Patent History Materials Index - ANNUAL REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF PATENTS FOR 1864

LETTER FROM THE COMMISSIONER OF PATENTS TRANSMITTING HIS ANNUAL REPORT FOR THE YEAR 1864

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE
January 30, 1864

Sir:
I have the honor herewith to transmit the annual report of this office for the year 1864, to be laid before Congress.

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

D. P. HOLLOWAY
Commissioner of Patents

Hon. Schuyler Colfax
Speaker of the House of Representatives
Washington, D.C.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE
January 30, 1865

Sir:
In obedience to the requirements of the fourteenth section of the act of March 3, 1837, entitled "An act in addition to an act to promote the progress of science and the useful arts," I have the honor to submit a report of the operations of this office during the year 1864.
 


                          No. 1.



Number of applications during the year                      6,972

Number of patents granted, including reissues and designs   5,020

Number of caveats filed during the year                     1,063

Number of applications for extension of patents                52

Number of patents extended                                     48

Number of patents expired, 31st December, 1864              1,034



    Of the patents granted, there were to --

Citizens of the United States                4,862

Subjects of Great Britain                       89

Subjects of the French Empire                   38

Subjects of other foreign governments           31

                                             _____

       Total                                 5,020

                                             =====



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                          No. 2.



    Statement of money received during the year



On applications for patents, reissues, etc., etc.  $220,864.76

For copies and for recording assignments             20,055.22

                                                  ____________

         Total                                      240,919.98

                                                    ==========



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                           No. 3.



    Statement of expenditures from the patent fund



For salaries                           $89,500.54

For contingent expenses                 68,717.74

For temporary clerks                    70,137.72

For withdrawals                            600.00

For refunding money paid by mistake        737.00

For Judges in appeal cases.                175.00

                                      ____________

         Total                         229,868.00

                                      ============



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                            No. 4.



    Statement of the patent fund



Amount to the credit of the patent fund, 

    January 1, 1864                                    $44,540.30

Amount of receipts during the year                     240,919.98

                                                       __________

    Total                                              285,460.28

Deduct amount of expenditures during the year          229,868.00

                                                       __________

Leaving a balance to the credit of the patent fund,

    January 1, 1865                                     55,592.28

                                                       __________

Surplus of receipts over expenditures during 

    the year 1864                                       11,951.98

                                                       ==========



Table of the business of the office for twenty-eight years ending 

December 31, 1863 [sic]



Years Applications Caveats Patents     Cash          Cash

         Filed      Filed  Issued     Received      Received



1837                           435    $29,289.08    $33,506.98

1838                           520     42,123.54     37,402.10

1839                           425     37,260.00     34,543.51

1840       765        228      473     38,056.51     39,020.67

1841       847        312      495     40,413.01     52,666.87

1842       761        391      517     36,505.68     31,241.48

1843       819        315      531     35,315.81     30,766.96

1844     1,045        380      502     42,509.26     36,244.73

1845     1,246        452      502     51,076.14     39,395.65

1846     1,272        448      619     50,264.16     46,158.71

1847     1,531        553      572     63,111.19     41,878.35

1848     1,628        607      660     67,576.69     58,905.84

1849     1,955        595    1,070     80,752.78     77,716.44

1850     2,193        602      995     86,927.05     80,100.95

1851     2,258        760      869     95,738.61     86,916.93

1852     2,639        996    1,020    112,656.34     95,916.91

1853     2,673        901      958    121,527.45    132,869.83

1854     3,324        868    1,902    163,789.84    167,146.32

1855     4,435        906    2,024    216,459.35    179,540.33

1856     4,960      1,024    2,502    192,588.02    199,931.02

1857     4,771      1,010    2,910    196,132.01    211,582.09

1858     5,364        943    3,710    203,716.16    193,193.74

1859     6,225      1,097    4,538    245,942.15    210,278.41

1860     7,653      1,084    4,819    256,352.59    252.820.80

1861     4,643        700    3,340    137,354.44    221,491.91

1862     5,038        824    3,521    215,754.99    182,810.39

1863     6,014        787    4,170    195,593.29    189,414.14

1864     6,972      1,063    5,020    240,919.98    229,868.00



Alphabetical list of States, with number of patents issued to 

each during the year 1864



States            No.



California        8

Connecticut     246

Delaware          8

Illinois        317

Indiana          98

Iowa             97

Kansas            7

Kentucky          35

Maine             46

Massachusetts    600

Minnesota         14

Missouri          48

Michigan         127

Maryland          58

New Hampshire     49

New Jersey       161

New York       1,227

Ohio             308

Oregon           ...

