I know that this is a forum for wooden canoes but there might be some interest in a brief look at the origins of Grumman's aluminum canoe. The attached letter from William Hoffman has been kindly shared from the collection at the Adirondack Experience. This confirms that a wooden Old Town Fifty Pound model was his first prototype.
Tom Penniston and Roger Young has been researching a small aluminum display model recently and found a patent at https://patents.google.com/patent/US2083410A/ for an aluminum canoe with “individual hollow tubular buoyant ribs” from 1937.
The book at https://www.electriccanadian.com/lifestyle/apostleofthenorth.pdf describes a "tin canoe" made by James Evans in the 1840s as shown below from page 243.
Tom Penniston and Roger Young has been researching a small aluminum display model recently and found a patent at https://patents.google.com/patent/US2083410A/ for an aluminum canoe with “individual hollow tubular buoyant ribs” from 1937.
The book at https://www.electriccanadian.com/lifestyle/apostleofthenorth.pdf describes a "tin canoe" made by James Evans in the 1840s as shown below from page 243.
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