Microscope-Related United States Patents: 1853-1915

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Microscope manufacturing in America began in the 2nd quarter of the 19th century. Just before that time, the few microscopes that had been readily available in this country had been imported primarily from France and England.(1, two) As mentioned by Gage,(1) the initially American microscope manufacturer of commercial significance was Charles A. Spencer (1813-1881). His initially microscope was produced about 1838. His earliest stands had been comparable to those made by the French maker Charles Chevalier and those of the English maker Andrew Pritchard.(3) Nonetheless, later in the century, the Spencer firm, along with a number of of the other newly established American producers, began to supply instruments getting a additional distinct American style. Countless of these newer instruments incorporated important innovations. As might be expected, some of these innovations had been perceived to have commercial value and, accordingly, patents applications were filed with the United States Patent Workplace to defend these inventions. For collectors and historians of antique microscopes, these early U.S. patent documents are a useful source of information. For this cause, the listing of issued U.S. patents presented herein was prepared. The majority of these patents were granted to American inventors, even though a number of foreign inventorsalso filed patents in the U.S. Both kinds of patents are included. The list contains microscope-associated U.S. patents that had been issued between the years 1853 to 1915. These patents were identified in a search of a commercial database that indexed the full text of patents granted since 1836. For the reason that of a fire at the U.S. patent office in 1836, patent documents developed prior to that time no longer exist. However, a listing of patent titles and the names of the inventors for patents granted in the years 1790-1825 has been reconstructed from other sources.(four) A search of both this list and the commercial database showed that there had been no microscope-associated patents granted prior to 1853. It was decided to restrict the listing to those patents issued just before 1916.

The database of patents contains the inventor's name, patent title, patent number, problem date, a brief description of the significance of the invention, and, exactly where identified, the firm to which the patent was assigned. The list is sorted based on the patent number and issue date. The list has been placed on the internet. With the online version, for each entry, clicking on the patent number will download the patent document. The url to access the web version is: . You can also view the list of patents with the patent drawings at:

References:

1. Gage, S. H., Microscopy in America (1830-1945), Trans. Amer. Microscopical Soc., LXXXIII, No. four, supplement, Chap IV, 27, 1964.

two. Wheatland, D. P., The Apparatus of Science at Harvard 1765-1800, Harvard University, 1969, 179-188.

3. Richards, O., Charles A. Spencer and his Microscopes. Rittenhouse, two, 1988, 70-81.

four. List of all U.S. Patents and Patentees: 1790 - 1829 ( )