Who is Thomas Jefferson?
A man of many talents, Thomas Jefferson was the third president of the U.S. He was the author of the Declaration of American Independence and a founding father of the country. He was the nation’s first secretary of state (1790-93) and the second vice president (1797-1801) – a position he held after reluctantly standing for presidency and losing by three votes. He became the country’s third president after a bitterly fought election in 1801 and served two terms, holding the position till 1809.
An undated photo of a 1800 portrait depicting Thomas Jefferson by artist Rembrandt Peale.
| Photo Credit:
REMBRANDT PEALE / AP
Jefferson was responsible for the Louisiana Purchase from Napoleon for $15 million. Purchasing the Louisiana territory from the French in 1803 nearly doubled the size of the U.S., making it one of the largest countries in the world. Jefferson also authorised the exploration of the American west and north west through the Lewis and Clark expedition (1804-06).
Additionally, Jefferson was the founder and architect of the University of Virginia. And when he sold his personal library to the federal government in Washington in 1815, it served as the core of the Library of Congress.
Jefferson’s ground sloth
Having come in second in the race to be the president behind John Adams in 1797, Jefferson became vice president according to the system that was in place then. He made a difficult 10-day journey to the capital – Philadelphia at that point – in order to be sworn in as the vice president.
At around the same time he became vice president of the nation, Jefferson was also made the president of the American Philosophical Society. Jefferson, whose interest in fossils was well known by this time and who had already received fossils from friends and acquaintances who knew of his interest for decades, decided to carry a wagon load of fossils to present to the society.
Among these were the gift sent by Colonel John Stuart of Greenbrier County, Virginia (now West Virginia) along with Stuart’s hypothesis stating the animal was “of the Lion kind.” Studying the bones, Jefferson too came to the conclusion that they were from an animal “of the lion kind, but of most exaggerated size.” He called it “the Great-claw or Megalonyx” owing to the animal’s bulk, which was expected to be three times that of a lion. With his induction as society president pending, Jefferson was scheduled to present a paper on March 10.
As fate would have it, Jefferson went to a book store following his arrival in Philadelphia in March 1797. Here, he encountered the September 1796 issue of London’s Monthly Magazine, which, as destiny would have it, contained an engraving of a fossilised skeleton. The fossils from Paraguay that were engraved – mounted by then in the Royal Cabinet of Natural History in Madrid, Spain – were very similar to Jefferson’s “Megalonyx,” but identified to be a relative of the sloth.
Realising that his classification was probably flawed, Jefferson revised the paper he was to present, deleting all references to “Megalonyx” and replacing them with a more generic term, an animal “of the clawed kind.” Jefferson read his paper, “A Memoir on the Discovery of Certain Bones of a Quadruped of the Clawed Kind in the Western Parts of Virginia” for the society on March 10 and it was published in 1799 in Transactions of the American Philosophical Society.
Fossil specimen of Megalonyx jeffersonii.
| Photo Credit:
Daderot / Wikimedia Commons
Jefferson’s legacy in science
It is worth noting that when Jefferson enlisted Meriwether Lewis and William Clark in 1803 for what went on to be the Lewis and Clark expedition to explore western U.S. after the Louisiana Purchase, he made it a point that their Corps of Discovery was well placed to make scientific observations.
By 1804, Jefferson was credited as the discoverer of the Megalonyx, which, by then, had been identified as an animal related to the sloth family. Less than two decades later, in 1822, French naturalist Anselme Desmarest gave the formal name for the extinct animal: Megalonyx jeffersonii.
Jefferson’s ground sloth was recovered from Ice Age sites in the midwest U.S. A large, heavily built animal, it had a large skull with a blunt snout and a massive jaw. The peg-like teeth were soft and hence wore down faster than hard teeth, meaning the teeth of these animals grew throughout their lifetime.
Jefferson’s scientific paper about these bones is said to mark the beginning of vertebrate palaeontology in North America.
Did you know?
During a dinner honouring Nobel Prize winners of the western hemisphere at the White House on April 29, 1962, president John F. Kennedy paid tribute to Jefferson with the following remark: “I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered together at the White House, with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone.”
Who is Abraham Lincoln?
The 16th U.S. president, Abraham Lincoln’s presidency coincided largely with the American Civil War. Born to parents who were poor and largely self-educated, Lincoln qualified as a lawyer in 1836. From 1834-42, Lincoln sat in the state legislature, before being elected to the Congress in 1846 while representing the Whig Party. He joined the new Republican Party in 1856 and ran as their presidential candidate in 1860.
Undated file photo of the 16th U.S. President, Abraham Lincoln.
| Photo Credit:
AFP
He made his opposition to slavery blatantly clear during his campaigning and his victory provoked a crisis as not all were in favour of the abolition of slavery. Civil War broke out in 1861 and Lincoln saw it as his duty to preserve the Union. In January 1863, he issued the Emancipation Proclamation to free all slaves – an important gesture to emphasise that the civil war and the Union’s struggle at the time as a war to end slavery.
Lincoln is best remembered for preserving the Union during the American Civil War, even if it meant assuming more power than any president before him. His role as the emancipator of enslaved people not only earned him the nickname The Great Emancipator, but also gave him an appeal that continues to this day – not just among his compatriots, but even those from other countries.
Lincoln’s patented invention
An adept boatman, Lincoln once had a stranded flatboat get off a mill dam. He did this by moving the cargo, before drilling a temporary hole to let the bilge water out. When serving his term in the U.S. Congress from 1847-49, he once noticed a captain employ planks and empty barrels to lift his stranded vessel off a river sandbar.
These incidents were the inspiration for Lincoln’s invention, a device for buoying vessels over shoals. Theoretically, Lincoln’s adjustable buoyant air chambers could be built into or added to any boat. On principle, these could be lowered into the water and inflated to lift the boat over hurdles in the water.
Lincoln applied for his patent on March 10, 1849, exactly 52 years after Jefferson had made a scientific contribution. The patent titled “Buoying Vessels over Shoals” with the number 6,469 was issued on May 22. With the help of Walter Davies, a Springfield mechanic, Lincoln created a patent model too. Lincoln remains the only U.S. president who has a patent of his own.
Patent model of Lincoln’s invention.
| Photo Credit:
David and Jessie Cowhig / flickr
Lincoln’s legacy in science
Lincoln’s invention was never produced and there’s no evidence to suggest that he even sought to put the idea into production. While doubts remain as to whether it would have been a useful invention, it does have a concept to it – one that is scientifically tenable. The execution, however, was awry, as the complicated system of poles, pulleys, ropes, and bags, made it a cumbersome contraption.
What’s puzzling, however, is the fact that this detail about Lincoln being the only president with a patent of his own isn’t that well known. This, despite Lincoln being Lincoln, and the innumerable studies on nearly every aspect of his life, character, and presidency. What’s more, even some acclaimed biographies completely omit this part of Lincoln’s life.
The fact that Lincoln conceived and patented an invention without any real scientific training is something that perhaps needs a little more attention. If the invention had been simpler and more practical, it could have even freed boats that were stranded after being captured by river sand. The Great Emancipator, as we all know, went on to play a pivotal role in freeing people instead during his tenure as president, taking several steps to address the issue of slavery.
Published – March 10, 2025 12:06 am IST
