Transcribed from press release attached to back of photo: "PENETRATES EARTH 16,000 FEET A surface approaching the hardness of the diamond is applied by a new atomic-hydrogen welding process to the teeth of a rock bit drill at the Hughes Tool Company plant in Houston, Texas, owned by Howard Hughes, noted aircraft designer-flyer. The first Hughes rock bit revolutionized oil drilling practices in this nation several decades ago, making possible recovery of oil beneath hard rock formations at great depths. Most recent models have penetrated the earth below 16,000 feet. Hughes drills are used in 50 foreign countries. NOTE: The atomic-hydrogen process differs from other arc-welding processes in that the arc is formed between two electrodes, rather than one electrode and the work." The patent on the atomic-hydrogen process was awarded October 29, 1929.

Description printed on photograph's accompanying strip of paper: Howard Hughes being carried ashore after arrival in amphibian airplane at U.S. Coast Guard Station, Jamaica Bay, B.W.I.

'Johnson's California, also Utah, Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona, published by A.J. Johnson, New York.' 'Entered according to Act of Congress in the Year 1864, by A.J. Johnson in the Clerks Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York.' Atlas page numbers in upper margin: 66-67. Relief shown by hachures. Prime meridians: Greenwich and Washington, D.C. Shows proposed railroads, locations of Indian tribes, natural features, counties, mines, mail routes, trails and routes of exploring expeditions. On verso: History and statistics of Mexico and Central America and statistics of national finances and the Post Office of the United States, 1860. Scale [ca. 1:3,484,800. 1 in. to ca. 55 miles] (W 123°--W 103°/N 42°--N 32°)