Suggestions for the Public Supply of Steam

In a place that seems vaguely like lower Manhattan, it is winter and summer at the same time. Buildings are on fire on one floor while people calmly go about their business on another. Factories hum, bankers are warmed, and sidewalks kept clear of ice—all by the power of steam. The nerve center is in the basement of the building on the right, filled with dozens of boilers. This watercolor seems to be the design for a print that advertised Lewis W. Leeds’s ideas about steam, but we haven’t been able to find out if the print was ever made.