186 2''EAXS.iCTioxs OF THE American Institute. 



said that the fact which I noticed in my boyhood may be noticed now. 

 You cannot walk througli any of these aisles, without finding in every 

 niche, upon every table, above and around you, articles which have 

 themselves been patented or are the product of patented processes or 

 machines. I suppose, if upon your outer wall a banner were dis- 

 played, announcing that no article would be received for exhibition 

 with the creation of which letter's patent had nothing to do, that 

 very few of the many things upon exhibition here to-night would be 

 stopped at the threshold by the prohibition. For this result, this and 

 kindred institutes and associations are, in part, responsible ; a respon- 

 sibility, let me hasten to say, for which they need in nowise be 

 ashamed. These great exhibitions — displays — advertisements — as I 

 think one of your papers has called them, have made many an inven- 

 tion familiar to the public that would otherwise have remained 

 unknown ; have given many an impulse to some halting enterprise that 

 would otherwise have failed to reach the goal ; have called capital to the 

 aid of genius, by showing to capital where it might profitably be 

 employed. Many an inventor has grown famous, and many a manu- 

 facturer rich, througli the medium of your expositions, the awards of 

 your juries and the distribution of your diplomas and medals. The 

 work of the patent office, and of all such societies as this, is one. It 

 has for its purpose the protection and development of the inventive 

 genius of our country, "We are moi*e especially charged with protec- 

 tion, you with development, or, as I suppose you would prefer to 

 phrase it, our motto is, " Protection to American genius," while yours 

 is " Protection to American industry." How both have prospered 

 in their work may be learned by comparison of the earlier fairs of the 

 Society with the present, and by a glance at the patent office reports. 

 During the forty years that this Institute has been in existence, the 

 department of huge vegetables, and of quilts with wonderful patch- 

 work, has become sensibly smaller, while that of wonderful labor- 

 gaving machines and beautifully-wrouglit fabrics has become sensiblj 

 greater. ( I believe I have seen a solitary pumpkin to-day.) In the 

 days when I gazed with deliglit upon Mr. Edge's fireworks, the click 

 of the sewing machine was never heard ; electricity had not yet con- 

 descended to come out of the lecture room and enter the lists as a 

 practical science ; India-rubber, liard and soft, with its inani fold appli- 

 cations, was a mere black and sticky plaster for shoes and ugly over- 

 coats. We had the steam engine, as it came from "Watt, and the 

 steaml)oat as it was left bv Fulton. As for these l)eantiful textiles, it 



