The First Patent

The First Patent
Samuel Hopkins, of Pittsford, Vermont, received Patent No. 1 on July 31, 1790, for an improvement "in the making Pot ash and Pearl ash by a new Apparatus and Process." The patent was signed by President George Washington, Attorney General Edmund Randolph, and Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson. Only two other patents were granted that year, one for a new candle-making process and the other the flour-milling machinery of Oliver Evans.
Only after 1955 were the original documents for Hopkins' patent located, together with a detailed disclosure and licensing prospectus he published in 1791. These have helped reveal that the patent was important not only because it was the first of its kind but also because it was vitally linked the nation's early economy. In fact, potash was America's first industrial chemical.