Brewer and Alexander, 1893, Aeronautics

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Front page of the reprinted book

Griffith Brewer; Patrick Young Alexander. 1893. Aeronautics: An abridgment of aeronautical specifications filed at the patent office from A.D. 1815 to A.D. 1891. London; republished 1965 by Boekhandel en Antiquariaat, Amsterdam.

This book has summaries of British aeronautical patents from 1815-1891.

Patents in this book can be treated as relevant to aeronautics and aviation because these experts at the time thought so, regardless of how other systems classified such patents. Someday we can have indicators, regarding each patent, of the sources that did or did not count it in the aeronautics area.

Peter has a copy of the reprint of this book. A version is for sale online. A pdf is available at the Internet Archive.

Griffith Brewer (1867-1948) and Patrick Young Alexander (1867-1943) both worked in the aero field; Brewer was a patent agent as well as an aeronaut, aviator, and inventor.

At the end of the book, starting on page 157, they have a Subject Index which is a classification scheme for patents on aeronautics and aviation, possibly a bit different from the one used by the British Patent Office of the time.

Patent classifications used in Brewer and Alexander (1893), pp. 157-160
  • Balloons
    • Captive balloons
    • Balloons combined with aeroplanes
    • Construction of balloons
    • Fire ballons
    • Making gas for balloons
    • Photography from balloons
    • Propelling balloons by means of jets of fluid
    • Propelling balloons by means of screws
    • Propelling balloons by wings
    • Propelling balloons by other means
    • Balloon railways
    • Regulating altitude of balloons
    • Valves for balloons
    • Weight, adjustably attached to balloons
  • Flying machines
    • Aeroplanes
    • Correcting altitude of flying machines automatically
    • Manumotive flying machines
    • Propelling, supporting or steering aeroplanes
      • with screws
      • with wings
      • with paddles, oars, jets, or other means
      • Vertical screws for supporting flying machines
  • Kites
  • Parachutes


Original title Aeronautics
Simple title Aeronautics
Authors Griffith Brewer, Patrick Y. Alexander
Date 1893
Countries UK
Languages en
Keywords patents
Journal
Related to aircraft? 1
Page count
Word count
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