Our country and its resources; . to consider all applications for pat-ents. Thomas Jefferson, the tirstSecretary of State, was in effect thefirst Commissioner of Patents andthe first Examiner. It is said thathe personally examined into and de-termined the patentability of everyapplication tiled during his firstyears in office as head of the StateDepartment The grant of a patentthen was not only a procedure ofexceeding dignity, being signed bythe President, the Secretary of Stateaud the Attorney General, but wasissued with some reluctance. Onlythree patents were permitted to seethe light of day
Our country and its resources; . to consider all applications for pat-ents. Thomas Jefferson, the tirstSecretary of State, was in effect thefirst Commissioner of Patents andthe first Examiner. It is said thathe personally examined into and de-termined the patentability of everyapplication tiled during his firstyears in office as head of the StateDepartment The grant of a patentthen was not only a procedure ofexceeding dignity, being signed bythe President, the Secretary of Stateaud the Attorney General, but wasissued with some reluctance. Onlythree patents were permitted to seethe light of day in 1700. From this modest beginning, thebusiness of the patent system grew slowly, but steadily. From 1790 to1802 it required but one State De-partment clerk to perform all theclerical work pertaining to the Pat-ent < Mlice. the ent ire records of winchwere contained in a dozen pigeon-holes. 1p to 1S36, about 111,(100 pat- INCREASE OF POPUL\TION. TOTAL WEALTH,| VALUE OF PRODUCTS AND ANNUAL ISSUE OF PATENTS FROM 1S50 TO ents were granted. In that year,the Patent Office became an indepen-dent bureau, headed by a commis-sioner, assisted by one examiner andsix other subordinate clerks and em-ployees. While the reorganizationgave the Office a dignity and stand-ing it did not have before, still theforce provided to cope with thepressing demands of inventors doesnot now appear to be excessively Copyright by Muni] .v Co., in. 200 nil; COUNTRY ITS RESOURCES large. And yet critics, whose senseof economy was more acute thanwere their sifts df imagination, de-cried the sheer waste entailed by anorganization so extravagant in applications came pouring in the following year the ex- The United States of America. ..,,.. ,!,.!,. l men (hall come AN EARLY PATENT One of the first patents signed by President Washington in possession of Munn & Co. amining corps had to be doubled )>ythe appointment of an additional ex-aminer, and in 1839 the position oftwo a
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