Anchor, Patent Model
date: label: Date made
content: 1869
label: patent date
content: 1869-11-30
name: label: patentee
content: Barlow, Elisha Trask
label: inventor
content: Barlow, Elisha Trask
notes: label: Description
content: Elisha Trask Barlow sought to improve how anchors grab the seabed. His design exploits the force of a vessel pulling on the anchor to, in the inventor's words, "induce an effort in the anchor to take hold." This is the model Barlow deposited at the Patent Office with his application in 1869.
label: Description
content: Many nineteenth-century anchor designs featured pivoting flukes. Barlow's innovation was to link them to a sliding double shank. When strain is placed on the shackle at one end of the anchor, the uppermost part of the shackle is pulled forward, forcing the flukes to rotate down. As the anchor cable tries to drag the anchor forward, the downward pointing flukes are driven into the ground. "This arrangement of the parts of an anchor is most complete," Barlow said, "as the flukes are always governed by the strain on the cable, and [the anchor] can by no possibility become detached from its position when once it is set in the ground, unless a vertical strain should be brought to bear upon it, or the anchor should be turned over by the movements of the ship, in which case it will immediately take hold again."
label: Description
content: Barlow, a machinist, lived in San Francisco, California.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: associated place
content: United States: California, San Francisco
topic: label: Subject
content: Patent Models
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Maritime
label: See more items in
content: America on the Move
label: See more items in
content: Transportation
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: TR.308562
label: accession number
content: 89797
label: catalog number
content: 308562
label: patent number
content: 97,342
objectType: label: Object Name
content: anchor, patent model
label: Object Name
content: patent model, anchor
label: Object Type
content: Patent Model
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: nickel-plated iron (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 5 1/2 in x 3 1/2 in x 1 1/2 in; 13.97 cm x 8.89 cm x 3.81 cm