1877 U.S. Patent Office fire

August 2021 1877 fire in Washington, D.C. July 2021 1877 U.S. Patent Office fire Patent Office 1877 fire.jpg Patent Office 1877 fire U.S. Patent Office, Washington, D.C., USA 38.89778 -77.022936 yes 1877 09 24 Entire west and north wing of Patent Office building burnt. thumb|Repairing Patent Office burnt out parts thumb|Patent Office northern wing after fire thumb|Patent Office model room 1861–1865 thumb|White Bowstring Arch Truss Bridge, surviving model of the 1877 fire. The Patent Office fire of 1877 was the second of two major fires of the U.S. Patent Office. It occurred in the 1864 Patent Office Building of Washington, D.C., on September 24, 1877. The building was constructed to be fireproof, but many of its contents were not. About 80,000 models and 600,000 copy drawings were burned to some degree. No patents were completely lost, however (unlike the situation with the first Patent Office fire), and the Patent Office was soon reopened for recordings. History On July 4, 1836, the Patent Office became its own organization within the Department of State under the Patent Act of 1836. Henry Leavitt Ellsworth became its first commissioner. He started construction of a new fire-proof building, after the previous building had burned down in a disastrous fire. Architect Robert Mills was given instructions by Congress to design the building using fireproof construction material.Goodheart 2006 3 Mills used masonry vaulted ceilings that spanned the interior spaces for an open floor plan, cement plastered walls, and cantilevered stone staircases from floor level to floor level.Goodheart 2006 3 Construction of the building was finished in 1864.Keim 1874 29 The Patent Office fire started at about 11 am on September 24, 1877. It was reported in the newspaper that the fire started in the room that held the patent models. U.S. Patent Office on fire https://www.newspapers.com/clip/52956569/ Harrisburg Telegraph 1 Harrisburg, Pennsylvania September 24, 1877 Newspapers.com There was a considerable amount of flammable material in that area. Spontaneous combustion of patented chemicals has been given as one of the theories for the start of the fire.http://ipmall.info/hosted_resources/PatentHistory/posa37n.htm Patent Materials from Scientific American, The Fire in the U.S. Patent Office 37 new series - issue Jul 1877 – Dec 1877 Scientific American 15 224 13 October 1877 21 December 2011 https://archive.today/20130218031532/http://ipmall.info/hosted_resources/PatentHistory/posa37n.htm 18 February 2013 dead dmy-all Another theory was that a lens might have caught the sun's rays and focused them on a combustible object. Others claim that it was an unseasonably cold morning, and that a fire started by some copyists in their office grate emitted sparks that fell onto the roof and caught a wooden gutter screen on fire. The roof was constructed of wood, which led to a rapid ignition and a fast-moving disastrous building fire. The fire burned part of the upper portions of the north wing and the west wing, consuming half the building.Harper's Weekly Patent-Office Fire 13 October 1877 809–810 The Evening Star reported that the spectacle of the building going up in flames became extraordinarily shocking to the spectators as it turned into a calamity. Despite the fire-proof construction efforts the fire consumed the building and devoured some 87,000 patent models with their associated documents. Some of the important artifacts were saved, however, due to the extraordinary efforts of the Patent Office staff and some valiant firemen.Goodheart 2006 4 Models destroyed This second Patent Office fire was even more destructive than the first fire in 1836 at Blodget's Hotel. According to the person in charge of the models, about 87,000 models were burned to one degree or another and some 600,000 photo-lithographic drawings were damaged by fire and or ruined by water.Campbell 1891 89 Although the building may have been considered fire-proof, the contents were not. An early part of the conflagration was a storage room used for rejected and postponed models. October 26, 1877 Models destroyed by the fire at the American Patent-Office https://books.google.com/books?id=CVVHAQAAMAAJ&dq=%22Superintendent+of+Models%22,+1877+fire&pg=PA304 The Engineer 44 304 June 19, 2020 There were 37,000 postponed application models and 12,000 rejected cases, making the total damage tally around 136,000 patent models (of one type or another). The monumental building cost almost $3,000,000 in nineteenth-century dollars. https://books.google.com/books?id=D6hLAQAAMAAJ&dq=%22construction+of+the+Patent+Office+Building+its+repairs+furnishings+etc+nearly+%243,000,000%22&pg=PA131 Report of the investigation of the United States Patent office made by the President's commission on economy and efficiency December 1912 United States - President's Commission on Economy and Efficiency 131–132 Previous to the occurrence of the fire the Patent Office Building had been looked upon as a fireproof structure. A source reported the loss due to the fire as over a half a million dollars in value.Harte 1914 237 The Patent Office could loan out the rejected models to museums and other organizations; however, due to future potential patent infringement they were against such transfers to preserve the integrity of the inventor's idea. These models included metal-working machines, wood-working machines, agricultural implements, carriages, wagons, railroading, mechanical, hydraulic and pneumatic engineering. An example of the original Eli Whitney cotton gin was among the representative models destroyed. In the south and west wings of the Patent Office there were some 100,000 models that were not damaged. Reports of the time show about two-fifths of all the models were damaged either by fire or water. An estimated 200,000 drawings were hastily carried out of the building before they were damaged. In spite of these great monetary losses (many times those of the first Patent Office fire of 1836), there were no patents totally destroyed in the fire.Niemann 2006 130 There were duplicates of the drawings (a lesson learned from the first Patent Office fire in 1836) and it was just a matter of printing them again.Dobyns 1994 184–192 Despite the loss of the upper floors and some accumulated trash, the Patent Office was soon reopened. See also 1836 U.S. Patent Office fire 1973 National Archives fire References Sources http://www.myoutbox.net/pocamp.htm Washington D.C. The patent system of the United States, so far as it relates to the granting of patents Levin H. Campbell McGill and Wallace 1891 1137224127 Dobyns Kenneth W The Patent Office pony http://www.myoutbox.net/popch30.htm U.S. Government Printing Office 1994 978-0-9632137-4-7 http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/patent.html dead 2012-05-10 Back To The Future: One of Washington's most exuberant monuments—the old Patent Office Building—gets the renovation it deserves Adam Goodheart Smithsonian Magazine July 2006 https://web.archive.org/web/20120510055216/http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/patent.html 12 July 2021 Harte Bret The writings of Bret Harte https://books.google.com/books?id=7ErTAAAAMAAJ&dq=%22Although+the+government+spent+four+hundred+dollars+a+week+for+watchmen%22,+nobody+knew+just+when+and+where+the+fire+started,+and+it+had+made+great+headway+before+the+firemen+arrived&pg=PA237 Houghton, Mifflin & Company 1914 13326922 Keim DeB Randolph http://www.myoutbox.net/pokeim.htm Keim's Illustrated Guide to Museum of Models, Patent Office 1874 U.S. Government Printing Office 681967046 Niemann Paul More Invention Mysteries https://books.google.com/books?id=tx9Zkz0XqA4C&q=%22In%201877%22 Quincy, IL Horsefeathers Publishing Company 2006 978-0-9748041-1-8 External links Rothschild's Petersen Patent Model Museum timeline Category:1877 in Washington, D.C. 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