Historic Inventors and Their Inventions

Books and Articles Arranged by Subject

Level 4, Patents/Tax Room T223.D7 A45 2000
Subject Matter Index of Patents for Inventions Issued by the United States Patent Office from
1790 to 1873, Inclusive. [Reprint.] Series Title: America in Two Centuries, An Inventory. North Stratford, NH: Ayer Company Publishers, Incorporated, 2000.

This is one of several reprints of the 1874 ed. published by the Government Printing Office, Washington D.C. (See Below). It is a three-volume set, arranged alphabetically by subject of invention. Entries also lists inventor’s name, inventor’s city and state of residence, date of patent grant, and patent number. Although there is no index by inventor’s last name, this is still the best source for identifying historic inventors and inventions.

Level 3, Federal Documents C 21:
United States Patent Office. Annual Report of the Commissioner of Patents. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office. 1843 – 1919. Incomplete.

Also known as the Patent Office Report, the arrangement of this report varies from year to year. It usually consists of two parts: Agriculture and Mechanics. From 1853 – 1868, the Mechanics part was published in two volumes. The first volume contains a list of patents by subject and patentee. The Annual Report was published until 1965, but in 1920 the index portion began being published under the title of Index of Patents Issued from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (see below.) In addition to the indexes, the front matter of this report contains a wealth of interesting historical information, such as number of patent applications filed and patents granted, and number of patents issued in foreign countries.

Level 3, Federal Documents C 21.5/2:
United States Patent Office. Index of Patents Issued from the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
Part Two: Index to Subject of Inventions. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office.

The Index of Patents is a cumulative index which list patents granted in a given year. This section is arranged alphabetically by class and subclass. Entries also list the inventor’s name and any assignment information that was known at the time of issue, patent title, patent number, and date of issue. From 1843 – 1919 the index is actually part of the Annual Report of the Commissioner of Patents (also known as the Patent Office Report). Often it is bound separately– particularly from 1872, when it began listing references to volume and page numbers of the Official Gazette. (See next entry).

Level 3, Federal Documents C 21.5:
United States Patent and Office. Official Gazette of the United States Patent Office.
Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office. 1872 –

This source is arranged numerically, but the patents are organized by class and subclass before they are numbered, so it has a general subject arrangement as well. Each issue has two indexes – one an alphabetical list of inventions, and the other an alphabetic list of inventors. Index entries also contain the patent number, date of issue, inventor’s city and state of residence, and any assignment information that was known. The Official Gazette contains bibliographic information, a drawing (if one was submitted), and at least one claim reprinted from the patent document.

Books and Articles Arranged Alphabetically by Inventor

Level 3, Federal Documents C 21.5/2:
United States Patent and Trademark Office. Index of Patents Issued from the United States
Patent and Trademark Office. Part One: Patentee/Assignee Index. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office.

This section is arranged alphabetically by name of inventor (and assignee, if that was known at the time of issue.) Entries also list the patent title, patent number, date of issue, and class/subclass.

Level 3, Federal Documents I 23.7: 874/1-3
United States Patent Office. List of Patents for Inventions and Designs, Issued by the United
States from 1790 – 1847, with the Patent Laws and Notes of Decisions of the Courts of the United States for the Same Period: Compiled Under the Direction of Edmund Burke, Commissioner of Patents. Washington, D.C.: J & S Gideon, 1847.

Level 3, Federal Documents S 1.2: P 27/2
United States Patent Office. A Digest of Patents Issued by the United States, from 1790 – January 1, 1839, Published by Act of Congress Under the Superintendence of the Commissioner of Patents, Henry L. Ellsworth, To Which is Added the Present Law Relating to Patents. Washington, D.C.: Peter Force, 1840.

Each of these reports arranges patents alphabetically by “class,” although the classes are not numbered as is customary, so it is actually a subject arrangement. At the end of each of the “class” sections there is an index by inventor’s name. Because of this, these original reports can be more useful than the reprints.

Level 5, Q127.U6 U485 1973
The New American State Papers 1789 - 1860: Science and Technology. Prof. Thomas C.
Cochran, ed. Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources, Inc., 1973. v.4-5.

This 14 volume series draws together materials from the original American State Papers (published between 1832 and 1861); U.S. Congressional Serial Set volumes (published continuously since 1817); and documents from the Legislative Section of the National Archives. Volumes 4 and 5 relate to patents, and reprint many interesting reports.

 

Articles about Inventors Listed by Geographic Region

Calkin, Homer L. and Corrine Calkin. “Iowa Inventors and Inventions Part One.” The
Palimpsest L (1969): 369 - 432.

