Savery (Thomas) Navigation Improv'd or the art of rowing ships of all rates, in calms, with a more easy, swift and steady motion also a description of the engine that performs it, first edition, folding engraved plate, engraved illustrations, with final advertisement f., browning, pencil note to pastedown, 20th century crushed cyan morocco by Sangorski and Sutcliffe, light rubbing to joints, [Wing S773], small 4to, printed and sold by James Moxon, at the Atlas in Warwick-Lane, 1698.

⁂ First edition of this early work by Savery, rare complete with the folding plate. The machine described by Savery here is a mechanism involving paddle-wheels and a capstan to allow automated rowing of ships. Ultimately the invention would be dismissed by the Admiralty on the advice of Edward Dummer, whose criticisms the author here attempts to answer.

Provenance: C. E. Kenney (pencil note).