Patent Model of a Steam Steering Apparatus, 1860

This patent model accompanied Frederick Ellsworth Sickels’ patent application for an “improvement in modes of steering vessels” that was awarded patent number 29,200 on July 17, 1860. "The principle and character of my invention," Sickels wrote in 1860, "consists in bringing to the aid of the steersman the power of steam, so arranged as to alternately move and hold the rudder of the vessel in any required position, according to the action of the steersman."