The first inventor to avail himself of the advantages of the new
Patent Act was Samuel Hopkins of Vermont, who received a patent
on the 31st of July for an improved method of "Making Pot and
Pearl Ashes." The world knows nothing of this Samuel Hopkins, but
the potash industry, which was evidently on his mind, was quite
important in his day. Potash, that is, crude potassium carbonate,
useful in making soap and in the manufacture of glass, was made
by leaching wood ashes and boiling down the lye. To produce a ton
of potash, the trees on an acre of ground would be cut down and
burned, the ashes leached, and the lye evaporated in great iron
kettles. A ton of potash was worth about twenty-five dollars.
Nothing could show more plainly the relative value of money and
human labor in those early times.

Two more patents were issued during the year 1790. The second
went to Joseph S. Sampson of Boston for a method of making
candles, and the third to Oliver Evans, of whom we shall learn
more presently, for an improvement in manufacturing flour and
meal. The fourth patent was granted in 1791 to Francis Baily of
Philadelphia for making punches for types. Next Aaron Putnam of
Medford, Massachusetts, thought that he could improve methods of
distilling, and John Stone of Concord, Massachusetts, offered a
new method of driving piles for bridges. And a versatile
inventor, Samuel Mulliken of Philadelphia, received four patents
in one day for threshing grain, cutting and polishing marble,
raising a nap on cloth, and breaking hemp.

Then came improvements in making nails, in making bedsteads, in
the manufacture of boats, and for propelling boats by cattle. On
August 26, 1791, James Rumsey, John Stevens, and John Fitch (all