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Spanish Translation & Commentary on the First Scientific Observations on the Gulf Stream

Williams, Jonathan (1750-1815),

Memoria sobre el uso del Termómetro en la navegacion presentada a la Sociedad Filosófica Americana de Filadelfia Para Promover Los Conocimientos Utiles Por Jonathan Williams Sacada del volumen ter-cero de sus Transacciones Filosóficas. Traducida del idioma Ingles de orden de S. M.

Madrid:  Vidua de D. Joaquin Ibarra, 1794.

Quarto.  Title Page, 9pp + 21 pp + Folding chart of the Gulf Stream.  Spanish red morocco with gilt Spanish royal arms on both sides.

In 1792, Jonathan Williams published his Memoir on the use of the Thermometer in Navigation; presented to the American Philosophical Society . . .   Published by R. Aitken & Son in Philadelphia,   the first appearance of his observations on the temperature variations in the Atlantic which determined the location of the Gulf Stream.  His observations were first presented to the American Philosophical Society on November 19, 1790.   As noted in Williams letter of October 20, 1792 to George Washington:

A few copies of the inclosed memoir have been extracted for the purpose of private distribution.

If my beleif be well founded, that an attention to the directions it contains, would prevent shipwreck, & consequently save many lives, you will not think this intrusion upon your valuable time an unjustifiable presumption. . .

Spanish Edition

The present work is the Spanish translation of Williams pamphlet.  Recorded in this paper and on the accompanying map are the temperatures within and outside of the Gulf Stream at different depths, the currents and botanical life encountered.    

The finely engraved map, illustrates the flow of the Gulf Stream, the tracts of 5 different voyages between Europe and North America, and the water temperature at various points across the Atlantic. The present Spanish edition is augmented by a 9-page preliminary discourse on the Gulf Stream by Don Cipriano Vimercati, the Director of the Spanish Marine Academy, based on the accounts of the ships of the Armada Real.

The Madrid edition was produced in light of the particular Spanish interest in the Gulf Stream, due to the heavy shipping traffic between Spain and her colonies in the Americas. The publisher of this edition, the house of Don Joaquín Ibarra, issued an edition of Cervantes' Don Quijote (1780), which is especially prized by connoisseurs of Spanish literature.

Jonathan Williams

Jonathan Williams was the grandson of Benjamin Franklin’s half sister Anne Franklin Harris. 

During the Revolutionary War, Williams acted as a commercial agent in Nantes, France. A member of the American Philosophical Society, he worked with Franklin on his later experiments. Williams was appointed by Thomas Jefferson to be the inspector of fortifications and superintendent at the military post at West Point in 1801. In 1802, he became the first superintendent of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Towards the end of his life, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, representing Pennsylvania.

Williams' work featured the most detailed and accurate account of the Gulf Stream to date, improving upon the pioneering empirical observations of the current contained in William Gerard De Brahm's Atlantic Pilot (London, 1772). It contains a meticulous discourse on the nature of the Gulf Stream, including a record of the flow of the current, the temperatures within and outside of the stream at varying depths, as well as an account of the botanical life encountered. 

Rarity

The original extract is of the utmost rarity.   OCLC locates only 2 examples (both in the British Library).