210 Evolution of the Mechanic Arts. 



payments, a sudden increase occurred, maintained with fluc- 

 tuations of one kind and another down to the present time, 

 the variations in the number of patents issued being lat- 

 terly made up by the increased number of claims in each 

 patent, showing improved work on the part of patent solic- 

 itors. The patents issued for 1880 in round numbers 

 were 14,000; in 1881, 16,000; 1882, 19,000; 1883, 22,000; 

 1884, 20,000; 1885, 24,000; 1886, 22,000; 1887, 21,000; 

 1888, 20,000 ; and 1889, 24,158, the highest annual number 

 yet reached. Tlie number of the last patent issued in 1889 

 is 418,664. The present numbering commenced in 1829, 

 prior to which 5,380 patents had been issued, commenc- 

 ing with only three patents issued in 1790. At the end of 

 1871 the number of the last patent issued was 122,303 ; 

 the last number in 1881 was 251,684, the number of 

 patents issued more than doubling in ten years. At the 

 present rate of issue, the number of patents at the end of 

 1891 will again be more than doubled in ten years ; or in 

 other words, more than half of all the patents granted by 

 the Government will have been issued within ten years; 

 and out of about 460,000 patents issued, something like 

 335,000 will still be alive or unexpired. 



Lack of space alone enables me to resist the temptation to 

 follow up these statistics with a statement of some out of 

 the mass of interesting facts that aye involved in tliQse 

 few figures. As by far the larger part pf these inv^n^ions 

 are mechanical, and relate to mechanical arts on the dynamic 

 side, and those that relate to the arts on the static side 

 almost invariably touch dynamic meclianism somewhere, it 

 becomes evident at a mere glance that the prosperity and 

 development of our civilization are intimately connected 

 with the work of the inventor and the evolution of the me- 

 cliauic arts. It is also evident that if our patent system 

 should be abrogated, the incentive to invention being 

 thereby removed, it would be such a disaster to civiliza- 

 tion that we could better afford to sink one-half of the 

 country to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. 



In comparison Avith tlie great volumes exhibited it 

 is not much to brag about, b\it I am glad to be able to show 

 you a Patent-Oihce com])ilation, giving the names of women 

 inventors to whom j)atents h;id been granted by tlie Govern- 

 ment, from 1790 down to July, 1888. To be sure, an in- 

 spection of this book shows that their minds run decidedly 



