Education Committee. C. H. Pierce, Chm., Room 271 W. Magruder, Div. D C. K. Phillips, Div. 44 Sec. 5-The Committee on Official Relationship shall consist of five or more members and shall consider and recommend to the executive committee the adoption of such means as will further the objects of this society so far as the relationship of the examining corps to the Patent Office is concerned. Official Relationship Committee. W. J. Wesseler, Chm., Div. Int. C. H. Killian, Div. 23 M. Hertz, Div. 37 S. W. Mellotte, Div. 13 Sec. 6-The Social Committee shall consist of five or more members and shall consider and recommend to the executive committee the adoption of such means as will further the objects of this society so far as the promotion of social intercourse between the members is concerned. Social Committee. M. Whitney, Chm., Rm 57 N. E. Eccleston, Div. T. M. Helen V. Bauskett, Div. 8 C. K. Phillips, Div. 44 Sec. 7-The Committee on Publicity shall consist of five or more members and shall consider and recommend to the executive committee the adoption of such means as may be thought proper to impart information to the public concerning the society, the Patent Office and the Patent System. Editorial Board. W. I. Wyman, Chm., Cf. Clk. E. S. Glasscock, Div. 46 N. E. Eccleston, Div. T. M., Publicity Committee W. L. Thurber, Chairman F. W. Dahn, Div. 21 Art. 7-Suggestions by Members. Sec. 2-It shall be the duty of the president upon the receipt of any writing duly submitted, as provided by Sec. 1 of this Article, to refer the same to an appropriate committee for their consideration and report, and it shall be the duty of any committee to which such writing is referred to consider the same and report thereon to the executive committee as promptly as possible. THOMAS C. THEAKER. BY W. J. WESSELER. The after-the-Civil War conditions in the Patent Office are easily understandable in the light of the somewhat parallel situation of the present day. The war gave an impetus to creative genius as applied to the useful arts, entirely without precedent, and necessity, as the mother of invention, numbered among her progeny many novel ideas of the most powerful economic effect. To the problems of this period the tenth Commissioner of Patents, Thomas C. Theaker, turned his attention, and his term of office, lasting from August 17, 1865, until January 20, 1868, must be recognized as one of the most important in the history of the Patent Office. Thomas Clarke Theaker was born in York County, Pennsylvania, on February 1, 1812. He completed his preparatory studies while in Pennsylvania, and in 1830 moved to Bridgeport, Ohio. There he acquired practical knowledge of the mechanic arts through his work as a machinist and wheelwright. He was elected to the 36th Congress as a Republican, serving from March 4, 1859 to March 3, 1861. Having failed of reelection, he obtained an appointment as a member of a commission to investigate the Patent Office. Shortly afterward he was appointed a member of the Board of Examiners-in-Chief, and he continued in that office until his appointment to the Commissionership. After leaving the office of Commissioner, he went into the practice of patent law in Washington, having as his partner, his former associate on the Board of Examiners-in-Chief, J. J. Combs. His death took place on July 16, 1883, at Oakland, Maryland, and his body was taken to his old home at Bridgeport, Ohio, for interment. Commissioner Theaker is remembered by the nestors of the Patent Office corps as a large strongly built man of dark visage and quite unusual appearance. His eyes were dark and piercing, his hair was black and he wore a heavy beard, in marked contrast to his brother Nelson Theaker, then a member of the Examining Corps, who while an even larger man than the Commissioner, is described as of the blond type. Early during his career as a Congressman, Commissioner Theaker showed an independence of spirit later reflected in his work in the Patent Office. His reply to the questions directed to the various members of the Ohio delegation as to their views on an antislavery resolution adopted by the Ohio Legislature was characteristic: "I for one, sir, say that I object to being interrogated, and then have an attempt made to put words in my mouth as to how I shall make my answer. I am one of the Representatives of Ohio, upon this floor, and at the proper time, and in a proper manner, I will tell the gentleman and the House all of the opinions I entertain on this vexed question of slavery; but I want that side of the House to understand that I am not to be interrogated, and then have words put into my mouth as to how I am to answer." The 36th Congress experienced some delay in organizing and during this interval many unauthorized persons crowded upon the floor of the House under the belief that there were no rules as to privilege in effect. A resolu tion was presented to remedy these conditions, which were interfering seriously with the work of the House, by excluding all from the privilege of the floor except the members and the necessary employes. As the ladies of the members' families were present in goodly numbers some discussion as to their status took place. Mr. Theaker's remarks on that occasion would have been of much political value could they have been delivered during these days of woman's suffrage: "I want it understood that, if this resolution proposes to expel ladies from the floor, my vote shall be recorded against it. If ladies are to be excepted from the operation of the rule, I will give it my vote; but I will never consent by my vote, to expel ladies from the floor of the House of Representatives." As a member of the Board of Examiners-in-Chief he sat with J. J. Combs, already referred to, and Silas H. Hodges, who had served as Commissioner of Patents from 1852 to 1853. Mr. Combs joined with Mr. Theaker in an investigation of an application for an extension of a patent on a machine for cutting bevelled gearing, and in a report dated March 3, 1863, pays his tribute to his associate's technical ability: "I have given the French patent referred to (as a reference showing want of novelty) a very careful examination, and have had the benefit of the superior practical and theoretical mechanical knowledge of my colleague, Mr. Theaker, to whom I am greatly indebted for a clear comprehension of the operation of the machine therein described." At the time Mr. Theaker assumed the office of Commissioner almost the entire population of the country had felt the effects of the readjustments demanded by the war. During the course of the war, great numbers of the young men had left the farms and workshops for the armies. Those left behind had to provide the supplies to meet a greatly accelerated rate of consumption, both in war matériel and the ordinary articles of commerce. This burden was one which could not have been carried had it not been for the contributions of American inventors of the needed facilities for keeping up with the new organization of society. Many of the new ideas which were thus put into practical use were inventions of immediate military value. The muzzle loading gun gave place to the breech-loader, the first allotments going to sharpshooter regiments; the smooth bore cannon were rifled; field telegraph service modified the military intelligence branch of the service; army clothing, shoes, tentage, and equipment were produced by improved machinery and carried by improved means of transportation. In the field of agriculture the mower, reaper, and threshing machine did a war duty of vital importance, and the loss of man-power on the farms was more than compensated for through the use of this improved machinery. But during the active war period, it was impossible to consider the patent aspects of the many improvements introduced and, therefore, we witness a sharp rise in the curve representing applications filed, in the chart of Patent Office business, for the three years immediately following the war, a recurrence of which, the ten thousand increase in the number of applications filed during 1919 indicates will be noted on the chart of to-day. However, proportionately, the increases of that time were greater. Up to 1864, the annual increase in the number of applications filed ranged from a general average of several hundred to an instance or two of one thousand (1855 and 1860). In 1864, through this gradual growth the total of applications filed had reached 6,972, a figure exceeded only in the year 1860. In the year following, this closing year of the war, Commissioner Theaker notes a fifty-three per cent increase in the number of applications filed (1865, 10,664). In 1866 this number had more than doubled (15,269), and in 1867, more than trebled (21,276) the 1864 total. The high-water mark for applications filed, then established, proved to be the average of the new business of the office for a long period of years, or until the important upward trend begun in the early eighties. In his first report to Congress Jan. 31, 1866, Commissioner Theaker reviewed the business of the Patent Office in greater detail than in those made in the two succeeding years of his incumbency. His first problem when the deluge of applications came upon him was to increase the office force and after accomplishing this end, in a fair measure, he found the matter of space wherein to carry on the examining and clerical work a most pressing problem. Then with a view of reducing the great |