The Presidential Patent Collection: A Letter Written by Thomas A. Edison

Hi, I’m Rich Beem. I’m a patent attorney and I would like to tell you a little bit about my collection of old, original patents signed by Presidents, Secretary of State, and Attorney General of the United States. Also a couple important inventors and letters that they wrote that are part of the collection. First, there is a patent here – this is an original patent, it’s one of a kind – the government might not even have a copy of this because the government’s copies of patents burned in 1836 when the then new patent office – which is now called the old patent office – was first being built. This patent is on a wooden still. I find it interesting because I worked in a distillery when I was in college and it certainly didn’t involve a wooden still. But that was technology that was important in the building up of this country and its part of the history of the United States and the history of technology. This patent was signed by James Madison as President of the United States and by James Monroe as Secretary of State. It also was signed by William Pinkney as Attorney General of the United States. And you can see the beautiful script – the handwriting of the inventor – John James Giraud, a citizen of the United States, who invented this wooden still. Continuing in the explanation of these documents, this is a letter that was written and signed by the famous Thomas A. Edison. It’s very short. It was written from Glenmont which was his family estate in Llewellyn Park. He’s writing to the Saint Louis Smelting and Refining Company. “Gentlemen, do you ever receive ores containing bismuth? I have a new use for it and want to find a supply of ore or residuum containing it. Yours truly, Thomas A. Edison.” He had a very distinctive signature. This was written in Orange, New Jersey on December 26th, 1907. A little more than 100 years ago. This was the day after Christmas. Thomas Edison was a very hard working man. We think that he was at work on batteries. Edison had about a thousand patents on all different kinds of technologies. One of those technologies was batteries. I’m Rich Beem, Chicago patent attorney, and we will continue our tour of the patent collection – The Presidential Patent Collection – in the next room. Thank you for joining me.