The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1891-04-09
TIE PATENT OFFICE

As one walks through these long halls.
giving glance here and q glance there. the
while almost oppressed by the multiplicity
OF objects and the insnity Of this display
o. the brain force OF one people, a thought
Is constantly uppermost, constantly de-
Eanding consideration at our hands. The
thought is this: What would civilization
be without the gifts which have been n ade
10 IL by this century OF American inveu-
tions Take away all that which these two
hundred thousand models represent and it
does seem as II what remains would not be
sufficient TO make life worth living. Here
Is primitive steam engine, made by an
old backwoodsuan seventy-fve years ago,
and sent here 10 help his patent for a new
con Meeting rod It serves 10 remind Us
that when this century of invention COM
menced the steam engine was IN its svad-
ding clothes IL was just beginning to
make itself felt among the forces of the
world. The first steam engine built in this
country, according to the records Of tbs
patent Office, was in 1.s9, at Philadelphia.
That was only little more than hun
dred years ago, yet see what has followed.
If we were to go through this patent Office
and look up every patent granted on the
dayto a study of each invention, We should
have to remain here seventeen years in or
der TO complete our task, and even then we
couldnot finish it, for new patents on the
steam engine and its parts are taken out at
the rate OF three or four day, even IN this
age of well settled steam engineering, when
electricity aud not steam i the favorite
toy and tool of inventors. Now We come
al 1sa eYa h<n al al
as Fulton's.
There are hundreds Of such models here.
They look as II they might have been
made half thousand years ago, and IL Is
almost impossible to realize that it was
only ninety years ago that steam was first
successfully applied in navigation. that
it was only eighty.four years ago that
Robert Fulton made his trial trip up the
Hudson in the Clermont, and only a little
more than seventy years since the first
steamship crossed the Atlantic
At every step in the museum OF models
we come upon further canse for amaze
ment at the rapid progress made by man
in subjugating the forces OF nature during
the century. At every turn we are more
and more filed with wonder as TO what
our ancestors Of the Eighteenth century
posterity OF the coming century will find
70 do that has not been done
Here are models Of plows- The plow is
the pioneer OF all commerce and industry.
It is not generally known that Thomas
Jefferson helped perfect the American
plow. He wrote a pamphlet on the sub
ject, and plow was made in accordance
with his ideas. He did not patent it
Lincoln was the only president who took
out patent It should not be forgotten
that Jefferson was in fact the founder of
the patent Office. He planned the patent
system OF the young republic, and In al
probability was the only man of his time
who foresaw anything Of its great future.
jefferson was an inventor himself.
at Monticello visitors are shown an easy
chair which jefferson made with his own
hands, and a door fastening, the principle
Of which Is used 10 this day. For several
year5 Jefferson was the only man in the
country who had the power TO grant a
patent-thst being. in the early system,
one Of the prerogatives Of the secretary Of
state In those days the patent Office was
not a very extensive affair One man CDR.
Thornton) had desk in the old state de-
partment, which be used two or three
hours day. Then be took bis fishing
tackle and started for the Potomac. DR..
Thornton was the patent 0 fhee, aud bust
ness was dull.