PATENTS. 



ACCORDING to the report of the Secretary of the Interior, if the number of models sent to 

 the Pateut Office increases in proportion to past experence, they will amount to 150,000 

 by the cloe of the present century, and the whole of the Patent Office edifice will not be 

 sufficient for their convenient display. " The number of models in the office " on the 1st 

 day of January, 1833, was 1,069. In the beginning of the year 1851 they had increased to 

 17,257. and at the close of the year 1852 they tall a little short only of 23 COO. In -view of these 

 facts the Secretary recommends " that the Commissioner of Patents be required to have 

 prepared for publication a careful analytical and descriptive index of all discoveries and 

 inventions which have been patented, accompanied by accurate descriptions and drawings 

 which will fully explain the principles and practical operation of the subject of the patent. 

 The advantages of such a publication would be almost incalcuable. It would not only 

 perpetuate the invention or discovery by avoiding the casualities by fjre and other causes, 

 but it would multiply and diffuse among the people at large the specifications and de- 

 scriptions, and substantially bring home to every neighborhood to which a copy of the 

 work might be sent the benefits of the Patent Office. Inventors in remote parts of the 

 country would be placed on an equal footing with those residing near the seat of govern- 

 ment. When their thoughts were turned to a particular class of machinery, instead of 

 being compelled to make a journey to Washington to see what had already been done 

 in that department of the arts, they could at once turn to the analytical index and 

 ascertain what progress had been made by others. 



" Under the present system it not unfrequently happens that the ingenious persons 

 having conceived what they believe to be a new idea, which, when carried into practice, 

 will be of great value, employ much of their time, labor and money in perfecting their 

 invention, and when it is finished they come to Washington filled with the hope of those 

 rewards which crown the labors of the successful inventor. Their application for a patent 

 is presented and submitted to an experienced and skilful examiner, who promp'ly refers the 

 anxious applicant to a drawing or a model, which shows him that his ideas have been 

 anticipated by another, and reduced to practice many years before. None of those who 

 have taken pains to inquire into the subject can form any adequate idea of the amount of 

 time, money, and labor which is uselessly expended under such circumstances like these, 

 to say nothing of the anxiety of mind and heart, sickening disappointment, all of which 

 might be saved if such a descriptive index as I propose were readily accessible to the 

 public The publication of it would also tend to stimulate the inventive genius of the 

 country, and lead not only to the development of new agents and processes, but to valu- 

 able improvements upon those which have already been brought into practical operation. 

 It is hardly necessary to add that such a work would be of great value in the investiga- 

 tion of courts of justice ot'le^al controversy involving the rights of patentees. 



t: When the index is completed up to the close of the present year, it will be easy by an 

 annual publication of an appendix to the ordinary report from the Patent Office to furnish 

 a complete record of the inventions and discoveries of each successive year." 



" To be of value, such an index should be prepared by a person fully competent to the 

 task, and illustrated and printed, and bound in a style worthy of the subject and of the 

 nation. It would, doubtless, be attended with a large expense, but it could readily be 

 paid out of the patent fund, without encroaching on thenanonal treasury, and I can con- 

 ceive of no purpose to which that fund could be applied which would be more acceptable 

 to inventors, and in all respects so appropriate, as in perpetuating and diffusing the 

 knowledge of their labors, and presenting to the public a full description of the existing 

 condition of the mechanic arts and the kindred branches of science in our country." 



