First Patent Was Issued 150 Years Ago,-
Since Then Uncle Sam Has Granted More
Than 2,000,000 to His Inventive Sons
Hundreds of Rare Objects
Dug Up at Site of
Indian Graves.
PHILADELPHIA -Several hun
dred gold objects of “exquisite
workmanship," representing an ad
vanced pre-Colombian culture and
described as “comprising one of the
richest finds ever made by a scien
tific expedition working in the West
ern hemisphere." have been dug up I
at the site of an Indian burial ground
in Panama by archeologists from i
the Museum of the University of
Pennsylvania and will be put on
exhibition at the museum
According to Dr J Alden Mason,
curator of the museum's American
section, the Spanish conquerors tn
the Sixteenth century obtained “tre
mendous quantities" of gold orna
ments of this kind but melted most
of them down and shipped the metal
to Spain.
The gold relics, together with
Landlubber« from colleges all over the United States (above leftl are lined up In civilian i lolhes In New
many pottery and stone objects, York city as thev prepare io participate in a program of training 600 young men for naval reserve ensign
were recovered at the Sitio Conte, commissions. A boatload of reservists (center* shown on their way out to the 1!. S. S. Wyoming, the training
or Conte-Site. in the Province of ship Right. Robert Morgenthau, son of the secretary of the treasury. Is pictured in formation with other re-
Cocle. about a hundred miles west servisla after donning the uniform of an apprentice seaman.
of Panama City and 10 miles from
the Pacific ocean.
By ELMO SCOTT W ATSON
i. ..teamed by Western Newspaper Union » '
JULY 31 of this year marks
the 150th anniversary of
a red letter day on the
American calendar. It
was not the date of a great
military or naval victory nor
of a significant event in our
social or political history.
What took place on that
day does not, in itself, seem
important. For it was simply
this: On July 31, 1790, the
United States of America
granted to one Samuel Hop
kins of Vermont a patent for
a method of making “Pot and
Pearl Ashes.” But this was
the first of more than 2,000,000
patents which have been is
sued since that time, and
written between the lines of
the records of those 2.000.000
patents is the story of the in
ventive^ genius which has
made possible an economic
system capitalized at billions
of dollars and has given the
United States its position as
the greatest industrial and
business nation in the world.
Find Panama Is Landlubbers V ill Be U. S. Ensigns Bye and Bye
Rich in Relics
Found With Skeletons.
An employee of U Smithsonian institution holds the model of an
invention which was an “improvement in the method of lifting vessels
over skoals." The patent, issued May 82. 1849. was granted to
an inventor from Illinois, named Abraham Lincoln. (Yes, THE
Abraham Lincoln.)
lected and he was given a salary the destruction wrought by the
of $1,400 a year, allowed a clerk fire of 1877, there was such a
The American patent system at $500 and a messenger at $72 a great stock of them on hand that
had its genesis in that “Yankee year Later Thornton was given their storage became a problem.
ingenuity" which began to mani the title of commissioner and re In 1925 congress passed an act
fest itself early in the history of moved the office to “Croker’s 2 changing requirements for getting
English colonization of North story house” on Eighth street. a patent.
Instead of requiring models and
America. Nearly 300 years ago Again m 1810 the patent office
(in October. 1641) the Massa was moved, this time to a famous keeping them for inspection by
chusetts Bay colony granted to hotel. Blodgett’s on E. street, prospective inventors, drawings
Samuel Winslow a patent “for a where it shared quarters with the and specifications of all patented
inventions are now printed in
period of 10 years, for a new post office department.
small pamphlets which may be
Thornton's Great Service.
method of manufacturing salt.” •
This was followed by similar
Thornton deserves to be re purchased at a small cost and
However,
grants in other colonies, but membered gratefully by his coun studied at leisure.
mainly in New England, to pro trymen for a deed which he per- I thousands of scientists, engi
mote the manufacture of iron, formed during the War of 1812. neers, scholars and others visit
the building of grist mills and When a British force captured tlie examining room of the patent
various other enterprises neces Washington in 1814 and began office in the Commerce building
sary for the development of in burning the public buildings, to pore over its records, for here
dustry along with agriculture Thornton went to the British ma- | is the largest single source of
and trade.
jor who was in charge of the scientific information in the
world.
So, when the new nation was burning in that section of the city,
Roll Call of Fame.
established, the Foundin’ Fa and pleaded his case so earnestly
There the visitor may read
thers determined to include is ♦hat the patent office with its rec the contemporary records of in
the laws of the land statutes ords and models were spared. ventions which have profoundly
winch would encourage invention Twenty-two years later a fot .e affected the course of history, not
and protect the inventor. During against which his eloquence only in America but in the whole
the
Constitutional
convention would have been unavailing nul- I world. There he may be remind
James Madison of Virginia and lifted his patriotic effort.
ed again of the inventors whose
In 1836. during the administra fame ranks with our statesmen
Charles C Pinckney of South
Carolina offered the first pro tion of H. L. Ellsworth, who be and military and naval heroes.
