Patent Model, Life Boat
date: label: Date made
content: 1841
label: patent date
content: 1841-03-26
name: label: patentee
content: Francis, Joseph
label: inventor
content: Francis, Joseph
notes: label: Description
content: Joseph Francis of New York (1801–93) made a name for himself in the 1840s and 1850s manufacturing light and sturdy corrugated-iron lifeboats and other nautical gear. This 1841 patent model shows his design for a wood or metal boat fitted with airtight copper tanks. These tanks were to be charged with gas or air to provide buoyancy and, in an emergency, would work in conjunction with several holes through the bottom of the boat. When the boat started taking on water in rough seas, the holes would be opened. That action, combined with the buoyancy of the tanks, would permit drainage.
label: Description
content: The well-known inventors of mid-19th-century America—Elias Howe, Cyrus McCormick, and Samuel F. B. Morse—were celebrated as national benefactors. Aspiring inventors regarded applying for a patent not just as a key step on the road to potential wealth, but as a patriotic duty—a contribution to the country’s betterment and future. Solidly within this style, Joseph Francis confidently called his buoyant boat the “great American life boat.” He declared with pride that “the model and application of the buoyant power which I now claim . . . is the best and safest for life boats and all other boats and vessels . . . it is different from and an improvement on all former invention by me and any other person . . . .”
label: Description
content: In fact, the 1841 patent represented by this model is but a minor alteration to his first patent, an 1839 design for a double-bottomed boat fitted with buoyant air cylinders. His second attempt simply added additional tanks to the boat’s ends and flattened the bottom of the hull to enable it “to sit upright when left by a retiring surge upon a rock bar or beach, where other modeled boats would be upset.”
place: label: associated place
content: United States: New York, New York City
topic: label: related event
content: Expansion and Reform
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Maritime
label: See more items in
content: Engineering, Building, and Architecture
label: See more items in
content: Transportation
label: See more items in
content: On the Water exhibit
label: Exhibition
content: On the Water
label: Exhibition Location
content: National Museum of American History
publisher: label: Related Publication
content: National Museum of American History. On the Water exhibition website
label: Related Web Publication
content: http://americanhistory.si.edu/onthewater
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: TR.308542
label: catalog number
content: 308542
label: accession number
content: 89797
label: patent number
content: 2,018
objectType: label: Object Name
content: patent model, lifeboat
label: Object Name
content: life boat, patent model
label: Object Type
content: Patent Model
label: Other Terms
content: patent model, lifeboat; lifeboat; Maritime
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: wood (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: paint (surface material)
label: Physical Description
content: copper alloy (parts material)
label: Physical Description
content: ferrous (parts material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 4 1/4 in x 6 in x 26 1/2 in; 10.795 cm x 15.24 cm x 67.31 cm