the inventive mind of
THOMAS JEFFERSON Besides being responsible for drafting the American Declaration of Independence and becoming the third President of the United States. Thomas Jefferson was also a prominent and diverse inventor of his time. POLYMATH SEEMS AN inadequate term to
had a hole drilled in the floor and had it
describe Thomas Jefferson—the man whose
written on the wall of one of the cellar rooms.
resume boasted the titles: writer, scientist,
DUMBWAITER
farmer, philosopher, archaeologist, musician,
Jefferson lived for his dinner parties and
revolutionary and president of the United
the conversations they produced. No doubt
States. Jefferson was all these things and more,
he was unwilling to part from the table
but he was one thing throughout it all: a
when more wine was needed, nor would
gadget guy. He always had to have the latest
he interrupt the flow of conversation by
and greatest doohickey and whatchamacallit
sending for another bottle. His solution was
if he thought it would help “ameliorate the
clever—the dining room fireplace contained
condition of man.” He called them gimcracks
a dumbwaiter to the cellar that would be
and here are a few of his more famous devices.
preloaded with Jefferson’s favorite wines; when
CALENDAR CLOCK
another bottle was needed, he would simply
Jefferson was obsessed with clocks.
reach over and grab one.
Dozens and dozens of them littered Monticello
PRIMITIVE PDA
in a time when even the best clock available
Ever the note taker and information
was expected to quickly wind down and lose
collector, Jefferson had one of the world’s first
its accuracy. His most famous clock, however,
PDAs. He carried a pocket-sized “notebook”
was the huge calendar clock in the main foyer
of thin, ivory tablets joined at one end so
of Monticello.
they could fan out for writing. Using a metal
The days of the week, Sunday through
the surface of the tablets and then transfer the
to the floor and, as the week progressed, a
information to paper in the evening. When he
ball would slowly descend and its location
was finished with a tablet, he would use an
would correspond to the day of the week
abrasive pad and erase his notes, leaving the
and roughly the time of day. Someone had to
tablet blank for its next use.
climb a ladder to return the ball to the ceiling
POLYGRAPH
at the end of each week.
Jefferson wrote roughly 20,000 letters in
Where was Saturday? There wasn’t enough room for it in the foyer, so Jefferson
12
stylus, Jefferson would make short notes on
Friday, were listed vertically from the ceiling
his lifetime and, later in his life, he kept a copy of almost all of them. He did this with
E X C L U S I V E LY Y O U R S