Calkin, Homer L. and Corrine Calkin. “Iowa Inventors and Inventions 1843 - 1873 Part Two.”
The Palimpsest L (1969): 433 - 481.

Special Collections, CS42 .S64
Comfort, Jan. “South Carolina Inventors and Inventions 1790 - 1873.” The South Carolina
Magazine of Ancestral Research XXV (1997): 123 - 136.

Fulghum, R. Neil. North Carolina Patents, 1790 - 1873. Raleigh, North Carolina: North
Carolina Museum of History, 1979.

Holsclaw, Birdie. “Early Colorado Inventors: Colorado Patent Models in the Cliff Peterson
Collection 1852 - 1890.” The Colorado Genealogist 49 (1988): 34-36.

Marhenke, Chris. “Florida Inventors.” [Electronic Resource]. Not yet available to the public. (Printouts distributed to Florida PTDLs). 2002.

Petersen, Cliff. Original United States Patent Models by Georgia Inventors, 1808 - 1899: Alpha-sort by Inventor's Last Name. Santa Monica, CA: Cliff Petersen Collection, 1987.

Sharrer, Terry G. “Patents by Marylanders, 1790 - 1830.” Maryland Historical Magazine
71(1976): 50 - 59.

Walston, Mark. “Maryland Inventors and Inventions 1830 - 1860.” Maryland Historical
Magazine 80 (1985): 66 - 93.

"Wisconsin Inventors." Badger History 23 (May 1970).

Databases

Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. “From Air Brakes to Zinc Furnaces: Pittsburgh and Allegheny
City Patentees 1790 – 1879.” [Electronic Resource]. Retrieved June 28, 2002, from
http://www.clpgh.org/clp/Scitech/invent/

Great Lakes Patent and Trademark Center. Detroit Public Library. “African-American Inventors
Database.” [Electronic Resource]. Retrieved June 28, 2002 from http://www.detroit.lib.mi.us/glptc/aaid/index.asp

Wyoming State Library. “Wyoming Inventors Database.” [Electronic Resource]. Retrieved
June 28, 2002, from http://cowgirl.state.wy.us/inventors/

Special Materials Available in the Patent / Tax Room

United States Department of Commerce. Patent and Trademark Office. Name and Date Patents July 31, 1790 – July 2, 1836. Washington, D.C.: Patent and Trademark Depository Library Program, August 19, 1999.

United States Department of Commerce. Patent and Trademark Office. Patent and Trademark Office Collection of Historical and Interesting U.S. Patents in Celebration of Our Nation’s Bicentennial. Microfilm Index. Indexed by Bruce B. Cox and Amy K. England. Washington, D.C.: Patent and Trademark Depository Library Program, April 1987.

United States. National Archives and Records Service. Additional Improvement Patents, 1837 – 1861. Special List no. 39. Compiled by James A. Paulauskas. Washington, D.C.: General Services Administration, 1977.

United States. National Archives and Records Service. Preliminary Inventory of the Records of the Patent Office (Record Group 41). Compiled by Forrest R. Holdcamper. Washington, D.C.: National Archives Editorial Division, November 1966.

United States Patent Office. “Historical Notices of Inventions from Archives of the States.” Report of the Commissioner of Patents for the Year 1849, Part 1: Arts and Manufactures. Washington, D.C.: Office of Printers to the Senate, 1850.

United States Patent Office. “Papers and Abstracts Relating to Early American Inventors from
the Archives of States.” Report of the Commissioner of Patents for the Year 1850, Part 1: Arts and Manufactures. Washington, D.C.: Office of Printers to House of Reps., 1851.

Women Inventors

United States Department of Labor. Women's Bureau. Women's Contributions in the Field of
Invention: A Study of the Records of the United States Patent Office. Bulletin of the Women's Bureau, No. 28. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1923.

United States Patent Office. Women Inventors to whom Patents have been Granted by the
United States Government 1790 - July 1, 1888. Compiled under the Direction of the Commissioner of Patents. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1888.

United States Patent Office. Women Inventors to whom Patents have been Granted by the
United States Government: July 1, 1888 to October 1, 1892: Appendix No. 1. Compiled under the Direction of the Commissioner of Patents. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1892.

United States Patent Office. Women Inventors to whom Patents have been Granted by the
United States Government: October 1, 1892 to March 1, 1895: Arranged Chronologically and by Classes. Appendix No. 2. Compiled under the Direction of the Commissioner of Patents. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1895.