1836.] 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



199 



ements are submissive to her will, and all the end 

 less combinations of nnjchaiiisin are subservient 

 to her purposes. She participates in almost eve- 

 r}' business and em|)l()yment of man. Auricu!- 

 ture itself miirht as well dispense with fertility of 

 soil, as with her aid in its cultivation. 



The jrreatly increasino;nun)berof patentsgrant- 

 ed, affords some indication of the improvements 

 Avhich have been ^f)in(T on in the useful arts li-om 

 year to year. The averaije number issued annu- 

 ally, from 1790 to 1800, was but 2G; from 1800 to 

 1810, the average nnmb;ir was 91; from 1810 to 

 1820, it was 200; and, lor the last ten years, the 

 average number has been 535. Durinc^ the last 

 year, there were issued 77G; and there have been 

 granted in the first quarter of the present year 274, 

 being more in three months than were issued in 

 the whole of the first period of ten years. In the 

 22 years preceding the war of 1812, the average 

 annual number was 73. The first quarter oi' the 

 present year indicates an ag'Tregate ibr the year, 

 of 1,00(3; the amount of the duties on which, will 

 be upwards of ^32,000. The whole number is- 

 sued at the Patent Ollice, nutler the laws of the 

 United States, up to the 31st of March last, is 

 9,731. This is more than double the number 

 which have been issued either in England or 

 France, during the same period. In England lor 

 ten years ])receding 1830, the average number ol' 

 patents granted in one year was 145 



Whoever imagines tliat, because so many in- 

 ventions and so many improvements in machine- 

 ry hav^e been made, their remains little else to be 

 discovered, has but a feeble conception of the in- 

 finitude and vastness of mechanical powers, or of 

 the unlimited reach ot science. — Much as has 

 been discovered, infinitely more remains unreveal- 

 ed. The mgenulty of man is exploring a region 

 without limits, and delving in a mine whose treas- 

 ures are exhaustless. " Neither are all the myste- 

 ries of nature unl()lded, nor the mind tired in the 

 pursuit of them. " 



The first conceptions of ingenuity, like the first 

 suggestion of science are theories which require 

 something of experiment and practical exempli- 

 fication to perfect. Mechanical invenfions are at 

 first necessarily crude and incomplete. — Time is 

 required to develope their imperfections and to 

 make the improvements necessary to their adap- 

 tion to practical uses. Inventors generally obtain 

 patents before they venture upon those experi- 

 ments which only can test their inventions. They 

 are apprehensive oi being forestalled in their dis- 

 coveries, and see no other means of protecting 

 themselves against piracy and fraud, than bysecur- 

 ing patents aT once. 



A remedy for this may be easily had in a pro- 

 vision authorizing caveats to be filed in the office, 

 giving securit}' to tiie right of discovery Ibr a time 

 suflicient for making the necessary experiments, 

 inquiries and miprovements. 



Heretofore aliens not resident in (his country, 

 have not been admitted to the privileges of our 

 patent laws. But, as Amerit-an citizens are allow- 

 ed to take out patents in England and in other 

 countries, a principle of reciprocity would seem to 

 require that foreigners should have similar privile- 

 ges here, on paying a similar duly or amount of 

 fees that is exacted of our citizens abroad. The 

 lees payable in England, on takin"; out a patent, 

 amount to $585. If a patent be taken out lor the 



three kingdoms of England Ireland, and Scotland, 

 thev amount to ^1,680T— In France thev are $309; 

 in Spam .'r;292; Austria, ■*B208. 



A power in the Commissioner of the Patent Of- 

 fice to reject ap[)lications for want of novelty in 

 the invention, it is believed, will have a most isen- 

 eficial and salutary efiljct in relieving meritorious 

 inventors, and the community generally, fi-om the 

 serious evils irrowinir out of the grantitiij!; of patents 

 for every thing indiscriminately, creating interfer- 

 ing claims, encouraging fraudulent speculators in 

 patent rights, deluging the country with worthless 

 monopolies, and laying the foundation for endless 

 litigation. 



In nineteen cases out of twent}', probably, the 

 opinion of the Commissioner, accompanied by the 

 iutbrmation on which his decision is founded, will 

 be acquiesced in. When unsatislactory, the 

 rights of the applicant will find ample protection 

 in an appeal to a board of cxammers, selected for 

 their particular knowledge of the subject-matter 

 of the invention in each case. 



By this means, without danger to actual and 

 honest inventors, the number of patents would be 

 somewhat diminished. But there would be more 

 confidence in those which should be granted, and 

 as those which have been fierelofbre issued, should 

 be daily expiring by their limitation, the connnu- 

 nity would begin to feel and realize the advanta- 

 ges of such a change. The present law waits 

 till infringements and frauds are consummated — 

 nay, it even aids thern; and then it ofi'ers an inade- 

 (piate remedy for the injury, by giving aa action 

 lor damages. It ought, rather, by refusing to 

 grant interfering patents, to render prosecution.^ 

 unnecessary. Instead of sanctioning the wrong 

 b}' granting the privilege to commit it, it should 

 arrest injury and injustice at the threshold, and put 

 an end to litigation before it begins. 



Important and interesting as the Patent Office 

 is now considered, it is believed that, under such 

 new organization as is contemplated by the bill 

 presented here-wilh, it will contribute largely to 

 the great interests of the country, and bear no 

 small part in elevating our national character, 

 American ingenuity has obtained much consider- 

 ation on the other side of the Atlantic. Even the 

 manufactures of England are not a little indebted 

 to it for some of their most valuable improvements. 

 Her woolen manufactures, especially, have, with- 

 in a few years, undergone an entire change, by 

 the adoption of American inventions, by which 

 wool has been made as yielding and submissive to 

 the power of machinery as any material whatever. 

 Cotton machinery has also been greatl)^ improved 

 in the hands of our mechanics; and while Eng- 

 land receives from us three fourths of the cotton 

 she uses in raw material, we furnish her also with 

 ?ome of the most valuable improvements in the 

 means of manutacturing it. Indeed, what mech- 

 anism or manufacture has, for the last twenty 

 years, been brought across the Atlantic, that has 

 not, on being returned, borne the distinguished 

 marks of the superior ingeimity of American me- 

 chanists? Formerly, we borrowed and copied 

 much that was valuable from Europe. Now, Eu- 

 rope is borrowing and copying, with no little ad- 

 vantage, from us; and she must not be too much 

 surprised if she shall soon find a formidable bal- 

 ance aizainst her. 



