Archiv der Kategorie: History

Ever heard of the Lincoln patent?

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Presidents, especially the US ones, always attract a lot of attention. But there are some facts that aren’t commonly known. Well, that Barak Obama is the first African-American US-president and that he received the Nobel Peace Prize 2009 doesn´t sound new. But did you know that John F. Kennedy was so far the only Catholic American president and that he won a Purlitzer Prize.

And Abraham Lincoln? Do you know that he was the only United States President to hold a patent?

Want to know more? Read some quotes from about.com: Lincoln had a strong interest in new technology. As a young man he took a boatload of merchandise down the Mississippi River. At one point the boat slid onto a dam and was set free only after heroic efforts. In later years, while traveling on the Great Lakes, Lincoln’s ship ran afoul of a sandbar.

These two similar experiences led him to conceive his invention. In 1849 Abraham Lincoln received a patent for „A Device for Buoying Vessels Over Shoals“. Abraham Lincoln whittled the model for his patent application with his own hands out of wood. It is on display at the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of American History.

The invention consisted of a set of bellows attached to the hull of a ship just below the water line. After reaching a shallow place, the bellows were filled with air that buoyed the vessel higher, making it float higher. The invention was never marketed, it was discovered that the extra weight the device added increased the probability of running onto sandbars, defeating the purpose of the invention.

Did you know the connection?

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Maple syrup, lacrosse and kayaks have one thing in common. Guess what? No idea? Well, they are all inventions of Native Americans. Yesterday we told you about some important inventions by African-Americans, today let´s have a closer look at things Native Americans came up with.

Maple syrup, for instance. Aboriginal peoples living in the northeastern part of North America were the first groups known to have produced maple syrup and maple sugar. They let the sap of the maple tree drip into pails and boiled it until it turned into syrup.




The game of lacrosse was invented by the American tribes living around the St. Lawrence River in New York and Ontario, and was spread by the Huron and the Iroquois.

Traditional lacrosse games were sometimes major events that could last serveral days. As many as 100 to 1000 men from opposite villages or tribes would participate. The Cherokees called the sport „the little brother of war“ because it was considered excellent military training.

The kayak on the other hand was invented by the Inuit Peoples. The skin-covered kayaks of the Arctic people are excellent examples of a technology developed over centuries of experimental refinement and everyday use.

Important African-American inventions

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Do you know that some of the world´s most popular inventions were created by African-Americans? In honor of Black History Month Inventors Digest is currently celebrating the valuable contributions of famous black inventors.

As an example the magazine names Lewis Howard Latimer. In 1874, he copatented (with Charles W. Brown) an improved toilet system for railroad cars. In 1881 Latimer received another patent for the „Process of Manufacturing Carbons“, an improved method for the production of carbon filaments used in lightbulbs.

We want to introduce you another important African-American inventor – Garrett Morgan.

He created a Safety Hood and 1914 patented it as a Breathing Device, which later came to be known as the Gas Mask. Morgan’s Gas Mask consisted of a hood with two long tubes, one allowing in clean air and the other allowing the user to exhale air out of the hood.

After witnessing a collision between an automobile and a horse-drawn carriage, Morgan also took his turn at inventing a traffic signal. As you can read on about.com the Morgan traffic signal was a T-shaped pole unit that featured three positions: Stop, Go and an all-directional stop position. This „third position“ halted traffic in all directions to allow pedestrians to cross streets more safely.

Do you want to know who invented the elevator, the lawn mower or the refrigerator.

Here you find a list of other important African-American inventors. Check it out!