posals for patent and copyright came commissioner of patents Beginning with Eli Whitney and
laws. These suggestions, which upon Thornton’s death in 1828, a his cotton gm, they include such
received the indorsement and fire swept through the patent of names as McCormick and his
encouragement of Thomas Jef fice and destroyed the accumu reaper, Morse and the telegraph.
ferson and George Washington, lation of 7,000 models and all the Bell and the telephone, Fulton
resulted in congress passing an records excepting one book. For and the steamboat, Sholes and
act on August 17, 1789. which gov tunately, a clerk had taken that the typewriter. Westinghouse and
erned the issuance of both pat book home the night before the the air brake. Thomas A. Edison
ents and copyrights
and a score of inventions which
Jefferson. Patent Examiner.
gave to the world more than
$3,000,000,000 of new property;
During the first session of con
and Orville and Wilbur Wright
gress, applications for patents
and the airplane.
were filed by 15 inventors. At the
Incidentally, away back in 1822
second session it was decided to
a Philadelphia mathematician
separate the two “rights" in the
named James Bennett presented
first law and on April 10, 1790,
to congress this statement:
the first law, applying only to pat
"That your petitioner, having
ents, was enacted. Jurisdiction
invented a machine by which a
over applications under this law
man can fly through the air—can
was given to the "Commissioners
soar to any height—steer in any
for the Promotion of Useful Arts."
direction—can start from any
They were three members of
place and light without risk of
Washington’s cabinet — Thomas
injury; and, whereas, a like ma
Jefferson, secretary of state;
chine has never been invented in
Henry Knox, secretary of war.
any country or age of the world,
and Edmund Randolph, attorney
so as to be applied to purposes
general—and the task of admin
of practical utility, and it is more
istering the patent law was as- .
than probable that artificial fly
signed to the State department.
ing would not for a hundred years
So Jefferson became in effect the
first patent examiner and his
Drawings of the parts which to come, be brought to the same
staff for this work consisted of a made up Eli Whitney's cotton gin. degree of perfection, had not your
petitioner, under Providence, ac
single clerk.
Of the 15 applications made dur fire. As the result of this dis complished it; and, as it must be
ing the first year, three patents aster a new patent office build evident to all that letters patent
were granted. The first went to ing was erected at F and Ninth would be of little use to the in
Samuel Hopkins for his method streets, Northwest, and it served ventor m consequence of various
of making "Pot and Pearl i as the home of the patent office modifications or improvements
Ashes.” the second was for a ma until 1932 when all departments which might be made, and which
chine to make candles, flour and of the office were moved to the never would have been thought of
meal (a queer combination, that!) ! new Commerce building, erected had not the way first been opened
and the third for a method of during the administration of Pres by your petitioner. He therefore
ident Hoover, former secretary of solicits a special act of the Con
making punches for type.
commerce.
gress of the United States to se
The remaining 12. granted in
Incidentally, the patent office is cure to him and his heirs for the
1791, were for the following: Im
the father of the department of term of 40 years, or for such
provement m distilling methods,
agriculture because m 1839 the other term as in their wisdom
driving piles for bridges, a thresh
commissioner of patents was giv may be deemed just, the right of
ing machine, a machine for
en the duty of collecting and pub steering flying machines through
breaking hemp, a marble cutter
lishing farm statistics and for that portion of the earth's at
and polisher, a tide mill, a ma many years patent office funds mosphere which presses on the
chine for making nails and thresh
were used to distribute free seeds United States, or so far as their
ing wheat (another queer combi to the farmers. This arrange
jurisdiction may extend.
By
nation!), a method of diminish
ment continued until 1862 when granting your petitioner’s re
ing spindle friction, a formula for the present department of agri quest, the honor of the invention
making an extract of barks, an culture was founded. The patent shall be conferred on the United
improved bedstead, a method of office, with the Smithsonian in
States.
making boots, and a method of stitution also served as the of
Bennett's petition was passed
using cattle for propelling boats.
ficial United States weather bu back and forth between various
Under this first act a total of 57
reau for a time. Its duties over committees m congress Then he
patents were granted.
lapped into the agricultural field was notified that no action would
When the seat of government again in 1930 wnjn it was au be taken oi. it because the mem
was moved to the new capital on thorized to issue patents for new bers "had so much business of a
tlie Potomac, Washington City, sorts of plants in the "Plant Pat terrestrial character before them
in 1800 the patent office equip ent" bill for which Luther Bur that they felt this matter above
ment, records and models were bank, the "plant wizard" and their reach,”
Thereby they
loaded on a boat and sailed to Thomas A. Edison did some ef proved themselves "bum guess-
Georgetown where they were cart fective lobby mg.
ers” indeed—much worse than
ed to the new quarters on Penn
In 1877 a second fire took its Bennett. He missed it by only
sylvania avenue, between Nine toll of more than 200.000 models 14 years. He had said that "ar
teenth and Twentieth streets, at a damaged or destroyed and three tificial flying” would not be per
coat to the government of $208
yean later the patent office dis fected for "a hundred years to
As the patent office grew, it continued its practice of requir come.”
became necessary to appoint a ing in ven tors to submit models
The date of the Wrights first
superintendent to direct its work
along with their applications for successful flight at Kitty Hawk,
J W Thornton was the man *e- patents. By this time, even with N. C , was 19081
At least half of the gold objects
found by the expedition came from
1 of 23 skeletons in three levels of
a single grave. Presumably that
of a chief, it had five of the large ■
plaques or disks, as well as five
smaller disks of thinner gold but
also with ornate pictorial repousse
ornamentation, and 30 small, thin
gold disks with simple designs. Dr
Mason pointed out that --'ports of
the Spanish Conquest stated that
the chiefs wore gold disks in battle.
