SCIENCE 



NEW YORK, JANUARY 39, 1893. 



THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF INVENTORS 

 AND MANUFACTURERS. 



Few occurrences of public interest have recently taken 

 place which have been of greater moment to the people and 

 to the nation as a whole, and. few have attracted less public 

 attention than that which was held in Washington in answer 

 to the call of Mr. Watkins, on the 19th of January, — the 

 meeting of the American Association of Inventors and Manu- 

 facturers. Organized a year ago, nearly, and composed of 

 inventors like Dr. Gatling, Mr. Charles F. Brush, E. E. 

 Sickles; business men like Mr. Gardiner G. Hubbard and 

 Oberlin Smith ; public men like General Butterworth and 

 O. T. Mason; and scientific men like Professors Anthony 

 and Thurston, and backed by the Commissioner of Patents, 

 -this association should have some interest for the people at 

 large and for the journalists who represent the people. Its 

 first meeting was opened by the president and attended by 

 the whole bench of the Supreme Court, and its addresses 

 during its several days' sessions were given by the most dis- 

 tinguished men of science and greatest inventors of the 

 country. 



The purposes of this organization are declared to be : To 

 promote the progress of science and useful arts (Constitution 

 U. S., i., 8). The diffusion of practical, scientific, and legal 

 information respecting inventions. The encouragement of 

 favorable and the discouragement of unfavorable laws re- 

 specting property in patents. To secure the co-operation of 

 foreign inventors for reciprocal regulations under patent 

 systems. The proper, just, and adequate protection of the 

 rights of American inventors authorized by the Constitution 

 of the United States. Any person in sympathy with the 

 objects of the association is eligible to membership under 

 conditions stated in the constitution upon the payment of a 

 membership fee of five dollars for the first year. No initia- 

 tion fee is charged. To the executive council, composed of 

 the seven officers and the nine directors of the association, 

 has been assigned the duty of completing the organization, 

 begun with so much earnestness at Washington. 



Its first meeting was held on the centennial of the signing 

 by George Washington of the first patent law of the United 

 States, the beginning of national industrial prosperity. As 

 is well said in the call lately issued for the second meet- 

 ing : — 



"The celebration of the beginning of the second century 

 of our American patent system was the outgrowth of a spon- 

 taneous desire to recognize publicly the benefits which that 

 system has conferred upon our nation and upon the world. 



"Eminent inventors, statesmen, and scholars from all 

 parts of the Union met together to express their appreciation 

 of the merits of that system, which has lightened the toil of 

 the farmer, shortened the working hours of the mechanic, 

 added to the safety of the miner, and lifted the burden from 

 the household drudge. 



"The monument then erected on the boundary line be- 

 tween two centuries, embellished by the best thoughts of 



such gifted minds, will endure so long as the libraries of the 

 world shall preserve the record of their tribute to American 

 genius. 



" While existing laws have encouraged and do now stimu- 

 late the creation of intellectual property and do throw safe- 

 guards around its ownership, yet the fact remains that neither 

 the real inventor nor the author has been adequately pro- 

 tected in his rights. 



"This state of affairs has resulted from the fact that the 

 inventors of the country have never thoroughly organized 

 themselves for mutual protection nor brought concerted 

 effort to bear upon their representatives in Congress, to the 

 end that proper laws should be enacted, nor have they 

 heartily supported the officials of the Government in their 

 attempts to secure adequate facilities for carrying out present 

 regulations. Hence the system, even as it exists, has been 

 preserved with great effort, and even now is handicapped by 

 some conditions that are not encouraging. 



" It may be true that the patent system, in a few instances, 

 has had an unfavorable effect upon certain sections of the 

 country and upon some occupations, and that some owners 

 of useful patents have demanded greater profit for their in- 

 ventions than was consistent with the public good. But 

 such evils, if they exist, can best be remedied by intelligent 

 discussion among those who have a vital interest in the 

 things themselves. 



"The people at large and their representatives need to be 

 impressed with the fact that it is to the epoch-making inven- 

 tions of the century that our country owes its high position 

 among the civilized nations of the world." 



The patent system so auspiciously inaugurated by the 

 greatest and first of our presidents has been intermittently 

 promoted and sometimes obstructed in its operation by that 

 alternation in power of friends and enemies — or lukewarm 

 friends — which so generally characterizes the action of a 

 popular government, and that of the United States no less 

 than those of minor countries. In its best estate, however,, 

 it has never done the best that it might for either the inventor 

 or the nation. During the last few years, its operation has 

 been shamefully embarrassed and the interests of the country 

 have been greatly injured, while those of the inventor and 

 his rightful claims upon the country have been no less 

 seriously affected, in consequence of the utter neglect of this 

 great department by Congress, and the refusal of the national 

 legislature to provide it with respectable quarters and suffi- 

 cient working force. 



In many cases, applications of immense importance to the 

 industrial interests of the nation have been kept in the office 

 for many months, through the utter inability of the working 

 force to keep itself up with the business of the office. 



The annual report of the Commissioner of Patents to Con- 

 gress dated Jan. 1, 1891, calls attention to the lack of suffi- 

 cient examining force and to the need of more office room. 

 The commissioner remarks that "the pace kept up in the 

 patent office now, as in all recent years, is inconsistent with 

 that high degree of care which the patent system calls for," 

 and that "a patent should evidence such painstaking in ex- 

 amination that upon its face it should warrant a preliminary 



