Patent Model, Method of Building Wood Boats
date: label: date made
content: 1841
label: patent date
content: 1841-10-11
name: label: patentee
content: Francis, Joseph
label: inventor
content: Francis, Joseph
notes: label: Description
content: The inventor Joseph Francis (1801-93) was best known for developing corrugated-iron lifesaving boats. This 1841 patent model reveals his ideas about a new method for constructing boats made of wood.
label: Description
content: Trade and communication in 1840s America relied heavily on waterborne transportation, and boat building was an important related industry. With this invention, Joseph Francis sought to reduce the cost of constructing boats by simplifying the process. He proposed setting up a reusable frame over which very narrow planks would be bent to form the hull. The planks would be fastened together by bolts or nails driven through their edges, and no complicated joinery was to be done where the curves of the hull converged at bow and stern. “Ordinary workmen and machinery” could build this simple boat, he wrote. It would save on material, as none of the planks would overlap, and it would not require caulking, “as the narrow planking is drawn so closely together by the . . . nails . . . .” Finally, Francis claimed that the boat’s metal fasteners, buried between the planks, would not be likely to corrode and loosen the structure. Francis may have used this technique in his own boat works, but it was otherwise ignored by the nation’s many skilled boat builders.
place: label: associated place
content: United States: New York, New York
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: 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.308538
label: accession number
content: 89797
label: catalog number
content: 308538
label: patent number
content: 2,293
objectType: label: Object Name
content: life boat, model
label: Object Name
content: patent model, lifeboat
label: Object Type
content: Patent Model
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: wood (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: metal (fittings material)
label: Physical Description
content: paper (card material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 5 3/4 in x 39 1/2 in x 6 in; 14.605 cm x 100.33 cm x 15.24 cm