American telegraph. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1851-1851, 1851-09-01
But We do charge

tnat tnere Is no suitable law to prevent IT, II al
examiner could be found bad enough to make
the attempt
1t is certain, also, that the present patent
laws vest in the commissioner very great and
dangerous power, that Of granting or refusing
to grant an extensi ON for seven years Of a pat
emit, worth, say, haGa million Of dollars which
ought not to be welded by any man, however
pure and upright he might be.
During the last two sessions of Congress, a
great many persons, b, ,siness houses and firms,
petitioned and memorial Ied the Lawmakers of
the country to amend the patent laws. A con-
yentlon Of patent lawyers, l'atentees and inven-
tors had attempted to frame amendments which
would give security to inventors and protect the
public interest. Their labors aud suggestions
were respectfully submitted to TIE Committee
on Patents in the United States Senate. After
due deliberation, that committee reported bill
to annul the patent laws. That bill was de-
feated by the extraordinary exertions of William
IL. Seward, John p Hale, and Jefferson Davis
Mr.. Senator Seward, it is well understood is
the retained counsel, as patent lawyer, of the
Goodyear and Judson monopoly, as well as Of
some other wealthy monopolies. 1t is repre-
sented that his fees as retained counsel for
these monopolies amount to $4,000 per an
mum. !, We, however, do not vouch for this fact.
But the reader, who peruses Doctor Bacons
bill, will now see why Senator Seward was so
anxious and earnest, at the last session of Con-
gress, that the patent laws should not be amend
ed His employers were at work. Just and
impartial patent laws might conflict with their
monopoly.
Among those who were most earnest and
conspicuous in their honest endeayors to get
the patent laws amended was Horace H. Day,
ESQ.,, q very extensive manufacturer of, and
dealer in, India rubber goods, whose store is in
CORTLAND street, New York city. 1t will be
seen, by Doctor Bacon's bill, how Mr.. Day was
singled out by Doctor Bacon's employer to be
traduced and maligned. Mr.. Day, with other
heavy India rubber manufacturers had pub
lished pamphlet, which exposed to the Presi-
dent and to the world the gross and glaring
wrong done by the Commissioner of Patents, in
granting, against light and knowledge, against
law and against justice, for the benefit Of the
Goodyear and Judson monopoly, an extension,
for seven years, of the Cha6ee patent--worth,
as Chaffee made oath, a quarter Of million of
dolIarsi
The invention which Chatfee got patented in
1886, for the Eoxbury Manufacturing Company,
in whose employ he then was, had been in use
by DR.. j. l. Howe, of New York, as early as
1929, and by Mr.. Atkinson, of Lowell Mass,
in 1882. 1t cost Chaffee nothing, as the Rox-
bury Company paid all expenses for obtaining
the patent and making experiments. He swore,
in his testimony, that he received 49, 900 Of the
Roxbury Company for his invention The COM
pany afterwards sold it out, "stalk, lock, and
fuke," for one dollar and twenty-five cents. They
had got tired of it. The Chaffee patent was
sold afterwards, or assigned to four different
persons Finally, Charles Goodyear purchased
it for $25. The Goodyear and Judson mo-
nopoly bargained with Chaffee to petition for
its extension for seven years from the 30th of
August, 1850, the time the patent was to e1-
pire and become the property of the public
Chaffee complied and the Commissioner, willing
to act officially for the Goodyear and Judson
monopoly, and against the public interest,
granted the extension asked for!
Mr.. Day and his associates did well to expose
the transaction. For that and for the manly,
independent stand he has taken in behalf of his
just rights, HORACE II. DAY has been more
annoyed, prosecuted, traduced, and proceeded
against in courts of law, than any other man
we know of in this wide world of ours. But
such q man-able, vigorous, yet young, con-
scious of being right, active, energetic, self
made, courteous, and calculated to make warm
friends wherever he moves, cannot be put down
in this free and enlightened country. The
monopoly against him has brought him into
court in forty suits, more or less, and caused
him to expend some forty thousand dollars for
lawyers and witnesses; but, we believe have
never yet thrown him, or caused him to come
off second best