Doctor Curmudgeon® Abraham Lincoln’s Patent No. 6,469
By Diane Batshaw Eisman, M.D. FAAP Doctor Eisman is in Family Practice in Aventura, Florida with her partner, Dr. Eugene Eisman, an internist/cardiologist
What on earth is Patent No. 6,469?
Is it something famous? Well, not exactly.
When was it filed? March 10, 1849.
When was it issued? May 22, 1849.
What was it for? Well, the filing referred to it as “Buoying Vessels Over Shoals.”
Who was the inventor? Abraham Lincoln
According to Abraham Lincoln Online, Lincoln’s law partner, William H. Herndon, said, “He evinced a decided bent toward machinery or mechanical appliances, a trait he doubtless inherited from his father who was himself something of a mechanic and therefore skilled in the use of tools.”
President Lincoln was also a patent attorney and so he knew his way around the whole process of patent application.
As a young man, Lincoln had many experiences on boats traveling the rivers in the Midwest and the Great Lakes; boats that carried freight and also those that ferried travelers.
While a teenager, he had been hired as a laborer on a flatboat which was carting merchandise to New Orleans down through the Sangamon River.
As the boat approached Springfield, Illinois, it became entangled on a mill dam (thanks to Wikipedia, “A mill dam … is a dam constructed on a waterway… Water passing through a dam is used to turn a water wheel …. By raising the water level so that the overflow has farther to fall, a milldam increases the potential energy that a mill can harness and use for various tasks.”).
An ingenious young man, Lincoln sprang into action and saved the cargo by shifting its position, and then he drilled a hole in the bow, using a borrowed auger from a local merchant. When the water was finally drained, he plugged up the hole he had created. Then, with help from friendly local people, he was able to portage the boat over the dam and continue his mission carrying the goods to New Orleans.
William Herndon also recounted another incident which might have prompted the President’s interest in designing a boat lift.
In 1848, Lincoln was a congressman, travelling home to Illinois when his boat became stranded on a sandbar. The captain scrounged up everything he could find in the way of empty boxes, barrels and loose planks. These items were forced under the sides of the boat until it was slowly lifted over the water and cleared the sandbar.
And what happened to his invention for lifting boats over shoals?
Although Lincoln registered Patent No. 6,469 while he was a congressman, he is known as the only United States president to hold a patent.
His device never did get manufactured.
Some thought the invention was not actually practical.
But Abraham Lincoln did have a few things on his plate at that time.
He was elected to a tough, time consuming job when on March 4, 1861; he was inaugurated as the sixteenth president of the United States.
He was now Commander in Chief during the Civil War.
Lincoln’s heartfelt belief was that his responsibility now was to preserve the Union, whatever the costs.
Dr. Curmudgeon suggests “Bitter Medicine”, Dr. Eugene Eisman’s story of his experiences–from the humorous to the intense—as a young army doctor serving in the Vietnam War.
Bitter Medicine by Eugene H. Eisman, M.D. –on Amazon
Doctor Curmudgeon® is Diane Batshaw Eisman, M.D., a physician-satirist. This column originally appeared on SERMO, the leading global social network for doctors.
SERMO www.sermo.com
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