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Abraham Lincoln
Device to Buoy Vessels Over Shoals
 The
16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, is known
for plenty of accomplishments not the least of which is guiding
the nation through the Civil War. But one of his achievements
that is little known is his success as an inventor. He is
the only U.S. President to have ever received a patent. His
was for a device for "buoying vessels over shoals,"
granted on March 10, 1849.
Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809 in Hodgenville, Kentucky. He was educated mostly at home and through self-education, having been formally
taught in a school for a total of less than one year. He became an attorney, then in 1934 he entered the political arena when he
won a seat in the Illinois state legislature. He served four terms there. In 1846 he was elected to serve as a U.S. Congressman.
He served one term, from March 1947 to March 1949.
Lincoln is said to have held a lifelong fascination with mechanical things and a steadfast appreciation for invention and
technology. He had traveled by boat on several occasions in his young life but one situation arose a few times during these
trips that inspired him to invent. Once on a trip to New Orleans from Springfield, Illinois, his ship ran aground. Then, in
1848 while he was travelling aboard a steamboat up the Detroit River, the vessel got stuck on the shoals off Fighting Island.
These instances had apparently set the wheels in LincolnĚs head turning. Upon his return to Illinois after the Detroit River trip
he began fleshing out an idea for a boat equipped with inflatable bellows on each side located just below the waterline. If the
boat ran aground, the bellows would be inflated, effectively lifting the boat over the shoals so that it could maneuver back into
deep water. Lincoln fashioned a wood model of his idea and brought it to Washington with him. He applied for and received a U.S.
patent, No. 6,469, on May 22, 1849. According to the Smithsonian Institution, his application read, "Be it known that I, Abraham
Lincoln, of Springfield, in the county of Sangamon, in the state of Illinois, have invented a new and improved manner of combining
adjustable buoyant air chambers with a steam boat or other vessel for the purpose of enabling their draught of water to be readily
lessened to enable them to pass over bars, or through shallow water, without discharging their cargoes."
Lincoln's buoying device was never manufactured. Nevertheless, his personal interest
in invention and innovation was reflected throughout his professional
life. In 1858, for example, he called the introduction of patent
laws one of the most important developments in history and continued
to support new development in weaponry, ships, and other technologies.
In 1860, Lincoln was elected President of the United States.
He served in this office until his untimely death. He was
assassinated by John Wilkes Booth and died on April 15, 1865.
He had established a reputation as a trailblazer, having served
as the nation's first Republican Party President, having been
the first President to sport a beard, and having been the
first President to receive a transcontinental telegram, (from
Stephen John Field, Chief Justice of California). The Smithsonian
Institution acquired the woodcarved model upon which his patent
was based from Patent Office in 1908. It is on display at
the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.
[February 2003]
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