PBA Galleries

40 pp. Two folding maps. (8vo) 23x15 cm (9x6") original blue printed wrappers. First Edition.

Captain James Buchanan Eads (1820–1887) was an American civil engineer and inventor, holding more than 50 patents. Eads devised a wooden jetty system that narrowed the main outlet of the river causing the increased flow of water to cut a deep channel preventing the frequent silting problems which had in the past caused parts of the Mississippi to become unnavigable for periods. Eads offered to build the jetties first, and charge the government later. If he was successful, and the jetties caused the river to cut a channel 30 feet deep for 20 years, the government agreed to pay him $8 million. Eads was successful. The jetty system was installed in 1876 and the channel was cleared in February 1877. Well represented in institutional collections but rare in the trade, no copies in recent auction records.