Evening Star Newspaper, June 8, 1924, Page 71

FICTION Part 5—8 Pages MAGAZINE SECTION he Sunday Staf WASHINGTON, D. C, UNDAY MORNING, JUNE 8, , 1924 FEATURES | Patent Office, at Suggested Trade Center, Is Industrial Landmark BY WILL P. KENNEDY. ECAUSE the United! | historic decisio the busine new and use- sreat interest in the pro- S0l Bloom of ernment sell office that may de through the of any ful invention, there is throughout the country sal of Rej York that present use esenta the patent ew the business center o National Capital t s¢ bhe oped I provided ent monopo- poly ac- nment the writings and section onstitutic ladison a 1e inserted in th at the ance of James 1 Charles Pinckney. T tive cnactment the was placed on the Washington, was excrtion of War tary of and the onstituted a board on of applications The first S was, r of the fact, the pat s he be- first administrator tem in this coun- exceedingly interested and was the most active re. the He was in this duty tr T of the board, examining per- 1y every application filed during The law limited th to fourteen yea 10 provision for m. The held to give the board au- rity to refuse patents for want of novelty of invention or insufficiency utility importance, and this power was vigorously exercised. The patent board was absolute in its au- thority to grant patents, and there was no ahpeal from its decision. * * lif rs of the pat- ent there wa an wi of or [MIE first application for a patent was made to the board three nths after the approval of the act tmuel Hopkins, who, on July 31, was granted a patent for “a ethod of making pot and pearl During the life of the act 90, a period of about three year: fifty-scven ‘patents were granted by the board. But it must not be supposed that this patent of Samuel Hopkins in 1790 was the first ever granted in this country. That distinction belongs to Samuel Winslow, who received his from the general court of Massachu- setts in 1641 for a movel method of making salt. Connecticut also was carly active in encouraging invention, and required, as the basis of a patent grant, that the invention “shall be judged profitable to the country.” By a curlous coincidence, the leg Jative proposal of Representativ Rloom to get rid of the old patent office building and to erect out of the proceeds an adequate and specially designed new home for the patent office, comes at the 300th anniversary of the historic statute of monopolie: the first successful attempt to correct abuses of royal prerogative in the grant of letters patent, which is sometimes referred to as the basis of our patent system. The famous “statute of monopo- Jies,” enacted in 1623, abolished all exclusive economic privileges, but es- tablished the right of an inventor to receive as a reward from the state a grant commensurate with the serv- jees rendered. Thus the very act which first recognized the reprehen- ch ter of private monopoly was the means for establishing, for the first time in history, the right of patent protection rible England Italy, Ger- Al countrie ital During the mid w behind Spa and other continen manufacturing arts. « voas timid and needed protes «neouragement, in. tho: property rights were not respected 2 Might was right in most ¢ rrading was a hazardous undertak- and communication was both wnngerous and difficult. For these rea- ssurance of large profits be- necessary to offset losses and induce trade which would bring new nanufactures into the country. To provide this encouragement, the early English kings exercised the preroga- tive of granting special privileges to Uhese who would eng in trade, and me means encourage the de- t of towns as centers for do- .stic trade and manufacture. hus it will be seen that t patent system, by which an inventor was given a limited enjoyment of his in- vention as a reward for his services 1o the community, has a historic Vackground. In 1793 the patent act was changed so as to permit any,one to obtain a patent, whether or not he was the original inventor and whether or not Jiis contribution was useful or novel. In 1836 the present system was es- lished by an act passed through th efforts “of Se or Ruggles of Maine. This law instituted the so- «lled American method of granting Jatents only after a thorough exam- jnation into the utility, operative- 31055 and novelty of the invention, and provided the machinery and the pro- cedure for carrying out the purpose «f the act. It created a revolution in the methods of granting patents comparable in effect with the institu- tion of the patent system itself. It is T0any in the for now. sons, came s o Law Under \Which It Is Operated Has Been Model for World and Has Given Leadership to America — Provision Made in Federal Constitution and so superior is this method over any other that every civilized and progressive country in the world, with but one exception, has adopt- ed it. I 1536 the patent ofice ecame a separate bureau in the Depart- ment of State, in the charge of a commission of patents. When the Department of the Interior was cre- ated