<at&. y ^... -tr^ yr" ytsy- 





\ IBRAILNG siLLLVAKD palciitcd b) Bciijaiuiii Dcailjoni, I'L-biuary 14, 1799 (ii-sluii-cl patent 234X). 



dane things of the period can be identified, such as 

 dress, household furnishings, and a variety of tools 

 and appliances; and prevailing tastes and styles, along 

 with the constituent or lasting contributions of the 

 period, are revealed. If, as Frances Trollope disdain- 

 fully noted, the Patent Office indeed contains the 

 brain children of the Nation's "mechanics and agri- 

 culturalists," ^ it should be valuable to illustrate the 

 usefulness of patents with specific examples that will 

 serve as a guide to the wealth of material deposited in 

 the National Archives. 



Patents and Popular Sentiments 



What can be learned from the patent records before 

 1870 concerning popular sentiments? Immediately 

 apparent is a zest for mechanical improvement. The 

 drawings, particularly in the early part of the cen- 

 tury, suggest this, but one should read the applica- 

 tions and patent schedules, because the most cursory 

 selection of terms will document the orientation 

 of the country and indicate a state of mind that 

 makes innovation seem a natural consequence. 



Phrases like "great ease and convenience" predomi- 

 nate, but "perfectly true and uniform," "facility," 

 "strength," "much quicker," "durability," "preser- 

 vation of lives . . . and property," "simplicity," 

 "security," "expeditious manner," "precisely," and 

 "accuracy" almost form a litany for invention, a 

 reason why men invented things, a foundation for 

 rapid national progress in the mechanical arts.' 



Ale.xis de Tocqueville cited the "passion for physical 

 well being"* explicit in American life, and the ter- 



' Frances Trollope, Domestic Alanners of llic Amnicam, edit. 

 Donald Smalley (New York: Knopf, 1949), p. 219. 



' Quotations are from the following U.S. patents: David 

 Wilkinson, December 14, 1798; William Hopkins, May 13, 

 1803; Alexander Black, October 3, 1817; Obadiah Stith, 

 March 16, 1819; John Moore and Samuel P. Bower, March 3, 

 1837, No. 136; Moses Baldwin, April 29, 1837, No. 186; 

 Emanuel Carpenter, February 6, 1 838, No. 594, and Robert C. 

 Mauck, December 26, 1845, No. 4329. "Name and Date" 

 patents may be found in the manuscript volumes of restored 

 patents, Record Group 241, National Archives. Numbered 

 patents may be found in the published schedules of U.S. patents, 

 1836-, in Record Room, U.S. Patent Office. All illustrations 

 in the present paper are reproduced from original or restored 

 patent drawings, most of which are watercolors or wash 

 drawings. 



8 Ale.xis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, 2 vols., transl. 

 Francis Bowen (Cambridge, Mass.: Sever and Francis, 1862), 

 vol. 2, p. 155. 



112 



BULLETIN 24 1 : CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE MUSEUM OF HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 