On the skeleton of the same tribal
ehief who wore the 40 gold disks lay
a pendant of heavy gold more than
four inches long, in the form of an
ornate animal figure, "probably a
conventionalized crocodile." with an
emerald about an inch in diameter
set in its back. Dr Mason called
this "one of the most beautiful and
extraordinary gold objects ever
found in America.”
"The use of precious stones in a
setting of gold." he said, "is ex
tremely unusual in native American
cultures and few examples are
known. The emerald is not of great
commercial value and was probably
obtained in Colombia.”
Tms same chieftain also wore
wristlets and anklets, including a
beautiful pair of cuffs of solid heavy
gold seven inches long.
Interesting Objects.
In the opinion of Dr Mason some
of the moat interesting objects found
were animals and human figures of
carved bone, ivory or rosen. with
features such as feet, tails, wings
and heads of gold applied to them
as onlays.
"These,” be said, "are very fra
gile though very beautiful and re
quired careful museum treatment
before exhibition. The ivory em
ployed apparently came from the
teeth of trie sperm whale or manati
ribs.
Other typical objects are
whale teetn with heads or ferrules
of gold.”
Hundreds of stone axheads and
thousands of projectile points, along
with several teeth of a fossil shark .
"which were apparently found in the
Cretaceous strata and preserved as
fetishes" comprised other discov
eries of the expedition.
The burying place at which the
members worked apparently cov
ers four or five acres and presum
ably was reserved for the nobility,
chiefs, their wives and servants.
Australians Turning Out Guns for tlie Empire
Straining every nerve to aid the mother country in her hour of need, Australian factory workers are toil
ing day and night turning out tanks, planes, guan and ammunition that will be used In the defense of Orest
Britain. Above is a scene in a Melbourne factory where gun parta are manufactured for shipment by sea to
porta in the I nited Kingdom where they will be assembled and turned over to thr defending British army.
They’re Ready to Learn American Ways
Cleared by FBI
Bobcat a* Deer Slayer
It Declared Not Guilty
SHINGLETON MICH — An experi
ment conducted by the Michigan
conservation department at the Cu-
smo game area near here indicates
that the evil reputation of bobcats
in the minds of deer hunters may
be undeserved
S C. Whitlock pathologist in the
game division, said he had not found
a single instance of a deer being
killed by a cat in four years of
feeding experiments. He has per
sonal knowledge of one instance
where bobcats passed through a one-
acre fenced plot in a natural deer
yard in a swamp and apparently
paid no attention to the five deer,
two of them fawns.
Haf? from th? horror* of war are these three children of Maj. Arthur
Lockhart of the British army who landed in New York city recently.
They were members of another band of refugee British children seeking
a haven in the I nited Stales. Their father is an officer in the King’s
Hussars, now fighting for England against thr Axis powers The young
refugees are being cared for by relatives in America.
Even the Experts Spill Sometimes
Carl Byoir, New York public rela
tions counsel who was cleared of
charge* made by Rep. Wright Pat
man of Texas that he had engaged
in un-American activities. The de
partment of justice dec lared that an
FBI investigation “disclosed no evi
dence whatever” to support the ak
legation.
Literary Exile
Census Deflates Quip
Of Small Missouri Town
KING CITY. MO —For 10 y-an
King City residents used a catchy
quip to reply to questions of visitors
regarding the town s population.
"It's 1.101 and I m the one," was
the stock answer.
Now nil that will be changed. The
1940 census count lists the popula
tion at 1.100
So many claimed to be "the” one
that something had to be done about
it—that was the theory of one census
taker.
Judge Fines Both Drivers
After Head-on Collision
HAGERSTOWN. MD —Magistrate
E H. Miller believed both drivers
involved in a nead-on crash. Vic
tor B Wolfe, 19 years old. and Her
man J. Kuhn. 27, eacn said the other
was over the center line In the road
when their cars collided.
Judge
Miller fined them both.
Proving that even the moot expert of expert« will «pill once in a
while. Ed Htanley takes a header during a practice run for the annual
Cstalina-HermossManhsttsn beach aquaplane race at Hermosa beach,
Calif. Still upright and riding high is Bob Brown, who won the race
three years ags. The event draws the champion aquapiantata of the Pa-
cibc coast each year.
Hi* long hair put up in a net.
Maurice Maeterlinck, famous Bel
gian author of “The Bluebird,'* la
shown soon after hi* arrival In the
('nited Slates as a war refugee. foL
lowinr the German triumph.