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Richard Gatling

Currency:USD Category:Memorabilia / Autographs - Science Start Price:NA Estimated At:800.00 - 1,200.00 USD
Richard Gatling

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Auction Date:2017 Oct 11 @ 18:00 (UTC-5 : EST/CDT)
Location:236 Commercial St., Suite 100, Boston, Massachusetts, 02109, United States
ALS - Autograph Letter Signed
ANS - Autograph Note Signed
AQS - Autograph Quotation Signed
AMQS - Autograph Musical Quotation Signed
DS - Document Signed
FDC - First Day Cover
Inscribed - “Personalized”
ISP - Inscribed Signed Photograph
LS - Letter Signed
SP - Signed Photograph
TLS - Typed Letter Signed
American inventor (1818–1903) best known for his invention of the Gatling gun, considered to be the first successful machine gun; his other inventions include a screw propeller and a wheat drill, a hemp break machine, a steam plow, a marine steam ram, and a motor-driven plow. Tremendous ALS signed “R. J.Gatling,” three pages on two sheets, 8.5 x 11, Office of the Gatling Gun Company letterhead, December 27, 1890. Letter to Pay Director W. W. Williams, in part: “I had supposed Mr. J. Clyde Sullivan had left for Honolulu ere this, but I rec’d a telegram from him on the 24th inst. requesting that the stock & papers of my Torpedo Boat Co. should be sent to San Francisco, without delay. I telegraphed Mr. Sullivan, (on the 24th inst) informing him that the papers had been sent last Saturday & I trust you, or Mr. Sullivan have them…I regret to say Mr. Geo. W. Hall who is Secy of the Co., informed me that he could not get together all the shares of the Co.’s stock to send you, but that his friends who owned a small amount of the stock would send it to San Francisco as soon as they learned the $5,000 had been placed in the hands of Wells Fargo & Co. at San Francisco…I feel no hesitation in saying if the San Francisco parties raise the $5,000 (& place it in Wells Fargo & Co, keeping to be held subject to the order of Geo. W. Hall who is the Treasurer of the Gatling Torpedo Boat Co.) that there will be no difficulty in the purchascy getting entire control & ownership of the Co.’s stock, patents, & assets of every description;—of course, it is understood that I am to get $5,000 cash for my patents, & $30,000 in full paid up stock in the new Co., in consideration of the stock I own in the present Co. While I was in Washington last week, I requested my son—Richard H. to send you my stock which he has informed me that he did send you a week or more ago:—I hope & trust you, & Mr. Sullivan, will be able to get up a new Co., at San Francisco, that will raise the money required as stated, to buy out the present New York Co., but, in the event such result cannot be accomplished, I desire that you, in such failure, send me back my certificates of stock. Mr. Yung Wing informs me that he has rec’d, within the past ten days two letters from his agent in Japan which gives him (W) hope that an order will be rec’d soon (or within a month or so) for several Boats on my plan, from the Japanise government & in the event such order be obtained we shall want the Boats made in, or near San Francisco. If a new live Co., can be got up in San Francisco, I have no doubt but what a large & profitable business may be done by building the boats in California & selling them to China, Japan, U. States, & other governments. Please assist Mr. Sullivan in his efforts to raised the money required & to get up a new Co., etc.” In fine condition. Accompanied by the original mailing envelope, addressed in Gatling's own hand. On May 13, 1890, Gatling was granted a patent for his pneumatic gun and torpedo boat, which, as stated by its inventor, was ‘to provide a pneumatic gun to be located on the deck of said boat and improved means for operating said gun and for protecting it against damage from the effect of shot or shell fired against the boat from the direction in which she is running.’ Yung Wing, the first Chinese student to graduate from a United States university (Yale College in 1854), was involved in numerous business transactions between China and the United States; in 1873, Wing began a partnership with Gatling when he was tasked with procuring machine guns for the Chinese government. A fascinating letter relating to one of Gatling's lesser known inventions.