New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1911-07-23
The United States Has Now
Doubly Outdistanced Its
Next Competitor in Re-
corded Invention
.ATENT No. 100000!

one million patents in less than
a century as the record Of Yankee
genius. Next Tuesday is the day which
Will mark an epoch in the history of the
American nation. for on that day the
United States Patent Office will have
Issued exactly one million patents. more
than double the number granted by any
other nation in the world.
Who will get this magic number Of
Patent No. 100000 will not be known
until the patent itself passes under the
numbering machine in the regular order
of business. II may be given to claim
of comparatively little importance or II
may go to a really great invention. All
depends on the patent which happens to
be on top Of the pile when the number
ing machine reaches 999,99o ana the
PSYCHOLOGICAL moment when the clerk
reaches over for the next one.
One million patents in less than CEN
tury is a record not even approached by
any other nation. France comes nearest
the United States in the inventive genius
OF her people with something like 40
600 less than half the number of pat
ents granted in America. Following
France is Great Britain, with 4lo,ooo;
Germany, $4,000; Belgium, 22S'OOo;
Canada, 10000; Italy, $4,000, and
Austria Hungary, with 6S,OO0. These
ssveu peoples rank next the United
States in the order given.
II has often been said that no other
people on earth have ever showed the
inventive genius seen in the Oniteo
States. The steamboat, the telegraph
the telephone, the aeroplane and other
wonderful inventions, all products OF the
Yankee brain, are all well known
Thousands Of labor saving devices, such
as the sewing machine cotton gin'
mower and reaper-all the results OF
American inventive genius-have done
more to alleviate the condition OF man
kind than any other factor outside OF
the abolition Of slavery.
looking back over the wonderful prog
ross in the mechanical and fine arts
Il will be noticed that the inventive FAC
nifty OF the American people has Kept
mace with the wonderful growth or the
nation. While Americans are OF hetero-
peneous stocks, all authorities agree
tbev have become amalgamated by the
talents and ability OF their statesmen
and industrial pioneers. Millions OF peo-
nile from foreign shores have been assim-
Hated because of the liberal form OF
government and because Of the equal OPP
nortunities offered. But every step tor-
ward in this country has been either
directly due TO or is closely allied with
that wonderful faculty for delving into
untried fields peculiar to Americans.
When Samuel Hopkins. on July 81,
1890 obtained his patent for a device
for making pot and pearl ashes me
President and Cabinet members con-
GRADUATED both the inventor and the
officials at the Patent Office. To-Day
ratents are issued by the hundreds with
out the fact Of the class, character or
value being known. except to the Few
persons directly interested in their issu-
ance.
The granting Of patent IN the Ola
davs. when the nation was young, WIS
matter of great importance, whether II
was for making pot and pearl ashes or
wooden nutmegs; If, indeed, those silent
testimonials to Yankee smartness ever
got the grace Of government favor.
The Samuel Hopkins patent created
great stir because it was the first. The
not and pearl ashes he made were not
much different from the pot and pearl
ashes a great many other persons made.
Pot and pearl ashes, it is we'll known,
are the residue after evaporation when
vegetable matter is refined in a crucible
or furnace The pot and pearl ashes are
the solid. just as the I've is the liquid re-
naming.
But, at any rate, Samuel Hopkins and
the patentees who came right after him
were made much Of by everybody. Pres
idents and their cabinets used TO have
the inventors and patentees sought out
and presented and formal compliments