Upon hearing the name Abraham Lincoln, many images may come to mind: rail-splitter, country lawyer, young congressman, embattled president, Great Emancipator, assassin's victim, even the colossal face carved into Mount Rushmore. One aspect of this multidimensional man that probably doesn't occur to anyone other than avid readers of Lincoln biographies (and Smithsonian) is that of inventor. Yet before he became the 16th president of the United States, Lincoln, who had a long fascination with how things worked, invented a flotation system for lifting riverboats stuck on sandbars.
Though his invention was never manufactured, it serves to give Lincoln yet another honor: he remains the only U.S. president to have a patent in his name. According to Paul Johnston, curator of maritime history at the National Museum of American History (NMAH), Lincoln's eminence and the historical rarity of his patent make the wooden model he submitted to the Patent Office "one of the half dozen or so most valuable things in our collection."
Lincoln's patent, No. 6,469, was granted on May 22, 1849, for a device for "Buoying Vessels Over Shoals," when he was back in Springfield practicing law after one term as an Illinois congressman in Washington. His idea, to equip boats with inflatable bellows of "india-rubber cloth, or other suitable water-proof fabric" levered alongside the hull, came as a result of river and lake expeditions he made as a young man, ferrying people and produce on the Mississippi and the Great Lakes. At least twice his boats ran aground on sandbars or hung up on other obstacles; given the Big River's ever-shifting shallows, such potentially dangerous misadventures happened often. Freeing a beached vessel usually involved the laborious unloading of cargo until the boat rode high enough to clear the snag. According to Harry R. Rubenstein, chair of the Division of Politics and Reform at NMAH, Lincoln "was keenly interested in water transportation and canal building, and enthusiastically promoted both when he served in the Illinois legislature." He was also an admirer of patent law, famously declaring that it "added the fuel of interest to the fire of genius."
Lincoln appears to have had more than a passing affinity for mechanical devices and tools. William H. Herndon, his law partner at the time he was working on his invention, wrote that Lincoln "evinced a decided bent toward machinery or mechanical appliances, a trait he doubtless inherited from his father who was himself something of a mechanic...."
The precise source of the model of the flotation device is unclear, though there's no doubt that the ingenuity behind it was Lincoln's. Herndon wrote about Lincoln bringing the wooden boat model into the law office, "and while whittling on it would descant on its merits and the revolution it was destined to work in steamboat navigation." A Springfield mechanic, Walter Davis, was said to have helped with the model, which was just over two feet long. But Johnston thinks it's possible that the detailed miniature Lincoln submitted may have been made by a model maker in Washington who specialized in aiding inventors. "The name engraved on top of the piece is 'Abram Lincoln,'" Johnston says. "It doesn't seem likely that if Lincoln had actually made this model, he'd have misspelled his own first name." Johnston says that the answer—yet undetermined—may lie in whether the misspelled name is also engraved under the original varnish, indicating the model to be a commission.
The patent application for the device has a similar mystery. Part of the U.S. Patent Office collection, the document describes in detail how "by turning the main shaft or shafts in one direction, the buoyant chambers will be forced downwards into the water and at the same time expanded and filled with air." But it is missing the inventor's signature. Someone, probably in the early 20th century, cut Abe's signature out of the document—the autograph collector as vandal.
Since no one ever tried to put the invention to use, we can't know for sure if it would have led to the revolution in steamboat navigation that Lincoln predicted. But "it likely would not have been practical," says Johnston, "because you need a lot of force to get the buoyant chambers even two feet down into the water. My gut feeling is that it might have been made to work, but Lincoln's considerable talents lay elsewhere."
