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PATENT OFFICE PEOPLE*Ion:onbatrunWe clip the following racy description of our Patent Office and its workings from the Washington correspond-’boc ence of the Missouri Democrat: j ^The father-in-law of your Senator, or 1 Henderson, Mr. Elisha Foote, seems to ant] be handling the Patent Office with abil-j8}al lty., It is the current belief in Wash-ifim ington that this department of the Gov- tha eminent Is not without corruption, but !^ut the agents and lawyers w hose offices He the in its environs, and who are at theirf^ mercy of its examiners, are charry to t speak, much of their bread and butter - |Da being bound tip In the good will of the ; directory. A partial awarding of pat-ifou tents, in the interest of money Instead xvit i of merit, involves unjust millions ofjhig ; dollars, besides discouraging inventors J set , and making them doubt the righteous-jxhi 1 ties* of the government. ' With a cor- eDt I rapt Patent Office, infinite law suits ar- !abc rise, and yet it is probable that money 0id is freely used wit hin the precincts of j that building, the claims of inventors \ j, who are willing to pay being consider- aui ed in many gross cases beyond those of 11,5, the needy. So is there preference among the patent agents—those who solicit patents—some being understood to have the ears Of the office at their dis-Yo1.fouposal, others failing to secure patentssir.toll to twhich are afterwards willingly granted | to contemporaries. One of the oldest patent lawyers in the city said to me a few days ago:“The Patent Office has been more or less corrupt for fifteen years! Yes! ft9], twenty I When I used to’ bean ants-ivo, slavery man, in the years of Pearce and anlt;! Buchanan, my clients were given to un-lpm derstand that they would be wise to ap- lt;* ply for patents bv sonic other agent, j Recently. I have known the changing I jialt; of the agent to get the patent promptly, ^ec The office cnight to Ik* thoroughly over- §f „hauled. It has become so that examiners expect to serve a brief term and goout rich.”Mrs. Foote, the wife of the Commissioner, is an inventor, whose patents have been profitable. She has invented a skate without straps, and several other things.Thaddeuti Ilyatt, once incarcerated in the District jail for a complicity which he affected to have with John Brown's raid, is now a successful inventor, his patent for glass-lights in pavements netting him a very large income.About fifty thousand patents have been issued in the United States in thirty years, the receipts for which in fees have been nearly two millions aud a half of dollars, while the British government has granted only about forty thousand patents in tw o hundred aud fitly years. This shows the extraordinary mental activity of the American mind iu mechanics, aud the Patent Office building, which has cost the Government no money, is the best monument to American shrewdness aud suggestiveness iu the worlu. Amongst nearly a hundred thousand models stored iu the splendid galleries of that institution, one may wander hi hopeless bewilderment, feeling that every model, however small, is the work of I some patient year, lifetime, and often r of many lifetimes—so that the entire contribution, if achieved by one mind, would have extended far into a human conception of an eternity of labor.The best patent lawyers iu the United States are Judge Curtis and Mr, Whiting of Boston, Messrs. Gafford and Keller of New York, George Harding of Philadelphia, and Mr. Latrobe of Baltimore. The practice of these will average $30,000 a year.The most successful firm of patentdewsir,littwolt;1Ionmabo’prlt;platheuseins11mCovitCO!dobinPinwliterShmithefan8uljolof a (1 atamthehir]iacstaW 9 ■■ up II Ml MO VI V»» W I I Ul Oago. One of its partners is one of the ancient enemies of Bennett, w ho classified them as “Old Moses Beach and those other sons of Beaches/' proprietors of the New York Sun. The other partners are Munn aud Wales. Their income is §50,000 a year to each partner, and they obtain one-third of all the patents issued, which are chiefly, however,* what are classified as “cheap patents,” or small and simple inventions. The Scientific American was started by an inventor named Rufus Porter, who sold out to the present firm. They refused to insert in it the cards of other patent agents, and it be-ln«r t.hp nnlv nnniM* nl‘ ils rltt-s. 1lie in.lately edited by Mr. McFarland, aud under his management, was altogether the best paper for inventors in the world. The Commissioners of Patents include some good names, chief of whom was Attorney General Holt, others being Ellsworth and Bishop ofConnecticut, Burke of New Hampshire, Eubank ot New York, Hooper of Vermont, Mason of Iowa and Theaker of Ohio.The Patent Office building is generally adjuged to be the most Imposing of all the national edifices at the capital. To my mind the Post Office is a better adaptation. The former was the j lit work of the present architect of the of^ ■ 14 4 4 V4 g 14« 4 V 4 • V O V » 4 4# V \4 4 • V V •»• »* 4 %• 44like aud magnificent* It is related here that inventors who spend many years among these models generally go crazy. Some day, at leisure, I will relate to you some striking cotemporary incidents of minds out of gear.Within the Patent Office building are also maintained the Bureau’s of Public Lands, Peusiona, Indian affairs and the Census. The Agricultural Department has now its separate building on the heights near the Smithsonian.
Newspaper Details
Emporia News
Emporia, Kansas, US
Fri, Nov 27, 1868
Page 1
Full Page
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Anonymous
USA 09 Jul 2022
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