AFA 20th Anniversary

20th Anniversary 146 www.afamag.com |  www.incollect.com John Reuben Chapin (1823–1894), Armory of the Colt’s Patent Fire-Arms Manufacturing Company in Hartford, from across the Connecticut River. Engraving from “Repeating Fire-Arms: A Day at the Armory of Colt’s Patent Fire-Arms Manufacturing Company,” in United States Magazine , March 1857. Courtesy, George J. Mitchell Department of Special Collections & Archives, Bowdoin College Library, Brunswick, Me. Porter produced a percussion-cap revolving rifle in 1826, but never patented the design. Ten years later he sold it to Samuel Colt (1814–1862) for $100, and Colt made the rifle into one of century’s most successful inventions. This engraving of the Colt Armory in Hartford, Connecticut, appeared in a lengthy article about Colt and his manufacturing enterprise in United States Magazine , just two years after his factory was built. Just as Porter was fading from public view, many of his peers, including Colt and Samuel F. B. Morse, were being lauded as American heroes. Never a bitter or ungrateful man, Porter maintained his equanimity and vigor into old age. At age eighty-four, Porter reported to his son that he had “walked seven miles, besides working six hours in the shop.” Porter’s legacy lies in his connectedness. He was plugged into the most modern ideas of his own era, and his spirit is hitched to our own. Back cover of Aerial Navigation: The Practicability of Traveling Pleasantly and Safely from New-York to California in Three Days, Fully Demonstrated, pamphlet written by Rufus Porter (1792–1884), and published by H. Smith, New York, 1849. William Markoe and Family Papers, Minnesota Historical Society (P447, M99). Fifteen years after first proposing his “travelling balloon,” Porter believed that aerial locomotion was imminent. In 1849 he wrote Aerial Navigation , his magnum opus on the subject, with the objective of stimulating interest and raising money to build a flying steamer, which he proposed using to transport prospectors to California’s gold fields. The pamphlet’s back cover featured an illustration of an “aerial locomotive.” It closely resembles his 1834 traveling balloon, with the exception of the underslung cabin, which he modified to be more aerodynamic. Porter had a prototype under construction when bad weather and vandalism damaged the craft and his lack of funds forced him to abandon his lifelong quest. In the process, he identified principles that advanced the feasibility of flying. Within his pamphlet, he notably observed “first, that a vessel containing hydrogen gas is buoyant in atmospheric air; second, that a revoloidal spindle of any size may be propelled through the air at a rapid rate, without any considerable atmospheric resistance; and third, that a spiral fan-wheel or screw propeller will effect a propulsive power by action on atmospheric air.”