The New Patent Office, Washington
The building of which we here give a representation, is a depository for the models of such inventions as are patented in the United States. The old patent office was burnt down a few years ago, and this has just been erected. It is a handsome and extensive edifice, and well adapted to the purpose for which it is designed.
The contents of this building display in an eminent degree the inventive and ingenious character of our countrymen, and especially of the New England people, for a large proportion of the models here collected are furnished by New England men. There are machines here for almost every purpose under the sun. There are ploughs, and harrows, and coffee-mills, and saws, and water-wheels, and rakes, and corn-shellers, and stump-removers, and a multitude of other things, all arranged according to their kinds. In one part are agricultural implements; in another, are machines for the manufacture of cotton; in another, those for the manufacture of wool, &c. The number of these inventions amounts to many hundreds, and some of them display admirable skill and contrivance on the part of the inventors.
Perhaps some of my readers hardly know why these things are collected in a great building at Washington. I will endeavor to make them understand it. If a man contrives a plough, which is on a new principle, he may send a model of it to the superintendent of the patent office, and he will grant him Letters Patent, which set forth that such a model has been so deposited, according to an act of Congress. This being done, the inventor has the sole right to make and sell said ploughs, and have the profit arising from the same. Thus he has what is called a “Patent Right” for the plough he has invented.
The reason why the government grants such patents is this: if a man who invents good and useful things can have the advantage of their sale, he will be encouraged to invent more useful things, and thus society will be benefited.
The utility of some inventions to mankind, is immense. Robert Fulton, of New York, about thirty years ago, invented a steam engine that would propel a steamboat through the water. This led to steam navigation, which is the greatest improvement of modern times. A man in England contrived an engine that would drive a car upon a rail-road track, and thus rail-roads came into use. Eli Whitney, of Connecticut, about forty years ago, contrived a cotton gin, for separating the seed from the cotton, which saved a vast deal of labor, and reduced the price of cotton one half. Thus it is that ingenious inventions improve the condition of mankind. But many of these inventions cost vast labor and expense to perfect them. Fulton spent several years and thousands of dollars before he completed his steamboat. Therefore it is that, in most cases, men could not and would not produce these useful contrivances, if the result of their toil and expense could not be secured to them. Therefore we see that there is good reason for giving them encouragement by granting patents. By means of these patents, good clothes, good food, good houses, good roads, good means of travelling, become cheaper and easier to be got, and, therefore, it benefits everybody to have government promote useful inventions by granting patents.