Pennsylvania     440

Rhode Island      81

Tennessee         3

Vermont          42

Virginia         10

West Virginia     6

Wisconsin        81



Alphabetical list of Territories, with number of patents issued 

to each during the year 1864



Colorado              7

District of Columbia  81

Nevada                6

Nebraska             10



Miscellaneous



Maine and New York  1

Conn and N.Y.       1

Mass and N.J.       1

N.J. and N.Y.       2

N.Y. and Mo.        1

Pa. and N.J.        3

N.J. and D.C.       1

N.J. and Ill        1

Pa. and O.          1

Ia., Cal., and Mo.  1

Mass and Pa.        1

O. and Ind.         1

U.S. army           4

U.S. navy           1

I deem it my duty to call the attention of Congress to the necessity of some provision by law for the enjoyment by the office of the room in the Patent Office building indispensable for its operations. The primary object of this building is sufficiently indicated by the name which it bears by law. The occupation for any other purpose was originally intended to be merely temporary. Notwithstanding the unparalleled increase of the business of the office, it has less room at its command than four years ago. The inventors of the country, who have contributed over three hundred thousand dollars towards the construction of this building, may well complain of this state of things which seriously affects their interests. It is desirable, for the proper examination of applications for patents, that each examiner and his assistants having charge of a special class should occupy a single room. It has become necessary to crowd several classes into single rooms. Although there are twenty-six classes and divisions, there are but thirteen rooms at the service of the examiners. It is a cherished object of the office to form a complete technological library, to be made accessible to all the inventors of the country. The usefulness of this library, which is constantly increasing, is greatly impaired by want of room for arrangement of the books. The necessity for more room is painfully exhibited in the copyright department of this office. The collection of books and other works in the Patent Office, known as the library of copyrights, consists of such publications as have been secured to their authors and proprietors, during a period of more than seventy years, under the various copyright acts, and deposited among the archives of the government in this city. From 1790 to 1859, they were deposited in the Department of State; but, by act of Congress, in the spring of the latter year, they were transferred to the Department of the Interior, and placed in the charge of the Commissioner of Patents. Upon being conveyed to the Patent Office, no appropriate place for their reception could be found, the north wing not having been then completed, and a number of very small apartments in one of the angles of the model room, hitherto devoted to lumber and rubbish, were hastily furnished with shelves for their temporary accommodation. And here they were packed away, and here they now remain, after a lapse of nearly six years! When it is considered that this collection of copyright material is entirely unique in character and exclusively national; that it consists almost entirely of American works, the offspring of American mind and genius and taste; that nothing like it exists, or can exist, elsewhere in this country, or in the world, and that if lost or damaged renewal would be impossible; that it embraces more than 50,000 works comprising the ablest publications on law, medicine, divinity, science, art, and miscellaneous literature, and nearly two hundred thick volumes of sheet music bound, and the materials for two hundred more, and also thousands of maps, charts and engravings in every style of art -- when it is considered that a collection of American works of such a character, so extensive and valuable, has for years been packed away in dark and dusty closets, it is not strange that surprise should have been elicited from the scholars of our own and other lands, who have succeeded in finding the collection, at the seeming yet unavoidable neglect to which it has been subjected.

But apart from the manifest propriety of a more appropriate depository for these works, the absolute necessity will soon be imperative. The addition to the collection is now at the rate of about three thousand works, of all kinds, each year; and, very shortly, there will no longer be space on the already crowded shelves even for the close packing of volume on volume which is now indispensable. And should Congress think proper to authorize a system with reference to copyrights, which has been repeatedly solicited, similar to that now applied to patents, to be deposited there by the proprietors themselves, instead of through the medium of fifty different clerks of the district courts of the United States, the necessity for more appropriate apartments would be still more absolute.

In my report of the operations of this office for the year 1863, addressed to the present Congress, I had the honor to call your attention to the policy of the system of protection by patents; the advantages of our own system as compared with those of other leading industrial nations, and particularly Great Britain; the state of the industrial arts in this country as exhibited by the inventions examined in the office within the last one or two years; and the modifications of patent laws which, in my judgment, would give greater efficiency to our present system. I have nothing to add to what was then presented, except a review of the progress of the arts since 1863, which can be advantageously done after the lapse of another year.

D. P. HOLLOWAY

 

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