X-Patent
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The X-Patents are all the patents issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office from July 1790 (when the first U.S. patent was issued), to July 1836. The actual number is unknown, but the best estimate is 9,957. They were burned in a fire, in December 1836, while in temporary storage. No copies or rosters were maintained by the government at the time, leaving only the inventors' copies to reconstruct the collection.
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[edit] The USPTO and its earliest days
The Patent Commission of the U.S. was created in 1790. Its first three members were Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of War Henry Knox, and Attorney General Edmund Randolph.
On July 31, 1790 inventor Samuel Hopkins of Pittsford, Vermont became the first person to be issued a patent in the United States. His patented invention was an improvement in the "making of Pot Ash by a new apparatus & process.". The earliest patent law required that a working model of each invention be produced in miniature.
The Patent Law was revised for the first time in 1793. It adopted a simple registration system where a patent would be granted for a $30 fee. The Patent Board was replaced by a clerk in the Department of State. James Madison, Secretary of State, created a separate Patent Office within the State Department and he appointed Dr. William Thornton as its first superintendent in May 1802.
The Patent Office was the only major government building to survive the British invasion of Washington, D.C. during the War of 1812. This is credited to a musician who had offices in the Patent Office building and persuaded British officers that they would be destroying the shared intellectual record of mankind if the patents were burned.
[edit] The 1836 fire
The disastrous fire occurred on December 15, 1836, when the patents were in temporary storage while a new (more fireproof) facility was being built. A fire station was next to the temporary storage, but the hoses and pumps were frozen, and firemen were unable to prevent the loss.
[edit] Recovery of the X-Patents
The United States Congress immediately passed a law to aid re-issuing of the missing patents after the fire. About 2,800 such patents have been recovered, and 1,989 are online.
Following the 1836 fire, a serial numbering system was instituted. This system is still in use today. When an earlier patent was recovered and re-issued, the USPTO sometimes gave it a fractional number (eg. 2960 1/2X, issued on June 2, 1818; 8736 3/4X, issued on March 27, 1835) to preserve the correct sequence. Most, but not all, fractional patents are X-Patents.
Prior to this, U.S. patents were identified by titles and dates. Since then, all new patents issued are preserved and given a serial patent number started from 1. The recovered patents are also numbered from 1, however, these numbers end with an "X". Therefore, they are called X-Patents.
The latest X-Patents were recovered in 2004 from the Dartmouth College archives. Of the 14 found, 10 were granted to Samuel Morey including the first known patent for an internal combustion engine.
[edit] A list of some X-Patents
| Patent | Invention | Inventor | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1X | Potash production | Samuel Hopkins | July 31 1790 |
| 72X | Cotton Gin | Eli Whitney | March 14 1794 |
| 4378X | Gas Or Vapor Engine | Samuel Morey | April 1 1826 |
| 9000X | Grate | N. Winslow | July 2 1836 |
| 9899X | Brick Machine | C. Waterman | July 2 1836 |
| 9894X | Plow Moldboard | I. Snider | July 2 1836 |
| 9893X | Lock | A. Roff | July 2 1836 |
| 9890X | Thrashing Mach. | A. Parson | July 2 1836 |
| 9889X | Cook Stove | W. Parmalee | July 2 1836 |
| 9887X | Plow | T. Miller | July 2 1836 |
| 9886X | Dressing Stares | C. McGregory | July 2 1836 |
| 9885X | Cotton Gin | J. McCreight | July 2 1836 |
| 9884X | Door Lock | J. Mo Clory | July 2 1836 |
| 9882X | Clover Huller | W. Loomis | July 2 1836 |
| 9879X | Feather Dresser | F.P.Knowlton | July 2 1836 |
| 9878X | Platform Balanoe | J. Horton | July 2 1836 |
| 9877X | Nail Extractor | R. Haynes | July 2 1836 |
| 9876X | Cotton Press | H.G. Guyon | July 2 1836 |
| 9875X | Cook Stove | C. Granger | July 2 1836 |
[edit] External links
- X-Patents Online at USPTO Website
- Great Patent Fire of 1836
- New York Times article on the 2004 recovery of 14 X-Patents
- Interesting Patent Events
- The U.S. Patent No. 1X
- "Patent Models' Strange Odyssey" by Teresa Riordan, The New York Times, February 18, 2002.
- Early patent records found in library
