had been little improved since the days of Rameses. He sowed his
wheat by hand, cut it with a sickle, flailed it out upon the
floor, and laboriously winnowed away the chaff.


In that same year, 1790, came a great boon and encouragement to
inventors, the first Federal Patent Act, passed by Congress on
the 10th of April. Every State had its own separate patent laws
or regulations, as an inheritance from colonial days, but the
Fathers of the Constitution had wisely provided that this
function of government should be exercised by the nation.* The
Patent Act, however, was for a time unpopular, and some States
granted monopolies, particularly of transportation, until they
were forbidden to do so by judicial decision.

* The Constitution (Article 1, Section 8, Clause 8) empowers
Congress: "To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by
securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive
Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries."


The first Patent Act provided that an examining board, consisting
of the Secretary of State, the Secretary of War, and the
Attorney-General, or any two of them, might grant a patent for
fourteen years, if they deemed the invention useful and
important. The patent itself was to be engrossed and signed by
the President, the Secretary of State, and the Attorney-General.
And the cost was to be three dollars and seventy cents, plus the
cost of copying the specifications at ten cents a sheet.