Only U.S. President to Have a Patent

This story originates in the 1840s and centers on a young man whose life would evolve in many interesting ways. Our young man’s story starts with taking cargo down the Mississippi River to New Orleans. At one point, his boat slid on a dam, couldn’t move and was in peril of sinking. Freeing the boat and saving the merchandise required a tremendous amount of manual effort and a dash of very good luck. A few years later while traveling on a ship in the Great Lakes, he got caught on a sandbar. Our young man was intelligent so when faced twice with the same problem, he came up with an inventive solution. Ultimately, on May 22, 1849 he was granted a United States Patent for “A Device for Buoying Vessels Over Shoals.”

I’m sure you’re curious about the invention’s results: it was never marketed, never used and made no money. The young man did whittle a scale wooden model with his own hands. It’s on display in The Smithsonian in Washington DC. The inventor was President Abraham Lincoln, the only President to ever receive a patent.

Abraham Lincoln said that “the patent system added the fuel of interest to the fire of genius. The patent system must appropriately reward innovation and risk.” Even more, Lincoln considered the introduction of patent laws, the discovery of America and the perfection of printing as the three most important developments in the history of the world.