; mount remnants on verso, 1-inch repaired closed tear, minor foxing. New York, 1846

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In a world under constant threat from water-borne pathogens, this device promised "all river water rendered perfectly pure, and equal to distilled water." The crud filtered out by this diaphragm from Croton Aqueduct water is described by a scientist as a "dark green, muddy substance" consisting of "animal and vegetable matter, with oxide of iron." Two horrifying woodcuts show the microscopic "living animalcules" found in the Croton water. Only one copy of this full-sized broadside is found on OCLC, at the Library of Congress, though other libraries hold smaller versions. None traced at auction.