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Many Americans may not realize that Eli Whitney may not have been the actual inventor of the cotton gin, the device that revolutionized cotton production in the American South. Historical records indicate that a first working cotton gin was built in the year 1792 by a machinist, Sean Paul and used by a plantation owner named Joseph Watkins, who used the device on his plantation at lest two years before Whitney was granted the 3rd recorded patent on his cotton gin on March 14, 1794. Whitney’s filed patent, a copy of which still exists today. The credit given to Whitney for inventing such an important piece of agricultural machinery only emphasizes the importance of filing for and receiving a legal patent.
Since the first recorded U.S. patent, a potash process issued to one Samuel Hopkins in 1790, well over 5 and a half million patents have been granted by the U.S. Patent Office. On virtually every type of invention, process, and trademark imaginable. Just a few of the more famous patents will be mentioned here.
Following the passage of the U.S. Patent Act in 1790, the first patents, including Whitney’s cotton gin, and Samuel Colt’s first revolver (Feb. 25, 1836) were unnumbered. As more and inventions and new ideas began to be registered for patents, the U.S. Patent Office finally began issuing patent numbers, beginning with John Ruggles railroad wheels on July 13, 1936. Samuel Morse’s telegraph received patent no. 1647 in 1840 and an inventor named Charles Goodyear received patent No. 3633 in June, 1844 for his invention of rubberized fabric Although Sam Morse had invented the telegraph in 1840, he only patented his renowned Morse Code telegraph language in June, 1948, as a reissue of his original patent for the telegraph itself.
Little known inventors such as Walter Hunt and Alinzor Clark received patents for the safety pin (1849) and pitchfork (1850). A Jewish garment maker, Isaac Singer, received patent no. 13661 for the sewing machine in 1855, and Henry Bessemer received patent no. 16082 in November 1856 for his new process for making alloyed steel. The Bessemer Process literally revolutionized the fledgling steel making industry and is attributed to speeding up the Industrial Revolution all over the world.
The American Civil War resulted in a number of military hardware patents being issued, including Richard Gatling’s revolving barrel rapid fire weapon, otherwise known as the Gatling Gun, in 1862, and Christopher Spencer’s seven shot repeating rifle in 1863, which Confederate Army soldiers called “that damned Yankee rifle you loaded on Sunday and fired all week.”
More than 135,000 patents had been issued by the time French scientist Louis Pasteur received an American patent for his milk “Pasteurization process”; and 174,464 were on file when Alexander Graham Bell received his patent for the telephone.
Patents by Bell, Thomas Edison (electric light, phonograph, speaking telegraph), George Eastman (first roll film camera), Herman Hollerith (first computer in 1889) and others ushered in the technological age during the last part of the 19th Century. Interestingly enough, although the perpetual motion machine was patented by John Sutliff in 1882, and the first solar cell was patented by Edward Westen in 1888, only the solar cell is now coming into its own. Perhaps the availability of plentiful and cheap petroleum has delayed many inventions, including the perpetual motion machine, from preventing the present energy crises that has forced new attention on the development of alternative energy sources. Well. better late than never!
Sources: Pierce Law Center and Wikipedia
Written by IP Patent News
