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Celebrating 10 Million Utility Patents
Our colleagues at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Oice issued the 10 millionth utility
patent on Tuesday, June 19, 2018. This is a historic milestone for the agency and for
inventors in the United States. Did you know the National Archives holds 1,000,000 Utility
Patent Drawings and 138,388 boxes of Patent Case Files?
Utility Patent Drawings are 10” x 15” drawings with printed specifications that are
sometimes in color, while the Patent Case Files include the jacket, printed specifications
and drawings of the issued patent. The Case Files also include a wealth of information,
including: petitions, the applicant's initial specifications, oath of invention, reports by
patent attorneys, applicant's drawings, amendments to the petition, powers of attorney,
notices of allowances and fee payments, receipts for fees, and correspondence with
inventor(s) and their attorneys.
We love patent drawings. Some illustrate familiar objects and products, some may make
us nostalgic, some are beautiful and incredibly detailed drawings, and sometimes they
leave us scratching our heads. Weʼve gathered a few interesting (and a few odd!) patents
for this newsletter, but you can browse many more utility patent drawings in the Catalog.
The Civil War spawned many new patents to meet the demands of war. Patents were
issued that tried to improve the weapons of war such as the Improved Breech Loading
Cannon (above, le). There were also patents that advanced medicine and caring for
wounded soldiers including an Improved Artificial Leg (above, right) and an Improved
Ambulance Carriage (above, top) .
By todayʼs standards some patents seem bizarre and maybe even superfluous.
(Top, Le) G. Krichbaum's Device for Indicating Life in Buried Persons, 12/5/1882
(Top, Right) M. Goetze's Device for Producing Dimples, 5/18/1896
(Bottom, Le) P. Plant's Cork Swimming Suit, 11/21/1882
(Bottom, Right) J. C. Noyles' Saluting Device, 3/10/1869
(Top) Patent Case File No. 987,662, Flying Machine, Inventors Oriville and Wilbur Wright
(Middle, Le) G. Eastman Camera, 9/4/1888
(Middle, Right) Patent Drawing for K. C. Gillette's Razor, 11/15/1904
(Bottom, Le) Patent Drawing for T. A. Edison's Incandescing Electric Lamp, 11/28/1882
(Bottom, Right) C. L. Sholes Type Writing Machine
Canʼt get enough patents? Check out intern Brooke Engermanʼs Seven Patents to Delight
Your Steampunk Friends. Thanks to Danielle Sklarew, an intern in the National Archives
History Oice for helping to gather this list of patents!
Ten for 10 million
As a celebration of this milestone, be sure to check out USPTO's “Ten for 10 million”
campaign, which is featuring patent drawings that have transformed how we live,
work, and play, while celebrating the history of American innovation. Use the
hashtag #10MillionPatents on social media to join the celebration.
Citizen Archivist Road Trip Update!
We are cruising right along on our Citizen Archivist Road Trip! Since we began our virtual
road trip on June 1, more than 1,969 pages of records have been enhanced in Atlanta, St.
Louis, Kansas City, and Fort Worth. Weʼve heard from many of you who have been enjoying
transcribing the amazing records held in our field oices across the country.
Thanks to all our Citizen Archivists who have joined us for our Road Trip! Visit our Missions
page tomorrow as we reach the west coast and make a stop in Riverside, CA. You can help
us tag and transcribe American Indian records, bankruptcy and court records, Chinese
immigration records, genealogical records and much more!
Tackling Tricky Transcriptions
Many of the documents at the National Archives are handwritten records such as letters,
memos, and reports. We all know that transcribing these primary sources improves our
ability to read these documents, search for them, and use the information they contain,
Get Started Tagging and Transcribing!
but we also understand that sometimes these records are downright tricky to transcribe!
We want to give a special thanks to all of our citizen archivists who are helping unlock
history and especially Citizen Archivist DonnaDP who did a beautiful job transcribing this
Register of Indian Families recently.
DonnaDPʼs method of using the vertical bar | to indicate a column break helps organize the
information in an easy to read manner, while leaving a blank space indicates where there
isnʼt any data in the field. This simple method eliminates the need for lining up columns,
while also making it easy to read. Thanks, DonnaDP!
July 4 Celebration!
Celebrate July 4 with us! Join us on the steps of the National Archives Building in
Washington DC for a reading of the Declaration of Independence, musical performances,
and more! You can also join us for celebrations at our Presidential Libraries around the
nation, or join the online celebrations on our YouTube channel and Facebook page.
Learn more on our July 4 Celebration events page.
Questions or comments? Email us at cat[email protected]ov.
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