How Abraham Lincoln Became the Only U.S. President to Hold a Patent

3 minute read
President Lincoln
circa 1860: Portrait of Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865), sixteenth President of the United States.Lawrence Thornton / Getty Images
By Lily Rothman

As a president, Abraham Lincoln has many unique distinctions: Honest Abe, the Great Emancipator, the first presidential assassination victim.

He also remains to this day the only U.S. president to hold a patent in his name. Lincoln invented a “manner of buoying vessels” that was awarded U.S. patent number 6,469 on May 22, 1849 — 167 years ago this weekend.

How exactly Lincoln got the idea is an episode that’s explored in Sidney Blumenthal’s new Lincoln biography A Self-Made Man. As Blumenthal tells it, Lincoln was stumping before the 1848 election in Massachusetts when he traveled across the Great Lakes by boat, on his way back to Illinois. The steamboat ran aground on a sandbar, so the captain “improvised lashing empty barrels to its side to buoy it over the barrier.” This was a big improvement over what steamboats usually did when they got stuck in shallow water, which was to remove cargo and people. When Lincoln got home, he couldn’t get the moment out of his head—so he commissioned a wooden model of an invention that would accomplish the same goal. He brought it with him when he returned to D.C., and applied for a patent.

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Abraham Lincoln's patentSource: United States Patent and Trademark Office, www.uspto.gov

The basic idea was that you’d attach “buoyant chambers,” which could be inflated or deflated as needed, to a boat. The top of the champers would be wooden or metal and the rest would be made of waterproof fabric. A system of ropes and shafts would be set up so that the chambers could be expanded all at once from on board the ship. Ropes could be used to control how far underwater the chambers went.

This sounds pretty basic, but Lincoln specified that what was new about his invention was “the combination of expansible buoyant chambers placed at the sides of a vessel, with the main shaft or shafts…, by means of the sliding spars or shifts…, which pass down through the buoyant chambers and are made fast to their bottoms, and the series of ropes and pullies, or their equivalents, in such a manner that by turning the main shaft or shaft in one direction, the buoyant chambers will be forced downwards into the water and at the same time expanded and filled with air for buoying up the vessel by the displacement of water; and by turning the shaft in an opposite direction, the buoyant chambers will be contracted into a small space and secured against injury.”

In other words, no more need to rig up a barrel when you needed to lift a boat. The inflatable chambers would be attached to the boat the whole time, and they could be easily adjusted as needed.

