382 CYRUS N. ANDERSON 



conferred upon the secretary of state, the secretary of war 

 and the attorney general of the United States. 



It appears that Mr. Jefferson, who was at that time 

 secretary of state, took great interest in the patent laws, 

 and regarded them and the granting of a patent as of the 

 very greatest importance, and he is generally referred to as 

 the Father of the United States patent laws. 



In the official gazette of the United States patent office, 

 published September 24, 1877, an interesting description 

 of the early practice under the act of 1790 occurs: ''By 

 act of April 10, 1790, the first American patent system was 

 founded. Thomas Jefferson inspired it, and may be said 

 to have been the father of the American patent office. He 

 took great pride in it, it is said, and gave personal consider- 

 ation to every application that was made for a patent dur- 

 ing the years between 1790 and 1793, while the power of 

 revision and rejection granted by that act remained in force. 

 It is related that the granting of a patent was held to be 

 in these early times quite an event in the history of the state 

 department, where the clerical part of the work was then 

 performed. 



It is a matter of tradition, handed down to us from gen- 

 eration to generation, by those who love to speak of Mr. 

 Jefferson, his virtues, and his eccentricities, that when an 

 apphcation for patent was made under the first act, he would 

 summon Mr. Henry Knox, of Massachusetts, who was secre- 

 tary of war, and Mr. Edmund Randolph, of Virginia, who 

 was attorney general — these officers being designated by 

 the act, with the secretary of state, a tribunal to examine 

 and grant patents — and that these three distinguished offi- 

 cials would examine the applications critically, scrutinize 

 each point of the specification and claims carefully and rigor- 

 ously. The result of this examination was that during the 

 first year, a majority of the applications filed failed to pass 

 the ordeal, and only three patents were granted. In those 

 days every step in the issuance of a patent was taken with 

 great caution, Mr. Jefferson seeking always to impress upon 

 the minds of his officers and the public that the granting 

 of a patent was a matter of no ordinary importance." 



