Smithsonian's History Explorer Resources Related To "Lincoln, the Smithsonian, and Science Lecture Video"

Abraham Lincoln's Patent Model: Improvement for Buoying Vessels Over Shoals

Wed, 06 Jun 2012 16:17:13 GMT

Abraham Lincoln's interest in canal building, river commerce, and internal improvements not only drew him to the Whig and later Republican Party, but also led him to try his hand at designing a device for raising boats off sand bars. Undertaken while he was a 40-year-old lawyer in Illinois, Lincoln's patent illustrates an idea he had for lessening the draft of a river craft by pushing horizontal floats into the water alongside the hull when near shoal waters. On May 22, 1849, he was granted Patent No. 6469 by the U.S. Patent Office (USPO) in Washington, D.C. This boat model, submitted with the drawings of his idea, is inscribed "Pat./May 22/49/Abram Lincoln" on the surface of the upper deck. According to a Lincoln biographer, the President visited the Patent Office during his presidency (1861–1865) and inspected his model. His considerable talents lay elsewhere, and the idea he patented was never formally applied in the construction of a watercraft.

In early 1997, the original patent drawing submitted in 1846 was discovered in the director's office at the USPO, lacking only the president's autograph in the lower right corner.

This patent model is one of approximately 10,000 acquired by the Smithsonian Institution, mostly from the US Patent Office. Of that number, about 75 are of maritime inventions, including some in the Engineering Collections. The Maritime Collections hold a replica of the Lincoln patent model since the original is too fragile to loan. The NMAH Political History Collections hold a copy of the patent papers associated with this model, as well as a considerable amount of other Lincoln-related materials.

Abraham Lincoln: An Extraordinary Life Homepage

Thu, 28 Feb 2013 20:23:58 GMT

This online exhibition commemorates the 200^th anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln. The website covers each major period of Lincoln's private and public life, especially his years in Washington when he made the crucial decisions that ended slavery and preserved the nation. Also included are the artifacts of Lincoln's assassination-his top hat, the prison hoods of the conspirators, and other sobering reminders of this tragic story.

Morse Telegraph Register

Thu, 04 Oct 2012 12:31:54 GMT

This telegraph register, manufactured in accord with the Morse patent, was installed in 1848 in South Bend, reputedly the first telegraph office in Indiana. Stamped on the base is "j. Burritt & son ithaca." Pulses of electricity caused the two vertical electromagnets (on the right) to pull against an iron bar attached to the horizontal brass lever arm. The other end of the arm then pressed a metal stylus against a strip of paper tape (not shown) which was pulled through a pair of rollers by the clockwork mechanism. This caused short and long marks (dots and dashes) to be embossed on the paper. Morse specified this embossing process because he found that pens tended to get clogged when he tried to use ink. The apparatus also made a clicking noise, and operators soon found that they could "read" messages by ear, making the tape unnecessary. By the 1850s, "sounders" began to replace registers. These simple, rugged instruments were ideally suited to the American situation, where many offices were in isolated locations without easy access to repair facilties.

Use this Investigation Sheet to guide students through describing the object and analyzing its meaning.

Uneasy Partners: Lincoln and Frederick Douglass, LBJ and Martin Luther King Jr. Lecture Video

Thu, 07 Mar 2013 13:23:42 GMT

In this archived panel discussion, experts compare, contrast, and contextualize the relationships between President Lincoln and Frederick Douglass and President Johnson and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The content of the discussion includes comparison of the figures as orators, comparison of these historic figures to President Obama, and the personal and political constraints of the relationships between these figures.

This lecture is one in a series about issues that Abraham Lincoln faced as president that continue to confront the nation today.