I was recently alerted1 to an entry in John Q. Adams’ diary, pertaining to patents in the early days of the United States. The entry, from Dec. 27, 1804, reads:
“Next I called at Dr. [William] Thornton’s Office, acting under the Secretary of State as Commissioner of Patents; to speak with him regarding the application of a JW: Jacob Walsh, from whom I received some days since a letter, requesting my attention to this business. Dr. Thornton had got the patent nearly made out, but told me he thought it was not a new invention. Which indeed he says is the case of almost all of the applications for patents – and others are for things impossible – In the present state of the Law, a Patent cannot be refused to any person who takes the oath and pays his thirty dollars. The Doctor [Thornton] told me of many egregious impositions on the public under this system. One particularly by a clergyman of Bordentown, New Jersey, named Burgess Allison, who has a patent for improving spirits by filtration through charcoal, which had been known and practiced for many years.”
- My thanks to Karen Barzilay, who located this text as part of ongoing efforts by the Adams Papers Editorial Project at the Massachusetts Historical Society to put a searchable version of JQA’s diary online and available to all. Further details can be found here: https://www.masshist.org/publications/jqadiaries/index.php. ↵