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
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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
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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
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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
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Total 285,460.28
Deduct amount of expenditures during the year 229,868.00
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Leaving a balance to the credit of the patent fund,
January 1, 1865 55,592.28
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Surplus of receipts over expenditures during
the year 1864 11,951.98
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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