To Thomas Jefferson from David F. Launy, 1 January 1805
From David F. Launy
New York Jany the 1st. 1805.
Please Your Excellency
as the father of american Independence, as the protector and best Judge of arts and sciences, and as the chief Magistrate of our florishing Empire, I fulfill the duty of a citizen, who has the happiness to live under your Wise Government, by Informing your Excellency that at 9 oClock in the morning the 30th. of Dec: 1804, I did Discover the Long wished for, principle of Reaction, and consequently, that of perpetual motion, I should have wished to keep Silent untill the model should have been finished to present it for the Inspection of your Excellency, but as I must Employ different mechanics for the Execution, I am under apprehension that it should be the means of loosing a property which if Success Crown my hopes, will carry my name to posterity.—Should I meet any obstacles which should contradict my sanguine Expectations, in the Execution of the same, I should with the same frankness take the Liberty of informing your Excellency of the non success, and when finished, I will submit it to the Inspection of your Excellency, which will be probably about next april!
I remain with the highest sentiments of respect and the most profound veneration Your Excellencys Most obedient & hble. Sert—
David F. Launy
RC (ViW: Tucker-Coleman Collection); at head of text: “Ths. Jefferson Esqr. President of the U.S.”; endorsed by TJ as received 5 Jan. and so recorded in SJL.
David Frederick Launy (d. 1813), a watchmaker and inventor from Europe, had previously sold watches and other fancy items in Boston and later in New York. By the time he wrote to TJ, however, he had largely abandoned the trade in favor of his new “Medical Apparatus” business, which he promoted vigorously as an effective treatment for a litany of ailments. He received patents for three of his inventions, including an improved timepiece in 1803, an electrophorus in 1811, and a fireplace in 1813 (Salem Mercury, 15 Dec. 1789; New-York Commercial Advertiser, 25 Feb. 1805; Poulson’s American Daily Advertiser, 8 May 1813; Rita Susswein Gottesman, The Arts and Crafts in New York, 1777-1799 [New York, 1954], 167-8; Gottesman, The Arts and Crafts in New York, 1800-1804 [New York, 1965], 116-17, 409; David F. Launy, A Short Account of the Salutary Effect of Doctor Launey’s Medico Condensed Air [Albany, 1805]; Launy, To the Inhabitants of the City of Philadelphia, and Particularly to Those Suffering under the Most Acute Chronic and Other Diseases [Philadelphia, 1812]; , 32, 100, 124).