The science of ship-building, considered in its relations to the laws of nature

London, 1863. b/w folding plates. xi, 63 pp. Willson, a Canadian polymath, was sufficiently ahead of his time as to sound like a crackpot. He proposes to do away with the sails, masts, and rigging, and thereby to dispense with sailors - in fact to regard a ship of war as a vast floating military engine, capable of being rapidly moved to any point required, at a velocity hitherto unknown. In fact, what he has in mind are souped-up ironclads. He acknowledges Scott-Russells wave-line theory and adds his own ideas about the importance of reducing surface friction. His design concepts are illustrated in five folding plates. Though he sounds like an engineer he was actually a journalist with a particular interest in economics. According to the Dictionary of Canadian Biography, The quality of Willsons writings on money and banking was excellent. An interesting oddball item. VG in original cloth binding.