"Wakati wa kutajwa kwa jina la Abraham Lincoln, picha nyingi zinaweza kuja akilini: ""mshambuliaji wa reli,"" ""mwanasheria wa nchi,"" ""mjumbe mchanga wa bunge,"" ""m Rais aliyepigana,"" ""Mwenye uhuru mkubwa,"" ""mtu aliyepigwa risasi,"" hata ""uso mkubwa uliochongwa kwenye Mlima Rushmore.""" "Sehemu moja ya mtu huyu wa vipimo vingi ambayo labda haipatikani kwa mtu yeyote isipokuwa wasomaji wa bidii wa wasifu wa Lincoln (na Smithsonian) ni kwamba ni mvumbuzi. """ Hata hivyo, kabla ya kuwa Rais wa 16 wa Marekani, Lincoln, ambaye alikuwa na shauku ya muda mrefu na jinsi mambo yalifanya kazi, alivumbua mfumo wa kuelea kwa kuinua mashua za mto zilizokuwa zimesimamishwa kwenye mabwawa ya mchanga. Ingawa uvumbuzi wake haukuwahi kutengenezwa, unampa Lincoln heshima nyingine: yeye ndiye rais pekee wa Marekani kuwa na hati miliki kwa jina lake. "Kulingana na Paul Johnston, msimamizi wa historia ya baharini katika Jumba la Makumbusho la Taifa la Historia ya Marekani (NMAH), ""Utukufu wa Lincoln na upekee wa kihistoria wa hati miliki yake hufanya mfano wa mbao aliowasilisha kwa Ofisi ya Patent kuwa moja ya vitu vya thamani zaidi katika mkusanyiko wetu.""" Patent ya Lincoln, Hapana. "Mwaka wa 1849 aliandika kitabu ""Buoying Vessels Over Shoals"" na akaanza kufanya kazi kama mwanasheria wa Illinois." Wazo lake la kuandaa mashua na mianzi ya inflatable ya "ndoo ya mpira wa India, au kitambaa kingine kinachofaa cha kuzuia maji" kilichounganishwa kando ya mwili, lilikuja kama matokeo ya safari za mto na ziwa alizofanya akiwa kijana, akisafirisha watu na mazao kwenye Mississippi na Maziwa Makuu. Mara mbili angalau mashua zake zilishambulia kwenye mabwawa ya mchanga au zilishambuliwa na vizuizi vingine; kwa kuwa Mto Mkubwa ulikuwa na maji madogo sana, matukio hayo yenye hatari yalitokea mara nyingi. Kwa kawaida, ili kuokoa meli iliyokuwa imefungwa, ilihitaji kazi ngumu ya kuondoa mizigo hadi mashua ilipopanda juu vya kutosha kuondoa kizuizi hicho. Kulingana na Harry Rubenstein, mwenyekiti wa Idara ya Siasa na Marekebisho katika NMAH, Lincoln alikuwa na nia ya kuendeleza usafiri wa maji na ujenzi wa mifereji, na kwa shauku aliendeleza wote wawili alipokuwa akitumikia katika bunge la Illinois. Pia alikuwa mfuasi wa sheria ya hati miliki, akitangaza kwa njia maarufu kwamba "iliongeza mafuta ya kupendezwa kwenye moto wa kipaji". Inaonekana kwamba Lincoln alikuwa na shauku nyingi kwa vifaa na vifaa vya mitambo. "Hata hivyo, William H. Herndon, mshirika wake wa sheria wakati wa kazi yake, aliandika kwamba Lincoln ""alipata mwelekeo wa kuamua kuelekea mashine au vifaa vya mitambo, sifa ambayo bila shaka alirithi kutoka kwa baba yake ambaye mwenyewe alikuwa kitu cha mashine.""[1] Chanzo sahihi cha mfano wa kifaa cha kuelea hakijulikani, ingawa hakuna shaka kwamba ubunifu nyuma yake ulikuwa wa Lincoln." "Hernandez aliandika kwamba Lincoln alileta mfano wa mashua ya mbao katika ofisi ya sheria, ""na wakati wa kuifanya, ingekuwa chini ya sifa zake na mapinduzi ambayo ilikusudiwa kufanya kazi katika usafiri wa mashua ya mvuke.""" Mfanyakazi wa Springfield, Walter Davis, alisema kwamba alisaidia kutengeneza mfano huo, ambao ulikuwa na urefu wa zaidi ya meta mbili. Johnston anaamini kwamba ni uwezekano kwamba mfano mdogo wa Lincoln uliotolewa unaweza kuwa ulifanywa na mtengenezaji wa mfano huko Washington ambaye alishirikiana na wavumbuzi. "Jina lililochongwa juu ya kipande hicho ni 'Abram Lincoln,'" Johnston asema. "Haionekani kuwa uwezekano kwamba kama Lincoln alikuwa kweli alifanya mfano huu, angekuwa misspelled jina lake mwenyewe kwanza". Johnston anasema kwamba jibu - bado haijulikani - linaweza kuwa ikiwa jina lililotungwa vibaya pia limechongwa chini ya varnish ya awali, ikionyesha kwamba mfano huo ni tume. Maombi ya hati miliki ya kifaa hicho yana fumbo kama hilo. "Hati hiyo, ambayo ni sehemu ya orodha ya ofisi ya hati miliki ya Marekani, inaelezea kwa undani jinsi ""kwa kugeuza shaft kuu au shafts katika mwelekeo mmoja, vyumba vya kuelea vitawalazimishwa chini ndani ya maji na wakati huo huo kupanuliwa na kujazwa na hewa.""" Lakini sahihi ya mvumbuzi inakataliwa. "Mtu fulani, labda mwanzoni mwa karne ya 20, alikata saini ya Abe kutoka kwenye hati hiyo, akisema, ""Mkusanyaji wa saini ni mvunjaji.""" Kwa kuwa hakuna mtu aliyewahi kujaribu kutumia uvumbuzi huo, hatuwezi kujua kwa uhakika kama ungeongoza kwenye mapinduzi katika usafiri wa mashua za mvuke ambayo Lincoln alitabiri. "Lakini inaelekea kwamba haingekuwa rahisi kufanya hivyo, "" asema Johnston, ""kwa sababu unahitaji nguvu nyingi ili kuingiza chombo hicho ndani ya maji hata kwa meta mbili." "Hisia yangu ya ndani ni kwamba huenda ilifanywa kufanya kazi, lakini vipaji vya Lincoln vilikuwa mahali pengine."""