Scientific American/The Patent Office Building

During the past two or three months, says the Washington Union, great changes have been taking place, both in this building itself and its contents. The north wing is steadily progressing, being now up to the third story, and built in a most substantial manner. The exterior wall on G street is of marble, while the rear one is granite. The west wing is occupied, in the first and second stories, by the clerks of the General Land Office; and there not being accommodations sufficient for them, the rooms heretofore occupied by the rejected models belonging to the Patent Office have been emptied of their contents, and are now being cleaned up and fitted for the use of the Land Office. Those rejected models have been carried up stairs and placed in the cases which were formerly filled with the curiosities brought home by the exploring expedition, etc. -- the latter having been removed to the Smithsonian Institution. But these cases are inadequate to contain this vast multitude of rejected models; and besides being filled to repletion, a large number are piled in heaps on top of the cases, and still the number increases. The inventive genius of our countrymen grows more and more prolific, and in spite of the large number of patents which are issued weekly, a great many applications are weekly rejected. The hall in the west wing is now in course of preparation to receive rejected models. There are nearly a hundred cases erected, or large size, and capable of holding many thousands of models, and this hall, which extends the whole length of the wing, will be exclusively devoted to the proper arrangement and exhibition of these models. While they were in the basement they could only be seen with great difficulty, as it was dark, and they were piled together indiscriminately, and the dampness of the place was also unfavorable to their preservation; but now they may be seen to better advantage, and an hour or two may be pleasantly and profitably spent in this manner. Among these models are patterns of all sorts of machinery: beehives of a great variety of shapes; churns, cider mills and cheese presses; rat traps, by which the Examiners were not to be caught; pistols, pumps and paddle wheels; stoves, steam boilers and steering apparatus of every description; improvements in household furniture and in coffins, in bridges, fences and gates, in steam engines and water filters. In one case may be seen all the varieties of lamps and lanterns that would seem capable of being devised by human ingenuity; and in another are galvanic batteries and magnetic telegraphs, calculating machines, an instrument for indicating the depth of water, a self-adjusting climatometer, and a self-adjusting quadrant. It is almost painful to think of the many weary hours of toil and sleepless nights of study to which this mass of inventions owed its parentage; and all for naught. They were weighed and found wanting; they would not stand the test, and were thrown among the rubbish in the basement of this building, to be at this late day brought to light and to furnish food for reflection to thinking men. Some of these models which we observed bore the date of 1838, having been in the office for twenty years, but the greater part have been collected within the last four or five years.

Among the other curiosities in this gallery is a case of Chinese models from Hong Kong, consisting of mills, water wheels, plows and harrows, and presented by Lieut. Gills, of the United States navy. There is an appropriateness in placing them here, for we do not believe a patent could be obtained for any of them, and they therefore belong among the rejected models.

Another case contains a town clock, made by the late Wm. Voss, of Washington. This is a beautiful piece of machinery; and can be placed upon any tower or building intended for such a purpose, and made to strike the hours or quarter hours (if desired) on a bell so as to be heard all over the city. The nature of the works will admit of from one to four dials, and will show the hour upon all of them. The price of this clock is eight hundred dollars. We have often heard the complaint that there is no town clock in Washington. Let this be said no longer, for there is one, and it is to be found among the rejected models. There it stands, mute and motionless, yet how suggestive. Another model, the first one which strikes the eye of the visitor on entering the hall, is that of the Washington monument. This also suggests a train of thought, which we will leave our readers to follow out.