The century just closed stands out pre-eminently as the century of invention. It is therefore a fitting time briefly to refer to the origin, establishment, and development of our patent system, to call to mind the debt the United States owes to inventors, and at the same time to point out the advantages that have followed the far-seeing wisdom of the framers of the Federal Constitution in incorporating in that instrument paragraph 8 of section 8 of Article I. of the Constitution, which gave to Congress the power "To promote the progress of science and the useful arts by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive rights to their respective writings and discoveries."

One hundred years ago the population of the United States was less than 0,000,000, and there was not a single city within our borders having a population of 75,000. The population of New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Boston was less than the present population of Minneapolis. The latter city and its sister city of St. Paul, Chicago, Omaha, and Kansas City were unknown. Not a steam propelled vessel was in use, nor was there a mile of railroad in the United States. The electric telegraph and telephone were unknown. Our exports consisted of agricultural products. There was scarcely any well-developed line of manufacture, and our wants in that line were supplied by imports. It had been the policy of England to suppress manufacturing in its colonies. In 1634 a law was passed in Virginia for the encouragement of textile manufactures, but it was promptly annulled by England. In 1731 she enacted a law prohibiting the carriage of woolen goods and hats from one colony to another. In 1750 a woollen hat factory in Massachusetts was declared to be a nuisance and suppressed. No carpets were made in the colonies until after 1776, except rag carpets. In 1800 carpets were in this country a luxury. Even up to 1850 there was not a power loom for carpet making in the United States.

What is true in the textile art is equally true of most of the other arts.

Though the country was an agricultural one, little progress had been made in the manufacture of agricultural implements. It was not until 1819 that an iron plow was produced in this country. The reaper appeared in 1833 and a successful thresher not until 1850. Up to the time of the Civil War there is no question but that the country continued to be an agricultural one. It is true that during the first sixty years of the last century our manufactures steadily and rapidly increased in kind and in extent, but our population increased even more rapidly, so that we consumed what we manufactured and were still largely dependent upon the import of manufactured articles. But in the last few years a great reversal, not only in sentiment but in conditions, has occurred; the commercial relations of the United States with the great trading nations of the world have rapidly changed, so that the excess of imports of manufactured articles has turned into an excess of exports of such articles.

One need not look far for the cause of this. It lies in the economy of manufacture arising from the use of labor-saving devices, mainly the invention of our own people, which has enabled us to compete in many lines of manufacture, notwithstanding the higher scale of wages paid in this country, with similar articles manufactured by any or all nations. To employ these devices to the best advantage requires the intelligence of the American workmen, and the result is due to the combination of witty inventions and thinking men. Witless men behind witty machines would be of no use. To the patent system more than to any other cause are we indebted for the industrial revolution of the century.

President Washington realized the importance of formulating a law to stimulate inventions, and in his first annual message to Congress, in 1790, said:

"I can not forbear intimating to you the expediency of giving effectual encouragement as well to the introduction of new and useful inventions from abroad as to the exertion of skill and genius in producing them at home."

Congress was quick to act, and on April 10, 1790, the first law upon the subject was enacted. It constituted the Secretary of State, the Secretary of War, and the Attorney-General a board to consider all applications for patents. Owing to the fires that have destroyed the early records of the Patent Office, some question has arisen as to the number of patents issued under this act; but from the best information obtainable I place the number at fifty-seven. The first patent issued was to Samuel Hopkins, July 31, 1790, for making pot and pearl ashes.

The act of 1793 superseded the act of 1790, and remained in force as amended from time to time until the act of 1830 was passed. The act of 1793 was the only act ever passed in this country which provided for the issuance of Letters Patent without the requirement of an examination into the novelty and utility of the invention for which the patent was sought.

The act of 1830, with modifications, remained in force until the revision of the patent laws in 1870. This revision was largely a consolidation of the statutes then in force.

Under the revision of the statutes of the United States in 1874 the act of 1870 was repealed; but the revision substantially re-enacted the provisions of the act of 1870.

Under the acts of 1790 and 1793 Letters Patent were granted for a term of fourteen years. There was no provision for extension; but while the act of 1793 was in force Congress extended some thirteen patents.

The act of 1830 provided that Letters Patent should be granted for a term of fourteen years, and provision was made for an extension for a term of seven years upon due application and upon a proper showing. Until 1848 petitions for extensions were passed upon by a board consisting of the Secretary of State, the Commissioner of Patents, and the Solicitor of the Treasury. After that time power was vested solely in the Commissioner of Patents.