Figure 56. — ILw kaki- invented by David Smith. Patent 773. 



1838. 



other fish at sea, or in deep water'" submitted in 

 1838. But these drawings and literally thousands 

 more Uke them are virtually unknown. Contempo- 

 rary illustrations of a society at a given period are, of 

 course, not rare; however, neither folk art nor lithog- 

 raphy collections provide as wide a year-by-year, 

 graphic coverage of American activity as the pro- 

 fusion of watercolor drawings rendered by patentees 

 or official delineators in support of patents prior to 

 1870. 



Frequently, it is argued that for the period before 

 1836 the drawings are reconstructions of those 

 destroyed in the Patent Office fire and, therefore, not 

 valid as source material. This is only partially true, 

 since some drawings are duplicates of the prefire 

 originals; and further, many of those restored are 

 near-contemporary reconstructions, often well re- 



searched, accurate, and explicitly visual representations 

 of ideas and attitudes current at the time of applica- 

 tion. '* Still, even if one chooses to disregard the so- 

 called "Name and Date," or "Restored"' patents, there 

 are the exceedingly rich files, overflowing with draw- 

 ings, that date from 1836 to 1870. They are, in reality, 

 American renditions of persons, animals, and things, 

 often done by individuals actively engaged in the 

 operations they depict. They are, at times, superior 



'* For example, James H. Chappell's map of spheres and 

 right lines (fig. 20) is apparently a duplicate of an original 

 drawing; so is Solyman Merrick's wrench (fig. 15). Many 

 drawings, such as James Herman's grooving plane of 1 835 (sec 

 fig. 24) were redrawn soon after the Act of 1837 that author- 

 ized restoration. .\11 historical evidence must be critically 

 examined; the patent drawing is no exception, but to date the 

 social historian has put little of it to the test. 



P.JiPER 48: UNITED ST.ATES P.A.TENTS NEW USES FOR OLD IDE.AS 



151 



