The Presidential Patent Collection: Weaving Loom Patent

Hi, I’m Rich Beem. I’m a Chicago patent attorney and I’m talking about some unique items – one of a kind originals – in my collection of old patents and a patent model. First, referring to the old patent behind me, this is an original U.S. patent. It’s one of a kind; there are no copies in existence anywhere that I know of. This is an original that was given to the inventor. The government’s copy burned in 1836 when the patent office burned to the ground. This was handed down from in the family. It later came into the hands of collectors and it was collected by my predecessor from whom I bought it at auction. This patent was issued to William Harris. He was the inventor and the technology has to do with patent for a lathe or a loom for weaving. Weaving was very important technology in 1800. It took six weeks at this time to make a set of sheets. So anything that could be done to speed up the making of cloth was a very important invention, a very important technology. The filing fee for U.S. patent application at the time was thirty dollars. And this patent was signed by John Adams, as President of the United States, by Timothy Pickering, Secretary of State and by Charles Lee, Attorney General. Charles Lee was a Revolutionary War hero. One of the interesting things about this patent you can see how old it is, it’s on parchment, it has the signs of age. It has deep creases and discoloring. The ribbon is faded, the seal is faded. But it says right here where this patent was actually issued. It was in the city of Philadelphia. That was where the federal government was in 1800, when John Adams had signed this patent. John Adams had never been to Washington, D.C. at this point. He would move to Washington, D.C. the next year – in 1801 – to a half-built White House in the swamp. That’s the patent on the lathe or loom for weaving. You can see that it has a hand-written specification that is also written on parchment. I’m Rich Beem. I will continue on with other items in this collection of old patents and models and inventor letters. Thank you for joining me!