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In the SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN of January 29 we published an advance statement of the business of the United States Patent Office last year, to which but little is to be added from the official report of the Commissioner, which has just appeared. A full abstract of the report appears in the current issue of the SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN SUPPLEMENT. The report is made by Acting Commissioner A. P. Greeley, upon whom the duties of the office devolved for so great a portion of the year, on account of the illness and subsequent death of the former Commissioner, Gen. Butterworth, and shows the largest business ever before transacted in one year in the history of the Patent Office, there having been 47,904 applications for patents and 23,794 patents and reissues. The receipts of the year were 1.375,641.72, or 252,748.59 above the expenditures--and the latter amount, carried to the balance already standing in the Treasury of the United States on account of the patent fund, brings the total up to 4,971,438.06. It is perhaps futile, at this juncture, to more than call attention, as we have done so many times before, to the substantial wrong inflicted upon inventors by the diversion of so great a sum from the fees which they have paid to the government, when the needs of t\;te Patent Office for a larger force of examiners and clerks, and for more commodious and convenient quarters in which to transact the business, are so well known. The appropriations made by Congress for the work of the office have been so meagei- that, although the fees received for patents are so lmgely in excess of the expenditures, it has not been possible to increase the force or facilities to meet the steadily enlarging field of work, and the number of applications awaiting action at the close of the year was 11,882, of which 7,858 had not been taken up for examination. Many of these applications had been waiting three or four months for examination, and some of them more than six months, to the serious injury of the appli cants and the detriment of the public. Of the patents granted last year, more were issued to citizens of Connecticut, in proportion to population, than to those of any other State--1 to every 786 inhabitants. Next in order were: Massachusetts, 1 to every 1,180 ; District of Columbia, 1 to every 1,316 ; New Jersey, 1 to every 1,377 ; Rhode Island, 1 to every 1,421 ; New York, 1 to every 1,585. The fewest patents in proportion to inhabitants were: South Carolina, 1 to every 38,371 ; North Carolina, 1 to every 17,397 ; Mississippi, 1 to every 16,120; Alabama, 1 to every 15,598; and Georgia, 1 to every 14,133. Of patents granted to citizens of foreign countries, 706 were for England, 551 for Germany, 286 for Canada, 222 for France, 58 for Austria-Hungary, 48 for Scotland, 45 for Belgium, 44 for Switzedand, 32 for Sweden, 30 for New Zealand, 30 for Victoria, 21 for Russia, 19 for New South Wales, 17 for Ireland, 13 for the Netherlands, 10 each to Denmark and Italy, 9 each to India, Mexico and South African Republic, and 5 each to Norway and South Australia. The development of industries through patented inventions is treated of at some length in the report, and attention is called to the number of inventions of the highest industrial and commercial value for which the patents have expired. These include the cotton gin, the sewing machine, the self-binding harvester, barbed wii-e fencing, the roller mill for flour milling, the sulphite paper process, the dynamo and electric motor, important inventions in typewriters, the telephone, and many others, in the earlier forms in which they were brought before the public. It is to be remembered, however, in regard to most patents of high importance that the original inventions afford but the first steps in opening up new and more varied fields of industry, calling for additional improvements and the exercise of further inventive genius. It is noted that the most remarkable industrial development, due principally to patented inventions, is in the line of electrical work, and within the term of patents now in force or but recently expired. This includes the manufacture of electrical apparatus and supplies, the furnishing of electricity for lighting and power purposes, electric railways and the telephone, an enormous industry, which has grown up entirely within the last twenty years. Although the electric railway is only about ten years old, the total mileage of these roads had increased, up to October last, to 18,765 miles, with an invested capital of about 1,000,000,000, and the manufacture of cars and motors to meet this great demand has become a regularly established industry affording employment to many thousands. The bicycle industry is also referred to as showing a most wonderful development, the product of 1897 having been over 1,000,000 wheels, and the exports of cycles for the year being valued at 6,902,736. The numerous industries which contribute to this manufacture, and the great number of inventions by the means of which it has been brought to its present state of perfection, are matters of common knowledge. Among other comparatively new industries, specially noted as peculiarly the product of our patent system, are the manufacture of typewriters and typewriter supplies, the cash register and cash carrier, photographic apparatus and materials, the development of the basic steel business, the manufacture of aluminum, etc., the Commissioner concluding that "to the stimulus afforded by the Patent Office is due the creation of these Hew industries and the very great developiuentof recent years in the older industries. It is to the stimulus to invention given by our patent system that the great increase in our exports is largely due, and it is on American invention, as fostered and stimulated by the patent system, that we may confidently depend for ability to maintain the high rate of wages paid to American workmen, and yet compete successfully in the markets of the world with nations where the workman receives but a meager return for his labor.".
