wait until the internet age bro

It would be news if anyone got a patent application rejected today.

Link is farked in record time!

DNRTFA. Was it the reinforced vampire-killing ax?

TFA's servers rejected my request to view TFA.

1845.

It loaded on the second try for me. Interesting stuff.

The juicy part, for those who can't get to the article:

Lincoln was requesting a patent for "The Gazette," a system to "keep People aware of Others in the Town." He laid out a plan where every town would have its own Gazette, named after the town itself. He listed the Springfield Gazette as his Visual Appendix, an example of the system he was talking about. Lincoln was proposing that each town build a centrally located collection of documents where "every Man may have his own page, where he might discuss his Family, his Work, and his Various Endeavors."

Holy Previously Living fark.

Lincoln invented an apparatus whereby every Man and Woman and Child could post pictures of their meals, and pose with duckfaces?

Nice work of fiction there.

Uchiha_Cycliste:

Holy shiat, it IS analog facebook.

Actually, it's more analogous to the idea of one's Home Page on the Web, which predates Facebook by, oh, ten years or so.

Theaetetus: Nice work of fiction there.

Is the patent application still on file?

kmoser:

Actually, it's more analogous to the idea of one's Home Page on the Web, which predates Facebook by, oh, ten years or so.

Yes, well, "Abaham Lincoln invented Geocities" isn't nearly as good of a headline. I think we can all agree geocities was a mistake.

VERY clever hoax.

Draq: The juicy part, for those who can't get to the article:

Lincoln was requesting a patent for "The Gazette," a system to "keep People aware of Others in the Town." He laid out a plan where every town would have its own Gazette, named after the town itself. He listed the Springfield Gazette as his Visual Appendix, an example of the system he was talking about. Lincoln was proposing that each town build a centrally located collection of documents where "every Man may have his own page, where he might discuss his Family, his Work, and his Various Endeavors."

So, in other words, a literal facebook. Like the way actual facebooks were before Facebook.

Is our children learning? The answer be "no".

Now, that said, Lincoln does* have an actual patent.

*did?

Sounds more like a blog to me, or a home page as kmoser mentioned above. Why is he even calling this Facebook? I know Myspace, Google+ and others aren't as popular but the article makes it sound like Facebook invented social networking and is the only site that exists.

Does this mean Abe Lincoln is the president again and Zuckerburg has to be encased in concrete in Illinois?

Lincoln was a fairly good poet, also.Link

Wow. Every time I ask myself why I come back to Fark, what with all the crap that flies around here, I get a link like this one. And I thank goodness for people that choose to wander around small Midwestern towns and libraries. And that they can post something about it on the internet. And that a Farker sees it, and the mods greenlight it for us liters.

The_Six_Fingered_Man: Theaetetus: Nice work of fiction there.

Is the patent application still on file?

Not online, but if it existed, it would be in the physical archives, I'm sure.

kmoser: Uchiha_Cycliste:

Holy shiat, it IS analog facebook.

Actually, it's more analogous to the idea of one's Home Page on the Web, which predates Facebook by, oh, ten years or so.

Except for the illusion of privacy with claims you control who gets the content and giving an unknown third party ownership and control of all your personal information.

Theaetetus: The_Six_Fingered_Man: Theaetetus: Nice work of fiction there.

Is the patent application still on file?

Not online, but if it existed, it would be in the physical archives, I'm sure.

Just curious why you dismiss it as a work of fiction.

So now people will be blaming Lincoln for the motherfarking Timeline...

So when does lincoln's slave children bloodline get to sue Facebook?

Given the PT Barnum connection, I have to think this is some sort of hoax...

I am going with clever fiction too. I fell for it hook line and sinker, even posted on my FB page... then the P.T. Barnum connection started sinking in - yeah, hoax.

I'm guessing they planned for this to go viral around April 1. It's a hoax.

The_Six_Fingered_Man: Theaetetus: The_Six_Fingered_Man: Theaetetus: Nice work of fiction there.

Is the patent application still on file?

Not online, but if it existed, it would be in the physical archives, I'm sure.

Just curious why you dismiss it as a work of fiction.

1) It would have been reported elsewhere in contemporaneous documents, since Lincoln was also the first (and only) President to get a patent. Instead, we get one guy's blog - with a quote from PT Barnum about a sucker born every minute - talking about how he totes saw it, and he wished he had his camera, but here's a partial image that doesn't show anything he says the full image showed.

2) It doesn't look like a patent application figure. Formal drawing requirements were quite stringent at the time (and they kinda still are), since the PTO had to create printing plates for figures.

3) The "profile" photo, according to Wiki, was taken a year later.

4) According to the blog, there "was a simple form letter from the United States Patent Office, stating "Your patent application for 'The Gazette' has been reviewed and denied." The official U.S. seal was stamped and pressed into the paper."
But, after the patent act of 1836, patents underwent examination, with substantive rejections. Maybe such a letter would have been possible pre-1836, but not after that point.

Oh, and of course, "The Gazette" wouldn't have been used as a patent title, since it's not a useful art, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, so there would have been sec. 6 problems.

Blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah.

Blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah.

And that's where it started to get interesting.

Blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah.

Abraham Lincon. Facebook. Blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah.

Theaetetus: Oh, and of course, "The Gazette" wouldn't have been used as a patent title, since it's not a useful art, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, so there would have been sec. 6 problems.

Interesting. Thanks.

Crap, seemed like a cool story. +1 for making it sorta believable.
Of course I already sent it to my dad so hundreds of people over 60 believe this already.

Skyfrog: Why is he even calling this Facebook? I know Myspace, Google+ and others aren't as popular but the Sky frogs brain makes it sound like Facebook invented social networking and is the only site that exists.

Facebook is the most known. A human brain will fill an envelope with all the other close facimilies.

From the 1836 Act, sec. 7:
But whenever, on such
examination, it shall appear to the Commissioner that the applicant was not the original and first inventor or discoverer
thereof, or that any part of that which is claimed as new had before been invented or discovered, or patented, or
described in any printed publication in this or any foreign country, as aforesaid, or that the description is defective and
insufficient, he shall notify the applicant thereof, giving him, briefly, such information and references as may be useful
in judging of the propriety of renewing his application, or of altering his specification to embrace only that part of the
invention or discovery which is new.

That's the nail in the coffin, I'd think. That rejection letter would simply not be done.

Wow, holy crap. I thought the headline was joking, but that's pretty much exactly what it was. I don't even use facebook, and that's still amazing.

Theaetetus: That's the nail in the coffin, I'd think. That rejection letter would simply not be done.

Right, because

Nightsweat: It would be news if anyone got a patent application rejected today.

Even if the patent were granted, Lincoln was too busy hunting vampires to make the Gazette into a successful business model.