by act of March 3, 1849, the pat- ent office was transferred to that de- partment, where it has since re- mained. Although the historic edifice which the patent office has occupied since 1840 is one of the oldest government buildings, it was not the original home of this service. In 1810 Con- Bress authorized “the purchase of a building for the accommodation of the general post office and of the office of the keeper of patents.” The building purchased had been known as Blodgett's Hotel, situated on E street between 7th and 8th streets northwest, and in 1811 the busine: of the patent office was moved from a house on Sth street, just below F street, to the second floor of the new building, where it remained, under the superintendence of Dr. William Thornton, who died in 1828, Dr. Thornton was the first superintendent of the patent office, the position hav- ing been created for him by Presi- dent Madison. In 1836 these quarters were destroyed'by fire, and Congress then authorized the erection of the present building. The original, or F strget wing, was finished in 1840, the east wing in 1852, the west wing in 1856, and the north wing in 1867. The total cost of the building has % Kk * under the system so inaugurated that gie patent office i8 now operating, been about $3,000,000. In 1877 a disastrous fire broke out on the third Modél of floor of the G and 9th street wings, destroying many records and models, The Patent Office building is 403 feet long by 274 feet wide. It surrounds a court approximately 264 by 106 feet. The portico in the center of the F street front, copied from the archi- técture of the Parthenon at Athens, is a noble and impressive feature of the building. The Patent Office building is of the same material as that in the White House and came from the same quarry. The fire which started September 24, 1877, destroyed the upper portion of half the building, including the Abranam model rooms and contents. In these two halls were 87,000 models, among them several thousand known as “pending” and “issue” cases. Theact of July 4, 1836, authorized the cre- ation of this national gallery and every effort had been made to induce an exhibit of the manufacturing in- dustries of the country therein. This great gallery was visitéd yearly by thousands of people both for profit and pleasure. It contained about 200,000 models of American in- vention, besides many curiosities and mementoes, specimens of home manu- facture and priceless treasures of deep historic interest. Among them incoins Patent. for Promotion of Science and Useful Arts by Securing lixclusive Rights to Authors and Inventors—Changes in Form of Handling Work and Development of Collections of Relics and Trophies of American Manufactures—Proposed Public Auction of Accumulated Models. First Ty powriler Mod were Washington's commission as commander-in-chief of the American forces, his uniform, camp chest and other personal effects; the coat which Gen. Jackson wore at the battle of New Orleans, the printing press first used by Benjamin Franklin and many other interesting relics and trophies. All of the relics were saved. EE R 0 it will be seen that prior to the erection of the National Museum, In the early 80s, the model hall of the patent office was the depository of these valuable articles. The tro- phies of early exploring expeditions also were deposited there. The models of historic patents are now on_deposit in the National Mu- seum. No models are now required. under a law which went into effect in 1880, All models of previous patents are now in storage in rented buildings, and" legislation is pending before Congress looking toward sell- ing these at public auction. The free seeds which Congress has during recent years distributed were first sent out by an appropriation from patent office funds contributed in fees to the government by in- ventors. By an act approved March 3, 1839, the commissioner of patents was assigned the function of collecting and publishing statistics of agricul- ture, thus inaugurating, in a meas- ure, the activities which later became the function -of the Department of Agriculture.” Thi§ "work, was con- tinued in the patent office until 1862, when it was transferred.to the De- partment of Agriculture, then estab- lished. In connection with its work in the field of agriculture, the patent office, in co-operation with the Smithsonian Institution, collected and compiled meteorological data obtained from about a thousand voluntary observers in the United States and other Amer- ican countries, which were published by the patent office. Dr. Thornton, the first commission- er of patents, conducted an extended correspondence upon sclentific sub- jects with the patent officials of the old world and scientists generally, which he left as a part of the ar- chives of the office when he died a monument of his fidelity to and in- terest in the advancement of Ameri- can mechanics.” A story Is told of him that during the war of 1812, when the British captured the city of Washington and destroyed the