Rufus Porter
Rufus Porter was an inventor and founder of Scientific American magazine. He had a sustained interest in aeronautics and aviation.
He long sought funding for an airship project, appealing publicly in Mechanics Magazine in 1834 and in Scientific American in 1845. Seeking to tap into the enthusiasm of the 1849 gold rush he published a pamphlet titled Aerial Navigation: the practicability of travelling pleasantly and safely from New York to California in three days.[1] He moved to Washington DC and in 1851 he made an unsuccessful appeal to Congress. In 1852 he sold 300 shares at $5 each to fund construction of two enormous "Aerports". He published at least twelve issues of a semimonthly magazine titled (The) Aerial Reporter]], which gave news on the project.[2]
He demonstrated a 22-foot model of a steam-powered airship in Washington, DC, c. 1853. The balloon was a silk cylinder filed with hydrogen gas. The audience and newspapers were enthusiastic, but Porter failed to sell many more shares for his transcontinental air travel business idea.[3] [2]
"Porter had been working on the airship concept for over 30 years, having earlier patented an extremely advanced and streamlined airship design in 1820 with a spindle-shaped passenger and crew cabin suspended from an equally spindle-shaped balloon envelope."[3]
References
- ↑ Porter, 1849
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Randers-Pehrson, 1944, pp. 305–306.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Hallion, 2003, p. 83.
This person had 2 publications and 1 patents in this database.
Patents whose inventor or applicant is Rufus Porter
- Patent US-1852-pj (English title: Utility of aerial locomotion)
Publications by or about Rufus Porter
- Porter, 1849 (Simple title: Aerial Navigation: The Practicality of Traveling Pleasantly and Safely from New York to California in Three Days'')
- Aerial Reporter (Simple title: Aerial Reporter, Journal: The Aerial Reporter)
Links
| Names | Rufus Porter |
|---|---|
| Countries | US |
| Locations | |
| Occupations | editor |
| Tech areas | Science, popular press, Aeronautics |
| Accreditations | |
| Affiliations | Scientific American |
| Family name | Porter |
| Birth date | 1792-05-01 |
| Death date | 1884-08-13 |
| Wikidata id | Q7378087 |
