Abe Lincolns patent model for a new riverboat. Imagine, if y°u will, a young lawyernamed Abe Lincoln sitting beforethe fire whittling a piece of pine. Withstore-bought dowels and tiny scraps ofwood, he fashions the body of a minia-ture riverboat. For Lincoln, and hun-dreds of 19th century… … &*r4*Jc turned in a model of his steam engineand pump system. His model called fora conical valve in the pump, but in thepatent application, Westinghouse, fa-ther of the appliance and engineeringcompany that bears his name today,reserved the right to go with a cylindri-cal valve instead. A…
