A patent gives the inventor the exclusive right to manufacture, sell, and use the patented article for a period of seventeen years.
A copyright, which is somewhat similar to a patent, gives the author of a book the exclusive right to print, publish, and sell it for a period of twenty-eight years, with the privilege at the expiration of that time of renewing for twenty-eight years more.
An inventor or author may sell a patent or copyright, as well as other property.
The commissioner of education investigates the condition and progress of education in the several States and Territories, and collects information relating to schools, school systems, and methods of teaching. The facts collected are distributed among the people in annual reports published by the office.
The director of the geological survey sends out parties of scientific men, who explore various parts of the Union, trace the sources of rivers, measure the heights of lands, and gather other facts relating to the natural resources of the country. He publishes excellent maps of the regions that have been explored.
DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE.--The attorney-general presides over the department of justice. He is the chief law officer of the government, and the legal adviser of all the departments. He is assisted by the solicitor-general, who is the second officer in rank; by nine assistant attorney-generals, and by several solicitors for particular departments. The department of justice conducts before the supreme court all suits to which the United States is a party; conducts suits arising in any of the departments, when requested by the head thereof; exercises supervision over the district attorneys and marshals of the United States district courts; examines the titles of lands proposed to be purchased by the United States, as sites for forts, arsenals, barracks, dockyards, customhouses, post-offices, and other public purposes; examines and reports upon applications for judicial offices and other positions requiring legal ability.
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE.--The department of agriculture was reorganized in 1889. Previous to that time it had been a bureau of the interior department. The secretary of agriculture is the chief officer of the department of agriculture.
This department collects and diffuses among the people useful knowledge relating to agriculture and agricultural products. Experiments are conducted upon farm and garden products, and the seeds of choice varieties are distributed among the people. Similar attention is given to stock-raising and the care of forests. The bureau of chemistry assists in the enforcement of the pure food law.
The department also includes the weather bureau, which collects and publishes telegraphic reports of storms and the condition of the weather, in the interest of agriculture and commerce.
DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE.--The department of commerce and labor was created in 1903, and ten years later was divided into two departments. The secretary of commerce presides over the department of commerce. Its duty is to promote and develop commerce, mining, manufacturing, and fisheries. It collects and publishes facts and figures on all these subjects; supplies exactly true weights and measures for any one to copy; controls stations for stocking waters with valuable fish; inspects and licenses steamships, rejecting any that are unseaworthy; surveys the seacoast of the United States, and maintains lighthouses at dangerous points.