The record-union., 1893-05-30
PATENT OFFICE.
At the Fair-What Uncle Sam Has
to Show
To Curious Visitors to the Worlds
Fair-Advance of fMechanIcs-The
New and Old PIow.

eAhlDlL maue by the Iatent once at
Washington. The exhibit is in charge of
A. p. Greeley, principal examiner of the
Patent Office, who is thoroughly CONVEX
SAINT with all the details of history and
development of the various departments
OF his exhibit, and who takes much pride
and pleasure in explaining matters to the
public. The exhibit has been scientifi-
cally and intelligently arranged, showing
by well arranged contrasts the progress
which has been made in all lines of hui
man industry where machinery has been
called into play.
The two branches in which this progress
has been most marked, and i'll which the
gradatiOns have extended through the
longest periods of time, are in the imple-
ments OF war and agriculture.
Beginning with the agricultural exhibit
at the southwestern corner Of the space
allotted To this exhibit, the first objects
OF general interest are the plows. The
plow exhibit illustrates two principles of
progress. First, the absolute improve
ment OF the new over the old methods,
and again, relative progress in countries
where premium has been placed on hui
man endeaVor and ingenuity, as COM
pared with what has been done in the
countries where no such inducement has
been held out. In the case of the United
states, in whose Constitution a clause
was placed guaranteeing to the inventor
the exclusive benefit of his labors for
term OF years, the modern Steel-riding
plow stands up in contrast with the awk-
ward, uncouth wooden affair with which
The Asatic is still content to till the soil.
Indeed the exhibit has been specially
arranged to show the beneficial effects
which this great stimulus of exclusive
benefits to the inventor has brought in
the implements Of all the industrial pur-
suits.
On exhibition in this department is a
model of the first ploW ever patented by
an American. IL is a cast-iron plow, with
wooden beam and handles, and was in
vented by New bold in 1889. Mr.. Greeley
gives curious bit of history in connec-
ton with this early effort to improve
upon agricultural! implements When
this pIOW was nrSt upon the market the
farmers seriously objected to it's use on
the plea that it would poison the ground
They had always before that time usea a
wrought-iron plowshare, and gravely
concluded that a change to cast-iron
would result in absolute disaster to the
husbandman.
In this exhibit, too, are models show
ing the improvements which have been
made i'll the other agricultural imple-
ments. Cultivators, harrows. automatic
seed planters, and many other improved
instruments, all show how near mans
ingenuity has come to removing the
original curse which decreed that man
should hencetorth eat his bread in the
sweat of his brow.
Passing to the exhibit which has prob
ably been next in Importance in improv-
ing mans physical condition through the
-, S,f
printing press and its necessary attend
ant paper. In the first department there
are models to show the improvements
which have been made in the printing
press from that used by Gutenberg TO
the complex perfecting machine on which
the modern daily newspaper is printed
at the rate of 10000 copies per hour. Be-
tween these extremes the models show
by what slow gradations the modern ma
chine has been evolved.
After the Gutenberg model comes the
StanhOpe press of 1860, which was the
type, with few notifications, until 1880
when Isaac Adams took out the first
American patent for a printing press
Then a second patent by the same in
ventor was taken out in 1886 for the first
press designed for rapid work. Six
years later, in 1912, X. NJ. Hoe patented
his first press, (which had the original
idea of the cylinder. In 1915 he supple
mented his patent with a device for de-
hVering the paper. From that date on
till 1868, when the first of the perfecting
presses was put into practical operation,
the development was gradual, consisting
OF one small improvement and then an
other until the most wonderful machine
of the age was finally brought to perfec-
ton.
Along with the exhibits showing the
evolution of the printing press are mod
els showing the improvements which
have been made in the art of paper max
ing. Here, however, the contrasts be-
tween primitive and modern methods are
not quite so strongly marked.
Following along i'll the line of the
printing idea comes the typewriting ma
chine. Here again the contrast is not so
marked between primary efforts and the
latest production. On July %, 1879, w.
A. Burt patented a typewriting machine
which, though somewhat bulky and
clumsy, was practical and did the work
for which it was intended. The machine
was ahead of the requirements of the
time, however, and curious fact in con-
nectlon with the history of it is that the
inventor sold the right for the entire
State OF New York for S75, and letter on
file at the Patent Office from the purcha-
ser complains bitterly that his instrument
had proved barren of profit and demands
the return of his money.
Other patents were filed along in the
40s, bat 1t was not until about 1868 that a
machine was invented which seemed to
fill the requirements. Since that time the
attention OF inventors has been turned in
that direction, owing to the demand, and
the many different types of to-day show
the results OF their labors.
Leaving the printing idea the next ex-
hibit of great general interest is that of
the models showing the evolution OF ma
chlnery for making textile fabrics. In
this line, too, the ingenuity of the in
ventor has kept pace with the require
ments of the time, and. from the old
fashioned hand cards to the modern
carding machines, the transition has
been almost as marked as to the short
space of time in which the evolution was
accomplished as in the wonderful i'm
provements made.
- In the spinning line the contrast be-
tween the old and new methods is as
great and again the improvements have
all been made IN comparatively late
years. In fact, the last half century has
shown such wonderful strides in the di-
rection of labor-saving machinery that
the question arises whether man may not
soon be able to saddle all his work on a
machine, which will do it for him.
The civilization of two countries NAV
almost be measured by the models of the
machines by which their apparel is made.
The distatf and spindle, with which the
thread is spun, and the clumsy loom,
with which it is afterward slowly and la
borlously woven into the fabric, COM
pared with the spinning jenny and the
modern loom, tell the story OF the civil-
zation OF East India of to-day as com
pared with that of the United States in
more striking language than any other
which could be employed.
Then comes new song of the shirt as
1t is sung in the development OF that late
and all important adjunct to nineteenth
century clvl1Zation-thes sewing machine.
The models showing the evolution OF this
valuable instrument form a curious and