Papers of John Adams, volume 19
I beg leave to present Your Excellency with the Account of an Invention for the Improvement of Naval Architecture, which is intended for the general Good of Mankind.1
As I trust it will be followed with happy effects to the Nations who shall adopt it, and that I believe it will prove particularly useful to the different States of North America, from the Nature of their Coasts, and Inland Navigations, I request Your Excellency to transmit this Book by the first Opportunity to Philadelphia, to be delivered to the Honourable The Congress of the United States of America.
I have the Honour to be with very great Respect / Your Excellency’s / most obedient and / most humble Servant
RC (PCC, No. 84, VI, f. 469–470); internal address: “His Excellency / John Adams Esqr / London.”
Glaswegian Patrick Miller (1731–1815) was a banker and inventor who experimented with paddle wheels and steam power. The enclosure, not found, was Miller’s Elevation, Section, Plan, and Views of a Triple Vessel, Edinburgh, 1787, which proposed a two- or three-hulled ship, propelled by paddle wheels and operated by crew at the ship’s capstans. Miller distributed his publication widely, sending it to foreign governments and public libraries. JA, who noted that Miller was regarded as “a gentleman of character and fortune,” forwarded the “elegant volume of improvements in naval architecture” to John Jay with his letter of 1 May (
DNB
;
Dipl. Corr., 1783–1789
, 2:745).