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This US president is the only one to hold a patent

Allan Rose Hill
Feb 18, 2025
∙ Paid

image: Smithsonian National Museum of American History

United States patent number 6,469 is for "buoying vessels over shoals." Granted on May 22, 1849, the concept involves equipping large boats with "india-rubber cloth, or another suitable waterproof fabric" on the hull as inflatable floats. If a boat became stranded, these buoys could be inflated with …

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