The patent act of March 2, 1861 (section 16), provided that all patents thereafter granted should remain in force for a term of seventeen years from the date of issue, and the extension of such patents was prohibited.

The consolidated patent act of 1870, while providing that patents should be granted for a term of seventeen years, also provided that patents granted prior to March 2, 1861, might, upon due application and a proper showing, be extended by the Commissioner of Patents for a term of seven years from the expiration of the first term.

By the revision of the patent laws in 1874 the prohibition against the extension of patents was dropped, and since that time Congress has had the power to extend Letters Patent. Congress extended five patents granted under the act of 1836, and in nine instances authorized patentees to apply to the Commissioner of Patents for extension of their patents. So far as I have been able to discover, no patent granted for a term of seventeen years has been extended by Congress.

It was not until 1842 that the statute was passed authorizing the grant of patents for designs. Under that act design patents were granted for seven years. Subsequently provisions were made for granting them for terms of three and one-half, seven, and fourteen years, at the election of the applicant.

By the act of March 2, 1861. the Board of Examiners-in-Chief was established. Prior to that time, and during the incumbency of Commissioner Holt, temporary boards of examiners to decide appeals had been appointed by him, and later on he created a permanent board of three examiners who were to decide on appeal rejected cases and submit their decisions to him for approval.

The act of 1870 made the first provision for an Assistant Commissioner and an Examiner of Interferences. Another provision in that act was the power given the Commissioner, subject to the approval of the Secretary of the Interior, to establish regulations for the conduct of proceedings in the Office.

On January 1, 1898, an act passed March 3, 1897, went into force. Some of the provisions of this act were that applications for patents should be completed and prepared for examination within one year after the filing of the application and that the applicant should prosecute the same within one year after an action thereon or it should be regarded as abandoned (prior to that time two years was the limit); that an inventor should be debarred from receiving a patent if his invention had been first patented by him or his legal representatives or assigns in a foreign country, provided the application for the foreign patent had been filed more than seven months prior to the filing of the application in this country, and that if the invention for which a patent was applied for had been patented or described in any printed publication in this or any foreign country for more than two years prior to the application a patent could not issue.

The first provision for affording accommodations for the Patent Office was in 1810, when Congress authorized the purchase of a building for the General Post-office and for the office of the Keeper of Patents. The building purchased was known as "Blodgett's Hotel," and stood on the site now occupied by the south front of the building until recently occupied by the Post-office Department, and now used by several bureaus of the Interior Department. The east end of this building was used for the records, models, etc., of the Patent Office. This building was destroyed by fire December 13, 1836. On July 4, 183G, an act was passed appropriating $108 000 for the erection of a suitable building for the accommodation of the Patent Office, and within that month the erection of the building was begun.

It was the present south front of the Patent Office, excluding the south ends of the east and west wings. The basement (which is now the first or ground floor) was to be used for storage and analogous purposes, the first or portico floor for office rooms, and the second floor was to be one large hall with galleries on either side, and to have a vaulted roof. This hall was to be used for exhibition purposes, for the display of models of patented and unpatented inventions, and also as a national gallery of the industrial arts and manufactures.

During the erection of the Patent Office building temporary quarters were provided in the City Hall. In the spring of 1840 the building was completed and the Office moved into it. The sum of $422.011.65 was expended on this building. The patented models were then classified and exhibited in suitable glass cases, while the national gallery was arranged for exhibition of models and specimens.

By the act of March 3, 1849, the Interior Department was established and the Patent Office attached thereto. This same act appropriated $50,000 out of the patent fund to begin the east or Seventh street wing, which was completed in 1852 at a cost of $600,-000, $250,000 of which was taken from the revenue of the Patent Office. In 1852 the plans for the entire building, as it now stands, were prepared. The west wing was completed in 1856 and cost $750,000. Work on the north or G street wing was begun the same year. In 1867 this wing was finished at a cost of $575.000. The entire building cost $2,347,011.65.

Since July 28, 1836, 667,173 patents for inventions, and since 1842 34,018 patents for designs have been issued by this office. Many of these patents are for minor improvements, but among them may be found a very large number covering the most remarkable and valuable inventions, which have added untold sums to the world's wealth, revolutionized the old arts, created new ones, brought old-time luxuries within the reach of all, and made life doubly worth living. These contributions have come from men and women, white and colored. To many inventors more than a hundred patents have been issued. The following are some of the inventors who have received more than that number between 1872 and 1900, both years inclusive: