INFORMATION

TO PERSONS HAVING BUSINESS TO TRANSACT AT THE

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

SEC. 1. OF THE FORMS PRESCRIBED BY LAW, AND THE RULES ADOPTED BY THE OFFICE.

and

The following forms and rules are founded, the first upon positive law, the second upon the constructive power the Commissioner has to issue such orders as will secure impartial justice to applicants and facilitate the transaction of business.

The laws now in force relative to patents are those approved July 4, 1836; March 3, 1837; March 3, 1839; August 29, 1842; May 27, 1848; March 3, 1849; and March 3, 1851.

The forms resting upon these are fixed, and cannot, of course, be varied without the intervention of Congress; but rules, having their origin in the Commissioner, can be revised or modified at his discretion.

SEC. II. FOR WHAT PATENTS MAY BE GRANTED.

By the act of 1836, section 6, patents were granted for any new and useful art, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement on any art, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, not known or used by others before the applicant's discovery or invention thereof, and not, at the time of his application for a patent, in public use, or on sale, with his consent or allowance as the inventor or discoverer; but, by the act of 3d March, 1839, no patent is held to be invalid by reason of the purchase, sale, or use [of the invention] prior to the application for a patent, except on proof of abandonment of such invention to the public, or that such purchase, sale, or public use has been for more than two years prior to such application for a patent.

Perhaps no portion of the Exhibition attracted more general attention than that which was occupied by Turkey. To the more stupidly curious visitors, the luxurious furniture and gorgeous trappings which she displayed were objects of unceasing admiration; while to intelligent observers, the evidences which were to be seen, amid the barbaric splendor of her manufactures, of a genius struggling for freedom, enlisted a kind and degree of sympathy unlike what was manifested for any other nation. Too much praise cannot be accorded to the Sultan for his endeavors to revive the manufactures which once existed, and by the introduction, at his own cost, of new machinery, to give a fresh impetus to the industry of his country. The surest basis of her future progress, however, is to be found in the enlarged education she is giving to her young men. Her means of instruction at home are rivalling those which the best schools of Germany and England confer, and added to these she sends a large deputation from among the most promising sons of her chief citizens abroad every year; not to acquire the arts of ship-building and civil engineering alone, but to become conversant with the views of men of sound practical opinions on all important subjects. In embroidery and articles of gorgeous work, Turkey has long stood pre-emi. nent among oriental nations; but she seems to be aware that the day has arrived when a display of mere magnificence is no longer accounted the test of wealth or greatness. In proof of this, she produced at the Exhibition broad cloths, equal to the best English; cotton fabrics and silk piece goods, little inferior to the French; and reeled raw silks, unsurpassed by the best Italian. The high cost of these shows, indeed, that her improved manufactures are but in their infancy; but it also shows that the country possessing the greatest natural resources of any country in Europe has started in that race where indomitable determinationthe strongest characteristic of the Mussulman-is the sure guarantee of

success.

Arrived at nearly the same point in her retrogression from industrial independence that Turkey has reached in her advance towards it, Spain exhibited in her compartments the melancholy evidences of decadence from greatness. She who once ruled a dominion as wide as Britannia, to whom argosies came laden with the spoils of the Old World and New, who held the Netherlands by her armies, in spite of Louis XIV., and sent her armada, styled invincible, to chastise England, upon the great arena of industrial competition in the nineteenth century, held the place of but a third-rate power. A few sword blades from the oldest forges in Europe, a few beautiful silk fabrics from the once-renowned works of Talavera, a few samples of common cloths from Segovia, an imperfect representation of the manufactures of hemp and flax, specimens of cordage and sail cloths, and an indifferent collection of grains, marbles, metals, and earths, constituted the main portion of the products from the peninsula.

Not unlike Spain in the meagre display of textile fabrics, but surpassing her in the show of raw materials and produce, Portugal held also but an inferior position in the great Exhibition. There were, however, fine carvings in ivory, indicative of much skill in execution, a few interesting works in the precious metals, and the great oil jar from Alentejo, to draw attention to the small division she occupied.

Italy, as a whole, was not represented. Sardinia, Tuscany, and the papal States, were congregated, as independent sovereignties, among the other nations of the world; but neither Naples of modern days, nor Italy of ancient glory, possessed a local habitation or a name in the Crystal Palace. It is significant of much to the reflecting mind, that from the papal States two sections only were represented, viz: raw ma terials and sculpture. Among the former were silicious quartz, asphalte, and alum; and among the latter, sculptures, cameos in onyx and shell, and beautiful mosaic work from the Vatican. Tuscany seemed to be awakening from her sleep, and, by the samples which she sent of the products of her mines and her soil, to give earnest of efforts towards better days. Though the industrial superiority which she held during the middle ages, when the most powerful nations of Europe were her tributaries, can never be regained, she may yet-from her timber, (the best in Europe,) her marbles, and her metallic ores-from which the boracic acid of commerce is almost exclusively obtained-again enjoy an enviable pre-eminence. Even in advance of her, in all that pertains to the true greatness of nations, was her sister State, Sardinia. Nearly one hundred exhibitors represented her industry. A liberalist in opinion and action, in the highest and best sense of the word, came to preside over her interests. Sixty operatives-intelligent young mechanics and artisans, supported by the government-studied those lessons of practical knowledge in the Exhibition which would be most serviceable to home industry. Her contributions afforded good evidence of improving labor. To say nothing of her pharmaceutical specimens, unsurpassed by any nation, or of her rich mineralogical show, there was nothing throughout the Exhibition to equal the filigree and chased silver work from Turin, or to surpass the products of the velvet looms of Genoa. Success to all activity which impels the industry of Italy towards better days! Among the fine arts, still clinging to their ancient home, and recalling, even in their degeneracy, the traces of a nobler inspiration and a happier era, was a piece full of meaning-a matron teaching her children to walk alone, emblematic of " Young Italy.'

Next in order of location came the collection of France, the most attractive and extensive of any in the foreign department, and in more points than one rivalling that of the United Kingdom. It would be vain to attempt, in this brief notice, to indicate even the principal features of this congress of French industry. Among the raw materials, silk, in every variety of process, claimed general admiration. Hemp, wool, and other textile materials were amply displayed. The delicate chemical preparations, the grosser products, the cements and paints, the metals and metallic manipulations, the prepared food and simple grains, made an interesting exhibition of themselves. The machinery department, from the huge water-wheel down to the kitchen bellows; the department of manufactures, from the gorgeous tapestry of the Gobelin's looms to the embroidered garter; the department of ceramic manufactures, from the service of Sevres china, too costly for money to purchase, down to the newest pattern of baking dishes; the department of fine arts, from the group of Cain and his Family, to the blurred and lifeless talbotype; and the rich department of jewelry, from the jewels of her majesty the Queen of Spain to the plain wedding ring of the peasant-each one, in its time and place, through all its most minute ramifications, skillfully

should be made to the originality of the invention. 4th. Drawings, when the nature of the case admits of them, should accompany the application. 5th. The model or specimen, as the case may be, clearly representing the improvement, should be deposited; and, 6th. The fee required by law should be paid, and in manner pointed out in section XVIII.

Owing to the great increase of business in this office, and in order to prevent all possibility of mistake as to the fact whether an application is complete, it has become necessary to put an end to the practice of receiving cases in detached portions at various times. It is now often the case that the fee is paid at one time, the papers forwarded at another, the drawing at a third, and the model delivered at still a different period. Long intervals are often suffered to elapse between each stage of the procedure, and it is necessary at each step to search the books of the office to ascertain what the party has done before. In the multitude of applications, this state of things leads to the expenditure of much time, and, in case of similarity of names of parties, or of the character of inventions, is liable to be a cause of error. I have, therefore, deemed it necessary to adopt the following rule, which will be enforced on and after May 1, 1850:

All the papers and the fee in each application must be filed in this office at the same time, whether they be delivered by the applicant or his agent, or forwarded by mail; and in those cases where the party or his agent is in this city, then the model must be delivered at the same time. If the party or his agent is not on the spot, the model can be forwarded at their convenience.

This office cannot refuse to receive such papers and fees as may be forwarded to it at different intervals, but parties who persist in such a course are warned that this office will, hereafter, not acknowledge the receipt of the same, nor hold itself responsible for any errors that may arise from such irregular proceedings.

Not until these requirements are faithfully and minutely fulfilled, according to the instructions hereafter given, can any case receive the action of the office.

1st. Of the petition.-The inventor, having made a useful invention of discovery, must make application, in writing, to the Commissioner, signifying his desire of obtaining an exclusive property therein, and praying that a patent may be granted therefor. The usual form is annexed. The petition must be signed by the applicant.

FORM OF PETITION.

To the COMMISSIONER OF PATENTS:

The petition of John Fitch, of Philadelphia, in the county of Philadelphia, and State of Pennsylvania

RESPECTFULLY REPRESENTS:

That your petitioner has invented a new and improved mode of preventing steam-boilers from bursting, which he verily believes has not been known or used prior to the invention thereof by your petitioner. He therefore prays that letters patent of the United States may be granted to him therefor, vesting in him and his legal representatives the exclusive right to the same, upon the terms and conditions expressed in the act of Congress in that case made and provided; he having paid thirty dollars into the treasury, and complied with the other provisions of the said act. JOHN FITCH.

the United States at the Exhibition. In the one case, everything which was shown was costly; in the other, cheap. The compartments of Russia, splendidly fitted up and appointed, were attractive from the princely magnificence of the articles displayed. The compartments of the United States, on the contrary, decorated with great plainness, drew admiration from those who visited them by the adaptability of everything they contained to the purposes for which they were intended. Thousands never ceased to gaze with wonder on jewels, embroidery, velvets, silks, and furs, contributed from the various imperial establishments of St. Petersburgh and Moscow. There were others, however-and they, too, were counted by thousands before the Exhibition closed-who found-in the water pails, made by machinery, and furnished at one-quarter the usual price; in the pegged boots and shoes, between the upper leather and soles of which not a waxed end was drawn; in the improved household, barn, garden, and field implements; in the bell telegraphs, and spring chairs, and cooking ranges, and hot air furnaces, and camp bedsteads a degree of intelligent interest excited by the display in no other part of the building. The Russian exhibition was a proof of the wealth, power, enterprise, and intelligence of Nicholas; that of the United States an evidence of the ingenuity, industry, and capacity of a free and educated people. The one was the ukase of an emperor to the notabilities of Europe; the other the epistle of a people to the workingmen of the world.

The history of our portion of the exhibition-of the lack of all pecuniary aid from the government, of its early discouragements, vicissitudes, and trials, of its gradual emerging from darkness, of its stoutly fought battles, its victories and success, and of its hardly but fairly won honors at the close-is all too well known to the whole world to need recapitulation here. It is sufficient to say that we were not misunderstood. We might have sent far more of our productions to England; but that would only have confirmed, not altered, the verdict which the world has given us. We alone, of all people, exhibited the products of unfettered, untaxed, unpatronized labor. We showed the results of pure democracy upon the industry of men. We demonstrated the progressiveness of the human mind when in the enjoyment of liberty. And we alone, from among the assemblage of two-score nations, bore away the palm for intelligent labor.