Capitol building, a loaded cannon was trained upon the patent office for the purpose of de- stroying It, and he, Is said to hav put himself before the gun, and, a frenzy of excitement, cxclaimed clishmen or only Goths and Vandals? This is the patent of- fice, a depository of the ingenuity and inventions of the American na- tion, in which the whole civilized world Is interested. Would you de- stroy it? If fire away, and let the charge pass through my body." The effect is sald to have been magical upon the soltiers, and to have saved the patent office from destruction. An appropriation was made by Con- gress in 1878 for the restoration of the models damaged by fire and water and for the restoration of t patent office building. The commissioner of patents. Th, Robertson, has in his oflice now, i glass case, a relic of the fire of 13 which shows how metal models wers melted and ran together. Gears, wheels and other portions of these models can be distinguished protrud- ing from this shapeless mass of metal. prese: THE west wing hall is now the public search room.and scientific library. This hall occupies a main floor and two galleries. It is 274 feet long, 68 feet wide and 37 feet high. Here are found 1,460,000 patents filed by classes and cross references making fully 2,000,000 patents thus filed. This is the public search room, and the only place in the United States where these patents may examined. Provision is made for 123 searchers working at one time, and frequently all of these places are occupied. The other ¢nd of the the scientific library, in copies of Swiss, French, Austrian, Swedish, British, Canadian, Italian, German and all foreign patents that have been printed may be examined. In his office Commissioner Robert- son has preserved as trophies of the patent office a number of the earlier patents, as, for example, one granted in 1637 for the manufacture of buck- ram. One, signed by Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren as Secretary of State, was issued in July, 1829, for a typographer machine. He has alta and old British patent of 1884 showing the monster wax seal, @w eral inches thick and half a foot [m diameter, attached to the patest. For its preservation a special tin box was provided. Every material device or operation in a material process is disclosed eventually in the comprehensive rec- ords of the patent office, and every development thereof, before being protected by patent, must pass through the hands of the examining force of the office, to be critically scrutinized, subjected to amendment and rejected or accepted. Apart from her material resources, the United States owes her command- ing position in the economic sphere more to the inventive geniys of her people than to any other single fac- tor. The development of those ma- terial resources is due mostly to the rrocesses and mechanisms which have resulted from invention. Unaideg labor—that Is, primal human energy—would have been of put litfle avail in extracting the enormous weath from the earth, in guthering the immense crops, in pro- ducing the output of steel and other metals in the mills and refineries, in fabricating the huge quantities of manufactured articles that come from the factory and ship and in transporting the raw and finished materials that make up the almost unlimited tonnage of rail and ship- ping. Without the influence of invention we could not conceive of the modern world as developed from the old world of manual operations. The United States has by far the proudest record in the field of inven- tion, whether reckoning by the num- ber of pioneer products, their in- genuity or their far-reaching effects in the greatest diversity of fields. This country has led particularly in labor-saving devices. * k k¥ O same hall is which all all the countries in the world the United States has benefited mbst by invention. Her inventors form the most motable list in the sphere of applied sclence, and their contributions are the w and the lenvy of her competitors for indus- trial supremacy. To the cotton ginf the south largely owes her pros- perity, and the northern textile mills a’suflicient supply of raw materials; to the McCormick reaper the west owes in no small degree her de- velopment; and the country a pleni- tude of food products. To the patent system as instituted %a this country, which has most encouraged and pro- tected and thus stimulated invention, do we owe this advantage primarily. The models of historic and key pat- ents are now deposited in the Na- tional Museum. With these has re- cently been placed the model for Abraham Lincoln's invention in 1849 for lifting vessels over a shoal. During almost its entire existence the patent office has suffered in effi- clency because of lack of appropria- tions for proper equipment and for an adequate force of skilled officers and employes. Although the office is more than self-sustaining, Congress has on but few occasions granted the appropriations necessary for the prompt and efficient service to which inventors were entitled,