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VARIOUS PROPERTIES
JEFFERSON, Thomas. Partly printed document signed ("Th: Jefferson"), as President, COUNTER-SIGNED BY SECRETARY OF STATE JAMES MADISON ("JAMES MADISON"), AND BY NAVY SECRETARY, ROBERT SMITH ("RT SMITH"), Washington, D. C., 4 May 1805. 2 pages, folio (15¾ x 12 3/8in.), accomplished in manuscript, ON PARCHMENT, large paper seal at lower left, with green ribbon and green ribbon stitched into left margin (parts of the ribbon coming away). Attractively engraved, headed "The United States of America, to all to whom these Letters Patent Shall Come." Slight discoloration at corners. With accompanying one-page description of the invention.
Details
JEFFERSON, Thomas. Partly printed document signed ("Th: Jefferson"), as President, COUNTER-SIGNED BY SECRETARY OF STATE JAMES MADISON ("JAMES MADISON"), AND BY NAVY SECRETARY, ROBERT SMITH ("RT SMITH"), Washington, D. C., 4 May 1805. 2 pages, folio (15¾ x 12 3/8in.), accomplished in manuscript, ON PARCHMENT, large paper seal at lower left, with green ribbon and green ribbon stitched into left margin (parts of the ribbon coming away). Attractively engraved, headed "The United States of America, to all to whom these Letters Patent Shall Come." Slight discoloration at corners. With accompanying one-page description of the invention.
JEFFERSON AND MADISON GRANT A PHYSIOGNOTRACE PATENT to "Daniel Atherton, Citizen." Atherton is taking advantage of the crucial modification Jefferson made in 1793 to the Patent Act, which encouraged not just original inventions but "new and useful improvements" to existing creations. In 1784, Gilles-Louis Chrétien invented the physiognotrace to draw the outline of an individual's face or form. In 1802, Chaerles Wilson Peale and John Isaac Hawkins jointly obtained a patent for an improved device that could trace a silhouette as small as two inches. Here, in 1805, Atherton wins his own patent for a machine that could "be made to take profiles smaller or larger by adding to, or diminishing" a brass lever. For the Congressional act which expanded the scope of the Patent Act, see lot 23.
JEFFERSON AND MADISON GRANT A PHYSIOGNOTRACE PATENT to "Daniel Atherton, Citizen." Atherton is taking advantage of the crucial modification Jefferson made in 1793 to the Patent Act, which encouraged not just original inventions but "new and useful improvements" to existing creations. In 1784, Gilles-Louis Chrétien invented the physiognotrace to draw the outline of an individual's face or form. In 1802, Chaerles Wilson Peale and John Isaac Hawkins jointly obtained a patent for an improved device that could trace a silhouette as small as two inches. Here, in 1805, Atherton wins his own patent for a machine that could "be made to take profiles smaller or larger by adding to, or diminishing" a brass lever. For the Congressional act which expanded the scope of the Patent Act, see lot 23.