Abraham Lincoln: Inventor, President, and Commander

Only a handful of writing of Lincoln as President relating to his interest in invention have survived; With an original photograph of Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln had a long fascination with how things worked, and was always interested in science and invention. William Herndon, his law partner, 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…." On March 10, 1849, Lincoln filed a patent for a device for “buoying vessels over shoals” with the US Patent Office. Patent No. 6,469 was approved two months later, giving Lincoln the honor of being the only U.S. president to hold a patent. During his brief experience as a ferryman on the Mississippi River, Lincoln was stranded twice on riverboats that had run aground. His invention, “adjustable buoyant air chambers,” would be attached to the sides of a boat, and could be lowered into the water and inflated to lift the boat over obstructions. Lincoln whittled the scale patent model while Walter Davis, a Springfield mechanic, provided tools and advice required for the patent. The patent model built is now on display at the Smithsonian Institution.

Lincoln saw invention as “the fire of genius”. On April 6, 1858, he gave his first lecture on "Discoveries and Inventions" before the Young Men's Association of Bloomington, Illinois. In 1859 he delivered it in Jacksonville, Illinois. He repeated the lecture in Decatur, Springfield, and Pontiac, but turned down future requests, saying, "I am not a professional lecturer”. Herndon recalled Lincoln's work on the project. "He began preparation in the usual way by noting down ideas on stray pieces of paper, which found a lodgment inside his hat, and finally brought forth in connected form a lecture." The lecture reviewed a history of innovation, listing the first mentions of spinning, the wheel, etc. It also looked at the differences between life in the “modern” 19th century with life in the past, attributing them to the “result of Discoveries, Inventions, and Improvements”; he also considered scientific method, saying “These, in turn, are the result of observation, reflection and experiment.” A well-read man, he ended by thinking of advances that included books and patents. “I have already intimated my opinion that in the world's history, certain inventions and discoveries occurred, of peculiar value, on account of their great efficiency in facilitating all other inventions and discoveries. Of these were the arts of writing and of printing…and the introduction of Patent-laws…The patent system secured to the inventor, for a limited time, the exclusive use of his invention; and thereby added the fuel of interest to the fire of genius, in the discovery and production of new and useful things”.

Technology fueled Lincoln’s presidency. During the Civil War, he haunted the telegraph office (which provided the instant-messaging of its day) for the latest news from the front and was actively involved in directing troops. He met with inventors to probe their ideas and see for himself their utility and practicality, encouraged weapons development, and even tested some new rifles himself on the White House lawn. "He never came across a machine or invention or scientific idea that he did not stop to investigate, both physically and mentally," Ralph Waldo Emerson said. "He not only created his own invention but had ideas for other inventions, such as an agricultural steam plow and a naval steam ram, and was fascinated by patent cases as an attorney and also by new innovations during the Civil War."

Only a handful of writing of Lincoln as President relating to his interest in invention have survived. A search of public sale records going back four decades reveals just one having reached that market during all that time, and we ourselves had one previously.  

Autograph note signed as President, on one of Lincoln’s standard, plain White House note cards, 2 by 3 ¼ inches, Washington, January 12, 1865: "Quarter Master General, please see Mr. Duncan, of Montreal, who wishes to exhibit a discovery for the protection of wooden structures against fire. A. Lincoln Jan. 12, 1865". According to "Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln”, Mr. Duncan and his specific invention have not been identified, but in an era when wooden buildings were everywhere, and amidst a war where burning buildings were all too common, the reason for Lincoln’s interest seems clear. The two-sided card is housed in a double-glazed frame and viewing stand, along with an original Civil War era CDV of Lincoln by photographer S.H. Colesworthy.