trations while the personnell has been increased by 234 of whom 177 are members of the examining corps. Inasmuch as there was no legislation directly authorizing the transfer, it had to be made under the act of 1903 which empowered the President to transfer to the Dept. of Commerce those bureaus whose work is scientific in its nature. The reasons for considering the Patent Office a scientific bureau are given elsewhere in this number. SECRETARY HOOVER'S COMMENTS ON THE TRANSFER. "In incorporating the Patent Office in the Department of Commerce I intend that we should undertake a vigorous campaign for the removal of the present injustices toward American patentees and American manufacturers which exist by virtue of the character of the patent laws in many other countries. "At the present time an American patentee is required in many foreign countries to continuously manufacture in that country under his patent or lose his patent rights. We make no such requirement in the United States. The consequence is that our inventors and manufacturers, in order to protect their inventions, have been driven to the establishment of a large number of factories abroad, whereas foreign patentees have been able to use their patents in the United States to actually prevent manufacture here. "A list of many large manufacturers established by American capital abroad in order to protect their patents could be enumerated, whereas there has no been no establishment of manufacture in this country for this reason. In fact, a foreign patentee, by registering his patent in the United States, can hold it for 17 years and prevent manufacture of the article in the United States. Will Seek Equality. "This is but one of the discriminations now in progress. There is to be an international convention for the protection of industrial property at The Hague on October 8, 1925, at which the American Government is to be represented and where proposals will be made for the equitable and equal treatment of patentees in all countries. If this convention shall fail to secure primary justice for American patentees, we shall ask for a complete revision of the patent laws of the United States which will bring this about. "Moreover, other burdens put upon American patentees in foreign countries discourage the American inventor from registering his patents and securing the rights which should naturally come to him from his invention, while we give every facility in the United States. "We shall propose nothing but equality in these questions, and we intend to follow up the matter with utmost vigor. "Four years ago the Patent Office was 15 months behind in its work-that is, it was 15 months after the receipt of an application before that application could be considered. Under support given by Congress, and the fine administration of Secretary Work and Commissioner Robinson, this period has been reduced to 7 months. It is my hope that further support and continued vigorous administration of the bureau will bring the bureau up to date in its work within the next year or two." A RECORD OF AMERICAN INVENTION. A display of about 75 U. S. patents issued to American inventors, representing basic inventions, has been placed in a conspicuous position in the rotunda of the main floor of the Patent Office. These printed copies were selected with great care but have no endorsement of authority, nor are they offered with any indication of finality. They represent American achievement in almost every branch of endeavor, but in view of the limited space for display and the limited time to gather the information, the exhibit is not intended by any means to be comprehensive. Among the inventions listed are the cotton gin, the reaper, the air brake, the telegraph, the telephone, aluminum production, the audion and the regenerative circuit for radio, the incandescent lamp, the induction motor, electric welding, the phonograph, the motion picture, the airplane, the half-tone process, and a large number of labor-saving devices like the sewing machine, the typewriter, the cash register, casting type machines, glass making, and shoe machinery appliances. Other inventions relate to domestic appliances and those used in warfare like the vacuum cleaner, the safety razor; the revolver and the machine gun. Contributions in the chemical line relate particularly to the invention of substances like vulcanized rubber, celluloid, and bakelite. The display includes a few historical patents like those of Lincoln and Mark Twain and also some of the more widely read publications issued by the Patent Office. The display has attracted considerable attention and is the only exhibit available to the public that the Patent Office presents that has any popular interest. This is but an introductory measure which it is hoped may be developed into a display of larger proportions and possibly in a more permanent form. MEMORIAL TO THE LATE FEDERAL JUDGE At the regular session of the U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, held on February 6, 1925, proceedings were had in memory of Judge Emile Henry Lacombe who died November 29, 1924. Mr. Henry L. Stimson spoke for the members of the Bar and presented a minute, which together with the proceedings, was directed to be entered upon the minutes of the Court; Mr. Charles C. Burlingham spoke for the Admirality Bar and Ex-Commissioner Thomas Ewing spoke for the Patent Bar. Mr. Ewing's remarks are printed below. Hon. Judge Rogers of the Court presided and delivered an inspiring address on the life and work of Judge Lacombe; the following outline taken from the address must prove interesting to the readers of the Journal: Emile Henry Lacombe was born in New York City, January 29, 1846, and died in this city November 29, 1924. His father was a successful merchant in New York for many years and the son graduated with honors from Columbia College in 1863. Two years later he graduated from the Law School of Columbia University, and in 1894 that university conferred on him the degree of LL.D. At the time of his graduation from college he was a member of the famous Seventh Regiment of New York, which was in the service of the United States in the Civil War and was stationed at Baltimore. After his graduation from the law school he was too young to be admitted to the Bar, and was compelled to wait two years before being admitted to practice. He continued in private practice for ten years, until 1875, when he entered the Law Department of the City of New York. In this office Mr. Lacombe took an active part in the preparation for trial of the cases against the Tweed Ring. In 1883 the New York Aqueduct Act was drawn by Mr. Lacombe, and it remained a model for subsequent legislation in the same field. He was appointed "Junior Circuit Judge" of the Second Circuit in June 1887 by President Cleveland; at that time the Second Circuit became the only circuit in which there were two circuit court judges with co-ordinate jurisdiction; Judge Wallace, who had been commissioned a circuit judge in April, 1882, was designated "Senior Circuit Judge". When, in 1891, the United States Circuit Courts of Appeal were established, Judge Lacombe and Judge Wallace became under the law the first two Judges of the Circuit Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit; Judge Shipman was soon appointed the third member of the Court. Judge Lacombe continued in the discharge of his judicial duties until 1916, when, having reached the age of seventy years, he left the Bench in pursuance of a determination he had long before formed. While on the Appeals Bench it is understood he twice declined an appointment as a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He handled the difficult and prolonged litigation growing out of the financial difficulties in which the Metropolitan Street Railway Company and the New York City Railway Company were involved, which in itself was sufficient to establish his reputation as a learned and sagacious judge. He also had before him the famous Tobacco Trust case as well as the EightyCent Gas case. But his fame perhaps will rest chiefly upon the opinions he wrote in the admiralty and patent cases. Judge Lacombe, like most other judges, came to the Bench without knowledge of the patent law. He found the law on the subject pretty well developed and he set himself to the task of mastering it. It is a great tribute to him that he was recognized, at the time he resigned from the Court, as having no superior in that branch of the law among all of the judges in the several circuits. But the day never came when he liked a patent case. After he had retired from the Court and returned to practice, he was invited to act as counsel in one of the most important patent litigations the country has known, and one in which millions were involved, and in which he was practically told he could fix his own fee. His reply was a smile, accompanied with the statement that he had had enough of patents; that the money did not appeal to him, and that he was through with patent cases for ever. |