This previous item of the month is just too good to miss. Lieutenant Peter Alexander Halkett’s design for a cloak-boat, held in our rare book collection, is a portable boat constructed of macintosh india-rubber cloth, with a paddle, umbrella sail and bellows. So, it’s not a boat-cloak, but a cloak-boat.
Seriously, this is a genius idea. Somebody should tell Dave Gorman.
Renée (Digital Resources Librarian)
You may be interested to know that Peter Alexander Halkett has another claim to fame. In 1855 he took out a patent on “guideway agriculture” and gave a paper to the Royal Society. His vision may even now lead to revolutionisation of agricultural mechanisation in the form of a modern day equivalent of his steam driven machine. I have a slide copy of a pen and ink drawing of his invention which he used on his farms in Kensington and Wandsworth
Comment by Tim Chamen January 4, 2008 @ 3:35 pm