Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1893-09-09

This removal will confuse the occasional
visitor to Washington who thinks that he
| knows the landmarks. To visitors the big
| Interior Department building. which occu-
| PIES two full city squares. has always been
the patent office" And the patent office
meant to them the collection of models dis
played in glass cases the upper floor.
The Waterman at the main entrance to the
| Interior Department building will have a
| hard time for two or three years explaining
! to the tourist that the model room is In
another building now.
| The model room Of the patent office was
| the first show place In Washington 1t
| came here with Congress from Philadel-
phfa when there was no Capitol and no
| White House, no National Museum, 10
Washington monument. no State Depart
ment library with the original Declaration
| OF Independence on view, and, In fact. no
| object of particular interest to sightseers.
| Most Of the department shows are OF conf
| paratively recent date They were estab-
lished because the opportunities If tour
| lists for information became q nuisance to
| the workers in the departments. They
wanted to know just what was going on
| everywhere, to peer into all of the rooms
where the clerks were trying to work am. and
| to ask innumerable questions Now they
! are turned into the State Department Ii
| brary, or directed to the National Museum
| or the Smithsonian, and they soon see
enough to satisfy their thirst for knowl-
| edge. But the model room Of the patent
| office they have had since the foundation
| of the government, and for ffty-three
| years 1t has been in the same place. 1t has
been desolated by fire twice, but that did
| not prevent the collection becoming so
| bulky that the government had amend
| the law requiring that working models be
| filed with applications for patents
The Model Room.
The removal Of the model room to new
| quarters was the result Of the agitation
over the safety of government build
Iva. % l,a
| Theater disaster The model room
| moor Of the Interior Department building,
| where several thousand clerks are employ
| ed. The clerks needed more room and a
| safer place to work than underline impend-
| ing weight OF the hundreds of tons of mod
| els. SO the model room had to go. 1t can
never have quite the same interest for the
| tourist again unless the ambition Of the
patent commissioner Is gratifled, and a
building is erected for the express accom-
mediation Of the patent ONCE.
There exists in the patent Office q ira
dition about patent office fund which
| some day Is to pay for the new patent Of
| fee building. There is really no such fund
| though the employees of the patent Office
will assure you that there Is, and though
the patent commissioner has sometimes
| spoken of 1t In his annual report. The
| fact is that originally the fees for the is
sue Of patents were deposited in the treas
| ury to the credit Of the patent Office. and
| tne expenses Oh the ONCE, lnCluQlnR me
| salaries Of its officers, were paid out of this
| fund At that time the fee for obtaining
patent was "a. Originally the work OF is
suing patents was done by the State De-
| partment clerks. and the Secretary Of
State, the Secretary Of War. and the Attor-
ney General passed on applications It
was not until 1sS0-forty years after the
| passage Of the first patent law-that Con-
| greSs recognized the patent Office a sepa-
| rate establishment, and made an appro-
| priation for a "superin tendent Of patents"
BY this time the patent ofiice had grown
| to be very important institution Its ex-
| penses were much less than its receipts. and
| the fund to its credit began to grow rapid
| ly.. In 1Si9 the patent office was made u
| part Of the Interior Department. but the
! fund still accumulated until Congress In
| 1868 passed an act turning the money into
| the general treasury, and made specific ap-
| preparations for the expenses of the patent
office like the appropriations for other BIZ
reaus of the government. This abolished
| the patent office fund altogether. but the
| commissioner of patents still keeps an ac-
| count of 1t; 1t has become a tradition of the
| office, and at intervals Congress Is petit
| toned to make appropriations from this
visionary four millions (for that Is the
profit which the patent office has made for
| the government in a little more than a
hundred years. for the erection of a patent
| office building. 1t Is not at all likely that
| Congress will do anything of the kind-at
| least for many years.
What Has Sprung From II.
The patent office can point with PRIDE
to the Agricultural Department and to the
| Interior Department, of which 1t is a part
| Not only Is it older than either of them
but it is really the parent Of both. Origi-
nally, as have said. it was a part of the
State Department, and Thomas Jefferson
gave earnest personal attention to the
granting Of individual patents. He would
have his hands full today inspecting the
5000 patents issued each year. to say moth
| Ing of the complicated law department Of
| the bureau, where constant litigation over
the priority Of patents is in progress. When
| the State Department moved to Washing
| ton. in $500. the patent business was con-
Quoted in some buildings which are still
standing at the corner of 2lst street and
Pennsylvania avenue known originally as
the, six buildings" and afterward as the
gress appropriated money for the purchase
| of building on the site Of the present
| Post Once Department building, known as
Biodgetts Hotel, and had it altered for the
use Of the Post Office Department and the
| keeper Of the patents" On the 4th Of
| July. 1886. Congress appropriated Sl0S 900 out
of the patent ONCE fund to erect a special
| building for the use of the patent office
| While 1t was being constructed the old Post
| Office Department building burned and the
| patent office went into temporary quarters
in the city hall. Three years after the ap-
| preparation was made the patent office
took possession Of its own home. The new
building was the main building of the pres
| ent Interior Department structure. It was
| two stories high and the second floor was
| given up to gallery for the exhibition Of
| models There were not so many models as
| there had been when the building was
| planned. There were only the accumula-
lions Of three years, for the fire at the old
| Post Office building had destroyed every
one of the 10000 models which had accumu-
| lated in almost half a century Of patent
i law. But new models came in very rapidly,
| and when in 1877 the patent Office was
| burned again, there were nearly 100000
| models of American inventions and about
| IL, 600 models Of devices which had been re-
| jected by the patent office
| Around this patent Office building the
| Interior Department building was con-
| structed. The Interior Department was
created in 1S49. 1t was contemplated in
the scheme Of the patent office ; for as ear
| ly as 1872 a report was made to Congress on
| the propriety of establishing a home de-
partment in connection with this bureau
| Out Of II also grew the Agricultural De-
| pa rtment There was advisory board Of
agriculture in the patent office more than
| forty years ago. and the patent commits
| sioner was the original distributor Of seeds
| the patent Office into the shade was rapid
and remarkable. AS soon as the depart
ment was created a wing to the patent
| Office building was begun on the It'll street
side. The first appropriation for 1t, made
at the time the department was created
| was $4,000. The cost was $500, 900. 1t was
| completed in 1852. Four years later the
| wing on 9th street side was erected 1t cost
| $io0, 900. Eleven years later the G street