See Original Models of the Apple I and Other Iconic American Inventions

The style of bed and platen printing press in this patent model inspired Issac Adams’ design of the later Adams Power Press, which was praised by early 19th century printers for its production of quality book work.
Printing Press, 1830: Issac Adams, (Unnumbered Patent) The style of bed and platen printing press in this patent model inspired Issac Adams’ design of the later Adams Power Press, which was praised by early 19th century printers for its production of quality book work. Courtesy Smithsonian National Museum of American History
Samuel F. B. Morse converted an artist’s canvas stretcher into a telegraph receiver that recorded a message as a wavy line on a strip of paper. His telegraph transmitter sent electric pulses representing letter and numbers that activated an electromagnet on the receiver.
Telegraph, 1837: Samuel F. B. Morse, Prototype. Samuel F. B. Morse converted an artist’s canvas stretcher into a telegraph receiver that recorded a message as a wavy line on a strip of paper. His telegraph transmitter sent electric pulses representing letter and numbers that activated an electromagnet on the receiver. Courtesy Smithsonian National Museum of American History
Violin, 1852: William S. Mount, (Patent No. 8981). William S. Mount proposed creating violins with concave or hollow backs. This patent model represented a design innovation that would minimize the strain on the violin soundboard and avoid interference with the “sonorous and vibrating qualities” of the instrument.
Violin, 1852: William S. Mount, (Patent No. 8981). William S. Mount proposed creating violins with concave or hollow backs. This patent model represented a design innovation that would minimize the strain on the violin soundboard and avoid interference with the “sonorous and vibrating qualities” of the instrument. Courtesy Smithsonian National Museum of American History
Typewriter, 1868: C. Latham Sholes, Carlos Glidden & Samuel W. Soule (Patent No. 79265). This patent model was created by the three Milwaukee inventors who made progress towards a viable typewriting machine. Six years later, Remington & Sons produced the first commercially successful machine, bearing the names of Sholes and Glidden. Courtesy Smithsonian National Museum of American History
Sewing Machine, 1873: Helen Blanchard, (Patent No. 141987) This patent model for an improvement in sewing machines introduced the buttonhole stitch. Blanchard received some 28 patents, many having to do with sewing. She is best remembered for another overstitch sewing invention, the “zigzag.”
Sewing Machine, 1873: Helen Blanchard, (Patent No. 141987). This patent model for an improvement in sewing machines introduced the buttonhole stitch. Blanchard received some 28 patents, many having to do with sewing. She is best remembered for another overstitch sewing invention, the “zigzag.” Courtesy Smithsonian National Museum of American History
Camera Shutter, 1879: Eadweard Muybridge, (Patent No. 212865) This “Method and Apparatus for Photographing Objects in Motion” was adapted to photographic equipment. As demonstrated with this patent model, it could produce images of subjects in rapid motion. It was used by Eadweard Muybridge in his celebrated animal locomotion photography.
Camera Shutter, 1879: Eadweard Muybridge, (Patent No. 212865). This “Method and Apparatus for Photographing Objects in Motion” was adapted to photographic equipment. As demonstrated with this patent model, it could produce images of subjects in rapid motion. It was used by Eadweard Muybridge in his celebrated animal locomotion photography. Courtesy Smithsonian National Museum of American History
Incandescent Lamp, 1881: Thomas Edison (Patent No. 239373) Thomas Edison submitted this model to patent a variation on his newly invented light bulb. Although he never put this design into production, this lamp could be disassembled to replace a burned-out filament.
Incandescent Lamp, 1881: Thomas Edison (Patent No. 239373). Thomas Edison submitted this model to patent a variation on his newly invented light bulb. Although he never put this design into production, this lamp could be disassembled to replace a burned-out filament. Courtesy Smithsonian National Museum of American History
Stephanie Kwolek (Patent Nos. 3819587 and RE30352): High-Strength Fiber, 1965 Stephanie Kwolek’s 1965 discovery at DuPont of strong polymer fibers resulted in DuPont Kevlar, best known for its use in bullet-resistant body armor and used in myriad other applications.
High-Strength Fiber, 1965: Stephanie Kwolek (Patent Nos. 3819587 and RE30352). Kwolek’s 1965 discovery at DuPont of strong polymer fibers resulted in DuPont Kevlar, best known for its use in bullet-resistant body armorCourtesy Hagley Museum and Library
Steve Jobs (Patent No. 7166791) & Steve Wozniak (Patent No. 4136359): Apple I Computer, 1976. In 1976 the first form of computer designed by Stephen Wozniak and sold by Wozniak in conjunction with Steve Jobs was sold, and became a leader in personal computing. Originally marketed to hobbyists only primarily as a fully assembled circuit board; purchasers had to add their own case and monitor in order to create a working computer.
Apple I Computer, 1976: Steve Jobs (Patent No. 7166791) & Steve Wozniak (Patent No. 4136359). In 1976 the first form of computer designed by Stephen Wozniak and sold by Wozniak in conjunction with Steve Jobs was sold, and became a leader in personal computing. Originally marketed to hobbyists only primarily as a fully assembled circuit board; purchasers had to add their own case and monitor in order to create a working computer. Courtesy Smithsonian National Museum of American History
Artificial Heart, 1977: Robert Jarvik, M.D., Prototype. This electrohydraulic artificial heart is a prototype for what became the Jarvik-7 Total Artificial Heart, which was first implanted into a human in December 1982 at the University of Utah Medical Center. The two sides of the device are connected with Velcro.
Artificial Heart, 1977: Robert Jarvik, M.D., Prototype. This electrohydraulic artificial heart is a prototype for what became the Jarvik-7 Total Artificial Heart, which was first implanted into a human in December 1982 at the University of Utah Medical Center. The two sides of the device are connected with Velcro. Courtesy Smithsonian National Museum of American History

Though the invention was never really put to use, a version of his model is held by the Smithsonian. As curator Paul Johnson told Smithsonian magazine in 2006, its failure to be applied in the real world was perhaps for good reason: inflating those buoys would still be hard, even with the help of ropes and pulleys. You’d need a huge amount of force needed to get the buoys to go under the water.

And Lincoln, of course, had moved on to bigger things anyway.

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Write to Lily Rothman at lily.rothman@time.com