ANTIQUE HANDWRITTEN LETTER RE INVENTION BOAT PROPELLER BOSE B BOWERS MACON GA

Description

Please email with any questions. Circa 1915 four page handwritten letter with small hand-drawn map. Letter signed Edwin H Ries and B B Bowers of Macon, Georgia. The letter has insertions, words crossed out and several versions of the same opening paragraph on the pages so this was obviously a rough draft of what was eventually sent to possible customers for the "crank propeller" or "crank paddler" invented by Bose B Bowers, useful for powering a boat in shallow water. The letter includes the retelling of a "test run" made with the propeller on a house boat making a 71 mile trip up the Ocmulgee River from Hawkinsville to Macon. "In the shallowest stage of water, when even the small launches could not run, the water in places being only 10 inches deep, sometimes for miles the paddles worked on the sand, stirring it up like mud, you could feel them touching the sand but nothing broke or got out of order the whole way.". This rough draft mentions a US patent copy and photograph included- too bad they didn't include those with this letter! I googled the name Bose B Bowers and found he was the holder of a few patents including a 1915 patent (1,123,474) for a "propelling apparatus for boats" that I assume is what we are talking about in this letter. I don't know much about Edwin H Ries- he is not included on the patent so I am guessing that he was an investor and business partner.