Description
First edition of From Midshipman to Rear-Admiral by Bradley A. Fiske.
Octavo, [xi], 694pp. Blue cloth, title in gilt on spine, top edge gilt. Stated “Published, September, 1919” on copyright page with no additional printings listed. Complete with 14 full-page illustrations, including frontispiece with tissue. Faint toning to plates and leaves facing plates. Solid text block, traces of dirt to covers, bookseller’s label on front free endpaper, a near fine example. In publisher’s dust jacket, $6.00 retail price listed on front cover and front flap, toning to flap folds and spine, chipping along edges, small closed tears along bottom edge, a very good example.
Rear Admiral Bradley A. Fiske (1854-1942) served in the U.S. Navy for 42 years, inventing over 130 electrical and mechanical devices to be used by the public and the Navy. He is credited with the innovation of the rangefinder to improve accuracy, first using a telescopic sight aboard a gunboat as a lieutenant. The New Yorker considered him “one of the notable naval inventors of all time.”
