"The author, an obscure 70 year-old Ohio physician, identified himself on the title page as "Discoverer of the Circulation of the Nerves and Inventor of the Electro-Magnetic Circular Power".

A concise description of a new air-ship which the author believes will be the finally accepted plan of successful aerial navigation. This machine was powered by an electro-magnetic motor that Caulkins had invented in 1865 and had waited some thirty years for the world to be ready for the next step. "The best constructed air-ships will cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, and some of them millions. They will be immense palaces with wings". Caulkins wanted the US to own the patents but at the end comes a diaphanous threat that he would go to foreign governments.

A 1941 WPA Ohio history which called this book "now exceedingly rare" described Dr. Caulkins' work as ignored and forgotten, especially as he had failed to follow it up, as he had promised, with an 'atlas containing complete plans for flying machines'. Still, his far-sighted writing did 'undoubtedly establish him as one of the prophets of aviation' who correctly foresaw the vast future impact of manned flight - on warfare, exploration, global transportation and communication.