Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-11-09

gress. There is an at
mosphere OF invention all about its wide
nails Its busy rooms, and the people hurrying
miner and thlther attending to the needs of
the great and increasing army of American in
Ventors. Yankee ingenuity and Yankee clever
ness are proverbial all the world over and
here in this big building can be felt its very
pulse beating and throbbing in the never-ceas-
ing tlde OF ideas that many minds pour into it
from all parts OF the continent. The stimula-
tlon OF these ideas is due in q great measure
to the fostering care of the government, which
protects with strong hand the inventions of
Its people. This protection and encourage
ment is felt in every branch of the nations in
dustries. In every little village where an in
ventor lives, in every place where man with
ideas makes his home.
The honor Of founding the patent office be-
longs to Thomas Jefferson, who was the pro-
jector of the patent system of the country and
to the day of his death took a personal interest
in Its workings. He was an inventor himself
though he never applied for patent The Wis
ltor to Monticello is shown an easy chair which
Jefferson made himself, and a door fastening
the principle of which is used to this day. For
several years after the act establishing the de-
Partment went into effect Jefferson alone had
the power of granting patent, as he was Sec
Rotary Of State, and that was one of his many
prerogatives. The President and Attorney
General were also obliged to affix their sigma
lures to the document to make it of any USE
After Jefferson became President he did not
have so much time at his disposal and his sue
cessor did not interest himself in the matter, so
the duties OF the Office were assigned to
SINGLE CLERK.
In those early days this clerk was not kept
very busy. The first year there were but three
patents granted out of five applications, SO the
clerk, DIR. Thornton, had plenty of time for
diversion. He had desk in the old State de-
partment and many day when the doctor had
nothing to do he used to get out his fishing
tackle and take a turn with the black bass and
perch III the upper Potomac, for he was dis
clple OF Izaak Walton. A queer character the
good old doctor must have been, and for over
quarter of a century he ruled the inventors
OF the country with almost autocratic power
His superior officers had the most implicit con-
fdencc In him and would sign every paper
which he submitted without question. So he
granted patents to whom he pleased and kent
back those that did not please him. From
some he took fees and from others not and
when he died his accounts were found to be in
an extremely unsatisfactory condition, but no
one blamed the good doctor or suspected him
OF wrong doing, for he died as poor as he had
lived He had lacked practical business knowl-
edge, like many another man of science-that
was all. He loved his patents like chill
dren, and an old clerk in the office
likes to tell good story of 1912,
when the war with Great Britain was going on
and the English had captured and were in pos
session of the city. They had set the Capitol
on fire as well as the White House and the can
non were turned on tie patent Office and other
buildings. The guns were just in front of the
building, so the story runs and firing was about
to commence when the doctor rushed out in
frenzy, shouting ''Are you Englishmen or only
Goths and Vandals? This is the patent office,
a depository of the ingenuity of the American
nation. i'll which the whole civilized world is
interested. Would you destroy it? If so, fire
away and let the charge pass through my body"
Whether or not the single eccentric clerk of
the patent Office really did use such language
is not known. but the Office was not DESTROYED.