The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1868-11-27
PATENT OFFICE PEOPLE.

PATENT OFFICE PEOPLE,
We clip the following racy descrip-
ton of our Patent Office and its work
ings from the Washington correspond
ence of the Missouri Democrat:
The father-in-law of your Senator,
Henderson, Nr. Elisha Foote, seems to
be handling the Patent Office with abil-
ity. 1t is the current belief in Wash
ingtom that this department of the Gov
eminent is not without corruption, but
the agents and lawyers whose offices lie
in its enVirons, and who are at the
mercy of its examiners, are charry to
speak, much of their bread and butter
being bound up in the good will of the
directory. A partial awarding of pat
tents, in the interest of money instead
of merit, involves unjust millions of
dollars, besides discouraging inventors
and making them doubt the righteous
ness OF the government. With cor
rupt Patent Office, infinite law suits ar
rise, and yet it is probable that money
is freely used within the precincts of
that building, the claims of inventors
who are willing to pay being consider
ed in many gross cases beyond those of
the needy. So is there preference
among the patent agents-thOse who So
licit patents-some being understood to
have the ears of the Office at their dis
posal, others falling to secure patents
which are afterwards willingly granted
to contemporaries. One of the oldest
patent lawyers in the city said to me a
few days ago:
'sThe Patent Office has been more or
less corrupt for fifteen years Yes 1!
twenty! When ] used to be an ants
slavery man, in the years of Pearce and
Buchanan, my clients were given to un-
derstand that they would be wise to APP
ply for patents by some other agent.
Recently, have known the. changing
of the agent to get the patent promptly.
The Office ought to be thoroughly over
hauled. 1t has become so that examin-
ers expect to serve brief term and go
out rich"
Mrs. Foote, the wife of the Commits
sioner, is an inventor, whose patents
have been profitable. She has invent
ed skate without straps, and several
other things. .,....
Thaddeus Hyatt, once incarcerated in
the District Jail for completely which
he affected to have with John Browns
raid, is now successful inventor, his
patent for glass-lights in pavements
netting him 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 and
half of dollars, while the British gov
eminent has granted only about forty
thousand patents in two hundred and
fifty years. This shows the extraordi-
nary mental activity of the American
mind in mechanics, and the Patent
Office building, which has cost the Gov
eminent no money, is the best mOnu-
ment to American shrewdness and sug-
gestiveness in the world. Amongst
nearly a hundred thousand models
stored in the splendid galleries of that
institution, one may wander in hope
| less bewilderment, feeling that every
model, however small, is the work OF
some patient year, lifetime, and often
of many lifetimes-so that the entire
contribution, it achieved by one mind,
would have extended far into a human
conception of an eternity of labor.
The best patent lawyers in the Unit
ed States are Judge Curtis and Mr.
| Whiting of Boston, Messrs. Gaffiord and
Keller of New York, George Harding
of Philadelphia, and Mr.. Latrobe OF
| Baltimore. The practice of these will
average $4,000 year.
The most successful firm of patent
agents is represented by the newspaper
called the Scientific american, which
began upwards of twenty-five year:
ago. One of its partners is one of the
ancient enemies of Bennett, who classi
fed them as "Old Moses Beach anC
/ those other sons of Beaches" proprie
| tors of the New York San. The Other
partners are Mum and Wales. Theil
income is $4,000 year to each part
ner, and they obtain one-third of al
the patents issued, which are chiefly
however, what are classified as ''cheaI
patents" or small and simple inven
tons. The Scientific AmeTicdn 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
ing the only paper of its class, the in
ventors at large transacted their bust
ness through its proprietOrs. 1t wa
lately edited by Mr.. Mcfarland, anC
under his management, was altogether
the best paper for inventors in th'
world. The Commissioners of Patents
include some good names, chief o
whom was Attorney General Holt
others being Ellsworth and Bishop o
Connecticut, Burke of New Hampshire
Eubank of New Y ork, Hooper of Yer
mont, Mason of Iowa and Theaker o
Ohio.
4 The Patent Office building is gener
ally adjuged to be the most imposing
of all the national edifices at the CAPT
tai. To my mind the Post Office is
better adaptation. The former was tn
work of the present architect of TIN
) capital, Edward Clark, aud its thre
porticocs cost $4,000 apiece. The fou
grand galleries or model rooms are un
like and magnificent. 1t is related her
that inventors who spend many year
among these models generally go era
zy. Some day, at leisure, will relat
to you some striking contemporary in
cidents of minds out of gear.
Within the Patent Office building ar
also maintained the Bureaus of Publi
Lands, Pensions, Indian affairs and tn
Census. The Agricultural Department
has now it's separate building on tn
heights near the Smithsonian.
: THOMAS H. BENTON.