Year: 1877

There nas for a long time been Il good
deal of dissatisfaction in the country
over the operations of the Patent Office
and the patent laws. The Grangers in
time called attention to abuses that have
hong prevailed, and have resolved and
re-resolved in their conventions in favor
Of reform in that department of the
government. The last House of Repre-
sentatives was disposed TO hear their
cry and the result was the passage of q
law by. a large majority making future
abuses difficult or impossible The bill
was not acted upon in the Senate and
failed to become law. 1t is well known
that one of the greatest abuses growing
out of the administration Of our patent
laws, has arisen from collusive suits be-
tween plaintiffs and seeming defendants
10 establish the validity of patents in
courts Of law. Our people are especial
ly law abiding and have great respect
for the opinion of a court. The patent
right swindler knows that hence his first
move is to get up a case, and SO get it
given in his favor. Thus armed he goes
forth to bull-dOze the whole community.
Nothing has ever before taken place to
50 thoroughly arouse the public to the
abuses and conspiracies under our pat
ent laws as the recent case decided by
the Supreme Court by which an unlim-
tied tax may be imposed upon bread
This is the last feather 10 break the
camels back, and we shall not be sur
prised if it should be the means of wip-
ing out the Patent Office entirely This
ease has been commented upon by the
newspapers far and wide, and we gather
from different ones the facts as follows:
That prior to 1871 the system of milling
III this country as universally practiced
was that of low milling, or bringing the
upper or running stone into close prox-
unity with the bed stone, the object be-
ing to make as much flour as possible at
the first grinding 1t will readily be
seen that this system reduced great
deal of the coating and germ of the
wheat SO fine as to be bolted out with
the flour, hence all the spring wheat
flour was of dark color and held in
low esteem in the market In 1871
there was introduced into the mills of
Ex-Gov. Washbun at Minneapolis an
entirely new system, and the directly
opposite of that then in use. That sys=
tenn consists i'll first grinding high, max
ing at first but little flour The flour
thus made was bolted out leaving the
bulk of the product III the shape of
bran, the germ of the wheat, and a
large amount of fine pure white granu-
lations called groats or middlings, and
the secret in making pure and perfect
flour consisted in separating all the inn
purities from these middlings and then
grinding them to flour.


The machines for making this separa-
ton are of French origin and invention,
rs well as the whole system of high grind
ing. The proprietors of the Washburn
mill purchased their machines i'll Bor-
deaux, France, of NJ Cabanes, the in
yentor, by whom they were patented,
both in France and England in the year
1856, and the machines were fully de-
scribed in English and French publica-
tions of that year. The result of the intro
duction ofthese machines was marvellous
and not only placed Minnesota flour in
the front rank, but it absolutely led all
other hours in the market. Other mills
Immediately adopted the principle, and
by 1874 there was scarcely a mill in the
United States that had not machine
for cleaning middlings, similar to the
original French machines. That so
valuable machine. should have been
brought into use, and one that had
added at least ten cents a bushel to
every bushel of wheat grown in Wis
consin, without exciting the cupidity of
some person would be strange. How
to rob the public of the great benefits
being derived from this system was the
great question 10 be solved by the har-
pies that perch around and peer into
the Patent office. They had no knowl-
edge of the date of the French patents
in use, and their object was to find some
patent which they supposed should
antedate all others. In 1868 one VIM


F. Cochrane, then of Springfield, Ohio,
had invented what he called an i'm
provement i'll Bolting Chests" for
bolting flour. 1t was never designed
for purifying middlings, could not be
used for that purpose, bore no re-
semblance to the machines in use, and
was never brought into use for the pur-
pose for which it was declared to be in
vented In 1874 the inventor assigned
an interest in his invention to one Rod
ney Mason, patent claim agent at
Washington. The old patent was sur
rendered, new specifications made and
claim set up as the inventor of the
new process OF making flour and the
machine necessary to accomplish it.
On that claim there was reissue of the
patent. The next step to be taken was
to obtain decision of the Supreme