Abraham Lincoln is the only president with a patent, and that patent was inspired by a steamship ride. But an incident involving a side-wheeled steamship was even more important because it set the stage for modernizing America.
In 1857, Lincoln took on one of the most important cases of his career; it was also critical to America’s future. The trial of Hurd v. Rock Island Bridge Company, better known as the Effie Afton case took place in Chicago. The Effie Afton was a side-wheeler steamship plying the Mississippi River until it ran into a railroad drawbridge crossing the river from Rock Island, Illinois, to Davenport, Iowa. Within minutes, both the steamship and the bridge caught fire and were destroyed. The captain of the Effie Afton, John Hurd, sued the railroad company for obstructing navigation on the river. The railroad company called in Lincoln.
The case was critical because this was the first railroad bridge built across the Mississippi River. It had been opened to rail traffic for only fifteen days before the Effie Afton hit it. Prior to the bridge all commercial traffic ran north to south via the river. Railroads were being built at a rapid pace, and the bridge represented the ability to quickly ship commercial wares east to west, which was a major threat to the steamship business. This was the battle of the steamships versus the railroads, with the result hanging on this precedent-setting trial. Lincoln spent a week on location examining the currents and geography, then gave a persuasive closing statement explaining technical aspects to the jury. As a result, many on the panel were persuaded the bridge was not an obstruction and the crash was caused by operator-error of the steamship’s pilot. Officially the trial ended in a hung jury, but in practice it guaranteed that railroad companies could build bridges across the river without fear of being sued as obstructions. Lincoln had set the stage for opening up the West.
[The above is adapted from my new book, Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, due in stores July 31.]
Meanwhile, check out my Goodreads author page. While you’re at it, “Like” my Facebook author page for more updates!
David J. Kent is the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, due out in late July 2017. His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity (2013) and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World (2016) (both Fall River Press) and two e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.
Hot White Snow 
Interesting.
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I thought so.
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It would be moderately interesting to look into the past and present of “waterway” navigation globally. In some cultures “public rights of way” are often sacred than in the US. Brings to mind the recent discussion of urban highways dividing communities.
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Most of commerce outside of the local villages was done via rivers and oceans. You might say the riverboat lobby was very strong at the time and some argue that the Effie Afton intentionally rammed into the bridge in order to stimulate a court case. If railroad bridges were deemed obstructions, east-west transport (railroads) would be thwarted and north-south transport (Mississippi River, etc) would continue to dominate. This trial helped set the stage for railroads to grow into the powerful lobby they became.
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Much like the automobile/roadway lobby.
Perhaps the drone is the next test case. That and communications.
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I can definitely see drones as a problem.
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In 1849, Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States, received Patent No. 6469 for a device to lift boats over shoals, an invention which was never manufactured, however, it did make him the only U.S. president to hold a patent. Lincoln learned river navigation early in life and took a flatboat down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers to New Orleans. Lincoln started work on this invention on his way home to Illinois when his boat became stranded on a sandbar. Lincoln had watched the operation very intently as the captain ordered the hands to collect all the loose planks, empty barrels and boxes and force them under the sides of the boat. These empty casks were used to buoy it up. After forcing enough of them under the vessel she lifted gradually and at last swung clear of the opposing sand bar. Continual thinking on the subject of lifting vessels over sand bars and other obstructions in the water suggested to him the idea of inventing an apparatus for this purpose.
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Exactly
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Personal experience (much quite recent) suggests that these kinds of decisions are most often made according to which side has the more persuasive (better funded) lobby. 😉
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Indeed, that does seem to be case most of the time. At that point in time when the Effie Afton case occurred, it was the riverboat (aligned with the South) lobby that had the most power. This case helped switch that to the railroads (aligned more with the North).
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Everything was, and most things still are, slower in the South than the North. I knew the prevalence of E-W railroads in the North had helped to win the War. It had never occurred to me, though, that there might be a Southern riverboat lobby.
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The South had most of the political power in the pre-Civil War part of our history, in large part because they got to count 3/5 of their slaves towards their populations, which gave them a huge bump in Congressional representation and electoral votes. The Mississippi River was THE commerce route before railroads, with flatboats lining 5 and 6 deep in New Orleans to trade with the world. Southern ports also were often the first and last stops of ships that traveled into the Atlantic coast, Caribbean and Pacific. All that would receive competition if railroads started making it easy for eastern goods to get across country by land. Add in the fact that western transport of people would likely, especially by northern routes, would increase the flow of anti-slavery northerners to the western territories and, thus, block out slavery expansion, which the South desperately needed both as a market for slaves and for the political power they would gain by there being more slave states, even if the land wasn’t suitable for big crop plantations.
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