Genre:

Advertisement, Spoof

Subjects:

Invention, Patronage, Commerce, Steam-power

    Robins seeks investors for 'one of those Splendid Inventions' which he ranks alongside the 'STEAM ENGINE AND THE INVENTION OF PRINTING'. Much of the advertisement touts the originality of the invention and explains how it can make 'AN AMPLE FORTUNE!' for its proprietor. For example, he notes that the invention will make the owner happier than 'our ancestor [...] in the GARDEN OF EDEN' and promises that it will generate a yearly income of £20,000. After much puffery, we learn that the invention is a mangle owned by a Mrs Jane Jones and which, despite serious mechanical defects, is 'safely pronounced to be PERFECTION'. Robins believes that his invention would have been the subject of great 'ADMIRABLE PAINTINGS & UNRIVALLED SCULPTURE' had it existed in the days of Antonio A da Correggio and Michelangelo.