To Thomas Jefferson from Charles Buxton, 25 June 1805
From Charles Buxton
New York June 25th. 1805—Greenwich St—
Sir
I feel a particular pleasure on enclosing herewith some designs & drawings (upon subjects that have engaged my attention) especially as I am of opinion, that they may be acceptable; judging from the slight opportunity I have enjoyed of conversing familiarly with you some years since—
To recall your recollection of me, I will only observe that on the 1st. of April 1793, (being married the preceding evening) I went on a jaunt to Philadelphia with Mrs B & a female friend; & according to previous arrangment lodged at Mrs House’s; where during a stay of ten days I had frequently the gratification of being in your company—
I suggested to my friend Dr Mitchell my intention of writing to you, which meeting his approbation, shall hope the communication may be agreeable Being
Sir With every Sentiment of Respect & Esteem Your’s
Chas Buxton
RC (DLC); at foot of text: “His Excellency Thomas Jefferson President of the American Philosophical Society”; endorsed by TJ as received 28 June and so recorded in SJL. Enclosure: five drawings illustrating Buxton’s inventions, drawn by him, with a separate sheet of descriptions in his hand; drawings 1 and 2, each dated 1797, show details of a distilling furnace in which salt water is passed from a reservoir into a furnace chamber, where it is distilled at what Buxton describes as an anticipated rate of one “pint of fresh water per minute”; Buxton describes drawing 3, dated 1805, as a pipe for a fire engine, designed with an added “air vessel” to increase the distance at which water can be sprayed before losing pressure; drawing 4, dated 1802, he describes as an apparatus for “drawing the smoke of Segars or pipes of tobacco through water scented, to give tobacco fumes, any required flavour & render the smoke cool & mild”; and drawing 5, undated, illustrates “a method for arresting the progress of fire in buildings” by the addition of sheet iron firewalls placed in the grooves of supporting beams (MS in same: TJ Papers, 151:26405-9).
New York City physician Charles Buxton (1768-1833) was born in Radbourne, England, and studied at the University of Edinburgh before earning a medical degree from Queen’s College (later Rutgers University) in 1793. Buxton drew what became known as the “Bowling-Green Washington,” which Cornelius Tiebout engraved and Buxton sent to George Washington in 1799 (John Howard Raven, Catalogue of the Officers and Alumni of Rutgers College [Originally Queen’s College] in New Brunswick, N.J., 1766-1916 (Trenton, 1916), 323; , 4:26; Vol. 16:xxxiii-xxxiv).