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.

39 x 62 cm. Relief shown by hachures and spot heights. Prime meridian: Greenwich and Washington. Hand colored. Shows natural features, populated places, routes of mail steamships, routes of explorers, locations of Indian tribes, railroad routes, and proposed railroad routes. In top margin: No. 80-81. On verso: New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Dakota (statistics and other information) and The state of California (statistics and other information). Original publisher: G.W. and C.B. Colton.

Howard Hughes, Albert Lodwick, and an unidentified man at Floyd Bennett Field after record flight from Miami to New York.

'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: 67-68. Relief shown by hachures. Prime meridian: Greenwich and Washington. Shows natural features, locations of Indian tribes, proposed railroad routes, routes of explorers, trails, county boundaries and populated places. Hand colored. On verso: 'Historical and statistical view of the West India Islands or Columbian Archipelago' (p. 80) and 'Historical and statistical view of Mexico and Central America' (p. 79). Scale [ca. 1:3,484,800]. 1 in. to ca. 55 miles (W 124°--W 102°/N 42°--N 32°).