American inventors' debt to the institute

✍ Scribed by Evelyn S Paniagua

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1949
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 368 KB
• Volume: 247
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0016-0032
• DOI: 10.1016/0016-0032(49)90895-9

✦ Synopsis

One of The Franklin Institute's many claims to fame is its Library's unusually complete collection of U. S. and foreign patent specifications, dating back almost to the inception of The Institute. This collection of information has been of incalculable aid to American inventors and engineers, in enabling them to avoid duplication of effort by seeing what has already been done.

In retrospect it would seem that the very moment The Institute made known its intention to collect information on patent specifications, its laudable purpose would be recognized, and the Government would hasten to offer its cooperation. However, an examination of the early records 2 shows quite the opposite to be true; in fact, the head of the U. S. Patent Office, Dr. William Thornton, proved