Lincoln's patent

[RJNorton]

Lincoln had quite the sense of humor when discussing patents. He told stories that he was going to seek patents on these two devices that his mind had invented.

The first device was called a 'hen walker' which would prevent hens from scratching up the garden, and consisted of a movable brace attached to the hen's legs so that at each scratch the hen was propelled forward, and so by successive scratches all the way out of the garden.

The other device was called a "double-back-action hen persuader," which was so adjusted under the hen's nest that as each egg was laid it fell through a trap door out of sight of the author, who would then be persuaded to lay another egg.

These recollections came from Seth Stimmel (one of Lincoln's mounted guards) and David Homer Bates (author of Lincoln in the Telegraph Office).