Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1893-10-27

the present post office department
building. known as B-odgetts hotel,
and had it altered for the use of the
post office department and the keeper
OF the patents" On the fourth of Jnly.
1886, congress appropriated S1OS,OO
out OF the patent office fund to erect
a special building for the use of the
patent office. While it was being con-
structed the old post office department
building burned. and the patent office
went into temporary quarters in the
city hall. Three years after the annro-
prlatlon was made the patent office
TOOK possession of its own home. The
new building was the main building of
the present interior department strlct-
ure 1t was two stories high and the
second floor was given I'D to 4 gallery
for the exhibition of models. There
were not so many models as there had
been when the building was planned.
There were on-y the accommodations of
three years, for the fire at the old post
office building had destroyed every one
OF the 10000 models which had ac-
cumulated i'll almost half Il century of
patent law. But new models came i'm
very rapidly, and when in 1877 the
patent Office was burned again, there
were neary 100000 models of Ameri
can inventions and about $4,000 models
OF devices which had been rejected by
the patent office.
Around this patent Office building
the interior department building was
constructed. The interior department
was created in 1910 1t was contem
! plated in the scheme of the patent
j offlCe; for as early as 1872 a report
was made to congress on the propriety
! OF establishing Il home department in
connection with this bureau. Out of
! 1T also grew the agricultural depart-
ment. There WAS an "adviSory board of
aSricu- ture' in the patent office more
, than forty years ago, and the patent
commissioner was the original distrib-
utor of seeds
The way the interior department
threw the patent office into the shade
was rapid and remarkable. AS soon
as the department was created wing
to the patent office building was be-
bun on the Seventh street side. The
first appropriation for it. made at the
time the department was created. was
Aoo,o0o. The cost WAS $500 900. 1t
was completed in 1852. -Four years
later the wing on the Ninth street side
was erected. 1t cost S75OOOO. Eleven
years later the c. street wing was COM
pleted-cost S515O0O. The but ding of
the patent office, considered so grand
when the plans for it were drawn.
looks very small beside the additions
to 1T which have been erected. And
the other bureaus of the department
occupy great deal of space outside
the department building now. The
pension bureau has it's own big build
ing in City Hal Square and the In
dian office. the census office, the br
reau of education and the geological
survey occupy quarters in rented build
lngS in different parts of the city.
Through the years of department
growth the patent office has stuck to
its old quarters. And to most of the
visitors to Washington the interior de-
partment building has always been the
patent Office 1T is the patent office
no longer The vaulted ceilings with
their frcscoing in red and blue will
look down on the big glass cabinets
no more The cases have been arrang-
ed in the bare halls Of the big office
buI- ding, square, red and ugly, erect
ed few years ago half Il square from
the interior department on G street
for the use Of the city post office. In
this building are the clerks of the I'M
fortunate record and pension division
of the war survivors of
the EOrd'S theater disaster
The collection of models has Il great
historic value and it seems pity to
store it in Il building which is not fire
proof or even built of stone The +Oss
which the government suffered in the
fires of 1886 and 1877 was irrcparabIe.
The first destroyed all the collection of
models. The second destroyed $1,000
of the accepted models Still the GOV
eminent has in its possession many
original models of great inventions and
many OF the early models of Others
The model of the first sewing machine
patented was destroyed in the fire of
1886, but the model of the second, pat |
ented in 1872, is stir in possession of
the government. 1t is now at the
worlds fair, where most of the inter
esting models have been taken to be |
a part Of the exhibit of the patent of
flee, Illustrating American progress in
invention
The honor of being the father of the !
patent system is claimed by many.
Patents were granted in England even
before they were granted by the Amer
lean colonies The biographer Of JOS
eph Jencke, who came to Massachu-
sets from England in 1912, Gains for
him that he suggested the patent sys-
tenn and that it was adopted in col
onlal Massachusetts on his suggestion.
The biographer of John Stevens, an
American engineer who is said to have
devoted his life to experiment for the
common good. claims that he made a
petition to congress for the passage
Of a patent law in 1870 and that the
to which the petition was
reported the law of April 10,
1880. The journals of congress show
that the proposition for a national
patent law was made to congress by
Mr.. Madison and Charles Pinckney:
and before that time two inventors,
David Ramsey and John Churchill,
April Is, 1889, had petitioned congress
for patents on inventions which they
had made. 1t is claimed for Nathan
Reed. the inventor of a "multitubular ,