^f^^ 



Figure i. — Eagle and Masonic eve used to 

 decorate Emanuel W. Carpenter's patent 

 application. [All illustrations in this paper 

 are from either original or restored patent 

 drawings.] 



documented. Progress and perfection became a 

 national attitude propounded, disseminated, and 

 enshrined by statesmen, politicians, writers, and 

 architects of the day. 



The files of the U.S. Patent Office, in addition to 

 confirming these facts, suggest considerably more.' 

 Here lies an explanation, little cited, for American 

 accomplishment in the years between Washington's 

 inauguration and our successes at London's Crystal 

 Palace in 1851 and, later, at the Centennial Exposition 

 in Philadelphia in 1876. 



Strangely, despite the currency of scientific and 

 technical history, patent documents remain virtually 

 unexplored. This is not to say that historians have 

 completely ignored the patent records — quite to the 

 contrary. Siegfried Giedion ■* has made exciting and 



3 Between 1790 and 1836 the United States granted 9,802 

 patents, and by 1848 the number had increased to 16,000; by 

 1871, patents granted numbered 131,000 (Report of the Inves- 

 tigation of the United States Patent Office . . . December 

 1912, House Doc. 1110, 62d Congr., 3d Sess., pp. 22, 58-60). 

 For the most succinct statement to date concerning these 

 records, see Nathan Reingold, "U.S. Patent Office Records 

 as Sources for the History of Invention and Technological 

 Property," Technology and Culture (spring 1960), vol. 1, pp. 

 156-157. Reingold's footnotes serve as a preliminary guide to 

 Patent Office materials. Since Reingold's article appeared, 

 the National .\rchives has received from the U.S. Patent 

 Office 30 volumes of restored patent specifications, 1790-1836; 

 14 volumes of restored reissued patent specifications, 1836- 

 1840; and 10 volumes of assignments of restored patents. 



' Siegfried Giedion, Mechanization Takes Command (Cam- 

 bridge, Mass., 1948). 



provocative use of the patent files, which have long 

 been a natural starting place for those tracing the 

 primacy of invention. So, too, have the economic 

 historians explored the theory of patent law as a 

 keystone of the capitalistic system. Recently, histo- 

 rians of American technology have showed new 

 interest, and some museums have occasionally 

 recognized the historic importance of patent models 

 and drawings. Nevertheless, to date, few scholars 

 brave the intricacies of these records, even in the 

 areas mentioned. Fewer still ever stop to consider 

 patents as primary evidence documenting our every- 

 day past.^ 



Could not the real treasure of the patent records, 

 particularly the patent drawings, lie in their value as 

 cultural documents? They are not really documents 

 in the archival sense, but rather a unique combination 

 standing somewhere between objects and manuscripts. 

 Here, it would seem, is a challenge to the investigator 

 seeking new material and fresh interpretations. What 

 follows will suggest not only the extent to which they 

 can be used by the social historian, but, indirectly, 

 the degree to which they have been ignored. Con- 

 sidering just the period from 1790 to 1870 — when 

 the drawings show their greatest vitality — it is 

 surprising to find the quantity of rich ore waiting to be 

 properly assayed. For here, if one examines only the 

 applications, drawings, and schedules, is a cross section 

 of American ingenuity, one that yields an amazing 

 variety of information. 



From this material, a society can be analyzed — 

 popular attitudes can be judged, living standards 

 assessed, and the level of technology evaluated; mun- 



'" Philip W. Bishop, "The Beginnings of Clieap Steel" (paper 

 3 in Contributions Jrom the Museum oj History and Technology: 

 Papers 1-11, U.S. National Museum Bulletin 218, by various 

 authors; Washington: .Smithsonian Institution, 1959), pp. 27- 

 47. Bishop makes excellent and traditional use of patents, 

 both American and British. Victor S. Clark, History of 

 Manujacturcrs in the United States, 1607-1928 (New York: 

 McGraw-Hill, Inc., 1929, 3 vols.), discusses the patents im- 

 portant to the growth of individual industries. The general 

 economics of the patent system can be found in Floyd L. 

 Vaughan, Economics of Our Patent System (New York : MacMillan, 

 1925). The first two issues of Technology and Culture devote con- 

 siderable space to notes and articles on patents; see, in particu- 

 lar, papers by Nathan Reingold and P. J. Federico (vol. 1, 

 spring 1960) and by S. C. Gilfillan, Jacob Schmookler, and 

 I. Jordan Kunik (vol. 1, summer 1960). The United States 

 National Museum has on occasion made splendid use of its 

 patent model collection, although little or no use has been 

 made of original drawings. (Patentees were required to sup- 

 port dieir written specifications with models and drawings.) 



PAPER 48: UNITED STATES PATENTS NEW USES FOR OLD IDEAS 



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