Beschreibung:

JEFFERSON, THOMAS, President . Document signed ("Th:Jefferson") as President, countersigned twice by Levi Lincoln as Attorney General and as Acting Secretary of State, Washington, D.C., 24 March 1801. 2 pages, folio, on two leaves, ON PARCHMENT, page 1 with engraved text accomplished in manuscript and with large papered seal of the United States affixed at left over pink silk ribbons which connect the two leaves, page 2 (recto of second leaf) with scribal text. Fine condition. President Jefferson grants a patent to "Israel Hatch, a Citizen of Massachusetts," who has "invented a new and unusual improvement in the mode of making and discharging chain and cleaver Shot...," described in detail on the second page as being "applicable to "ships, floating batteries, and most other modes of offensive and defensive military operation." A JEFFERSON-APPROVED PATENT FOR ARTILLERY ORDNANCE One of a small number of patents granted by Thomas Jefferson during his two terms as President. In 1790, Congress passed legislation to make the patenting of useful inventions simpler and cheaper than in Great Britain, where it cost from #70 (about $350) in 1815, to as much as #150 (about $1,250), in 1829. In contrast, American patentees paid a fee of only $30. "But the American law ultimately failed. The power to judge an application fell to the Secretary of State, an already overworked gentleman. When Jefferson held that office, he studied every application with care. He interpreted the law so strictly --an invention must be both workable and totally original -- that he issued only thirty-seven patents during his tenure...." (David Freeman Hawke, Nuts and Bolts of the Past: A History of American Technology, 1776-1860 , New York 1988, p.25).