the yearly number began to present a great increase. A hundred years ago (in 1765) the number of patents was thirty-one, and in the last year of the century it amounted to ninety-six. In 1830 the number was one hundred and eighty; in 1840, four hundred and forty; and during about nine. months of 1852, the closing year under the old law, it was four hundred and sixty-five. It is, therefore, evident by the table that it is within the last hundred years that any considerable amount of enterprise has been displayed in invention, but chiefly during the present century, and very notably since the introduction of railways, rather more than thirty years ago. The average cost of letters patent under this system was, according to an excellent authority,* four hundred pounds for England, Scotland, and Ireland. For England alone the average total cost, including expenses of agency, was three hundred pounds. The system was therefore very expensive, and was in addition so complex, and to the last degree unsatisfactory, that some societies sprang into existence for the purpose of obtaining reform. The matter was agitated by the Society of Arts, and, previous to the Exhibition of 1851, a bill was prepared and passed the legislature, giving tem * Mr. Hindmarch, Q.C., quoted in the appendix to the evidence of Mr. Woodcroft, in the Report of the Commissioners appointed to inquire into the working of the Law relating to Letters Patent for Inventions. C porary protection to all exhibitors of new inventions on the payment of a small sum. This was followed by a more complete measure; the knell of the old system was sounded, and, in October 1852, the Patent Law Amendment Act came into operation. This new law allowed the inventor to lodge a petition for a patent on the payment of the sum of five pounds, which may be considered to be equivalent to provisional protection. He would have four months to mature his plans, and, if he resolved to proceed, he could obtain his patent for three years from the date of his first application on the payment of a total further sum of twenty pounds. At the expiration of three years, his privilege might be extended for a further period of four years on the payment of fifty pounds; and, at the expiration of the seventh year from the date of his patent, he might extend his rights for another period of seven years on the payment of one hundred pounds; thus, making the protection to last for a total period of fourteen years at an expense of one hundred and seventy-five pounds, exclusive of agent's charges. It is very evident that the reform effected was a very substantial one. A very expensive and complex system was removed and a simple one substituted; a system that offered protection to the inventor to use his discovery for three years on the payment of so small a sum as twenty-five pounds, thus giving him full opportunity to use whatever means he could devise to bring his contrivance into public use before being called upon to pay any considerable amount. Such a system, together with the result that the patent would become void at a certain period unless the inventor elected to pay for a continuance of his privilege, satisfactorily met the views of most of those who had much considered the subject. An examination of some results of twelve years' working of the new Act will show how beneficially certain of its arrangements have operated. The following table shows the number of patents granted during the last twelve years of the old system: The numbers of applications for patents and complete patents, from the introduction of the new system to the end of 1862, have been as follow : C 2 The disproportion between these figures and those given in the previous table is enormous. By the removal of certain impediments, the number of patents granted in ten years and three months amounted to no less than 28,877, exceeding by 6,518 the total number granted in two hundred and thirtysix years under the old system. In addition to this there have been 11,376 applications which, from various reasons, were not matured into complete patents. The change in the law, therefore, gave an enormous stimulus at the patent office. The sudden rise from about five hundred yearly to two thousand is very striking, and appears to be a good sign, whether it is due to any incentive given to inventive skill by the change in the law, or chiefly to inducements given to persons to take patents who would have been deterred from it by the old complex and expensive machinery. The following table will show in what directions many of the patents and appli cations have been distributed. Printed indices for 1863 and 1864 have not yet been published, and the figures for those years cannot therefore be safely given. Railways and Railway Carriages. I. Permanent Way, Rails, Rail-joints, Chairs and Sleepers; II. Railway Switches, Points, Crossings and Turntables. IV. Railway Buffers and Breaks; Retarding and Stopping Trains; Telegraphs (Electric). Telegraphic Printing Apparatus. Steam and other Boilers. Cleansing and Preventing Incrustation of Boilers; Water-feeding Apparatus for Boilers. |