Using Patents to Teach History

Author(s): Cai Guise-Richardson

Source: OAH Magazine of History , July 2010, Vol. 24, No. 3, History of Technology
(July 2010), pp. 45-48
Published by: Oxford University Press on behalf of Organization of American
Historians
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/25701422

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 Teaching Strategy Cai Guise-Richardson

Using Patents to Teach History

The application is 358 pages long. It bears T. A. EDISON. of doing things i
the number 7,479,949. It was filed in BltotriO'Ltmp. show changes in
No. 223,898. PaUntftd J?n. 27.1880.
2007 and approved in 2009. It is un plish as well as d
likely that you know this patent by number. But similar end resu
the odds are that you have heard of, and might of patentees led
even own, the technological marvel that it pro pact; U.S. histor
tects. The abstract of this patent begins: "A gins is hard to i
computer-implemented method for use in con are subtle or non
junction with a computing device with a touch around you, wh
screen display, applying one or more heuris physical results o
tics . . . ." The first inventor listed is Steven
P. Jobs. By now, perhaps you have guessed that Accessing P
the marvel in question is the iPhone, designed, Today teachers a
manufactured, and sold by Apple Computer. to almost every
Since we live in the early twenty-first century, A few thousand
we have a feel for the world?the current his inan 1836 fire an
torical context?that surrounds this amazing the remainder ar
device. We know, based on our own experi uspto.gov> or <h
ence, what a "touch screen" is. And we know ents>. Patents ar
how this technology has affected our lives. But logical sequence,
since we cannot jump back into the past in a fied during the p
time machine?at least not yet?we need some
^^^^
design patents n
help in recapturing and reconstructing the cated by an R or
historical context of previous technological ad :- ' ; ?y - registered betw
vances or even ideas for such advances. In this cessed by enteri
Considered the most prolific invent
regard, patent applications?their drawings, ment or the pate
Thomas Edison (1847-1931) secu
descriptions, and claims?offer a tantalizing is not possible at
patents and held many more abroad
glimpse at someone else's hopes and dreams. part of Edison's 1976 patents
innovation, by
howev
They show human curiosity in action, the be plication of masspatent office.
production Y
and te
liefs and goals of real people at some point in creative process.date to locate
Though a
he did
history, technological ideas in physical form. the idea for the can
lighteasily search
bulb, Edison d
Behind every patent lies a web of stories which improve existing technology
character by u
recogn
make up the complex and fascinating history filament. In 1879, h's prototype r
Google patents. F
nated for more than forty hours
of technology. This article offers teachers some things get easier
a patent (shown above) in 1880. (C
ideas on how to use patents and their associ able by date and
Patent Office)
ated narratives to help bring history to life for fully indexed by
their students. Even without
tool, students and teach
What Is a Patent? of patents. One can lear
Patents are essentially contracts through which the inventor of a pro ing a date, month, or y
cess or technique makes information available to the public in return and approaches occupied
for a limited-time monopoly. In the United States, the patent system alone to discover inventi
is rooted in the Constitution. Article I, Section 8 authorizes Congress Researchers curious abo
"[t]o promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for of the fact that many p
limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their Students can begin wit
respective Writings and Discoveries." The patent itself is a document Edison and incandescen
explaining the discovery, how it is constructed or performed, and what and people. Even a nov
is claimed as a rightful monopoly due to its novelty. All patents in edge of a given techniqu
clude a description and list of claims; many include drawings or were patent to another. With
accompanied by physical models. Often the inventor explains why the Google, you can look fo
discovery is needed. Patents are useful as documents or designs re "shoddy," "better mouse
flecting the ways people understood the needs and appropriate ways try entering the name o

OAH Magazine

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as "squeegee," "platypus," or "food poisoning." Websites such as the (Ho Model.) n ' 8heets?Sheet 1.
National Inventors Hall of Fame (<http://www.invent.org/hall_of_ H, HOLLEBITH.
ABT OF OOMPILIlfG STATISTICS.
fame/i_i_search.asp>) can also be useful. Take names acquired from
such sites, type them and the magic word "patents" into Google or No. 395,782. Pateated Jan. 8, 1889.
another search engine, and specific patent numbers will usually pop
up. From there you can move to the U.S. Patent Office site or Google
Patents and pull up PDF files complete with description and pictures.
In some cases, the search engine will take you directly to sites contain
ing a PDF.
Asking students to go to Google Patents and find three or five
unique patents on a specific topic (paddle-wheelers in the mid-nine
teenth century, gadgets for automobiles in the 1910s and 1920s, pre
prepared food in the late nineteenth century) can teach skills as well as
help reinforce content. A scorecard posted on the office door or course
website lets students check if their selections are different from those
other students have found. The hunt for a unique set of patents com
pels students to try less obvious strategies than they are accustomed
to when searching the Web. Within the confined but rich realm of
patent records, they learn the importance of thinking through relevant
search terms, pursuing links, and following leads.

Visual Evidence
One of the most enticing aspects of patents is that they include visual
as well as written evidence. Patents for mechanical devices are often
accompanied by detailed drawings, in addition to written descriptions

of how the technology works and what novelty the inventor claims to
have introduced. Consequently, patents are especially effective for
reaching visual and experiential learners. By examining drawings,
such students can often perceive how the device worked and envision
how users operated it. From that, they may infer important lessons
regarding the social conditions that prevailed at the time. Pictures of
the massive diggers used in hard-rock mining, for instance, provide
graphic statements of the ways nineteenth-century Americans en
gaged the environment of the West.
Although such illustrations can help engage student interest,
they have limits. Typically, the illustrations show the patented devices
completely devoid of context. Patents for pneumatic drills, explosive
charges, and other devices used in hard-rock mining, for instance, will
not show the miners who worked in loud, dusty, and claustrophobic
conditions. Students will have to infer the sweat, dirt, and fear that
accompanied such activities. Supporting documents, such as photos
and illustrations available at the Library of Congress, can help set the
machines in human context. For user-friendly descriptions of many
technical devices, try searching documents in the Making of America
website (<http://dlxs2.library.cornell.edu/rn/moa/>). Enter the inven
tor's name or terms from the patent title for a quick and dirty search.
Yet if the illustrations in patents have limits, the descriptions
and claims often hold unexpected insights. Patents frequently lay
out grand claims for what the invention might accomplish. Such ex
planations can reveal a great deal about existing practices in various
trades and industries, as well as broad and common assumptions.
Patents might, for instance, specify in significant detail how a tech
nique might save materials or alter work practices for certain groups.
Such descriptions often reveal prevailing social conditions and as
sumptions regarding matters such as race, class, gender, or age (e.g.
#199,774 of 1874, Improvement in Kindergarten Weaving-Needles).
Why are some objects defined as female, and others male? The claims
that inventors make tell us about the dreams and aspirations of their
^kXJm ME
^V^y V^^P " ^^5=r-\
Before 1890, it took the U.S. Census Bureau up to ten years to tabu
late the data from each decennial census collection. Herman Hol
lerith was a U.S. Census Bureau employee who entered a contest
to invent a machine that could speed up the process. Patented in
1889, the Hollerith Tabulator counted punch cards to process raw
data into basic statistical information. Because they could perform
these operations at rates exponentially faster than existing technol
ogy. Hollerith's machines were widely utilized by governments and
businesses alike. Hollerith founded the company that would even
tually become International Business Machines (IBM). (Courtesy of
the U. S. Patent Office)
times (#456,831 of 1891, describes an engine "for practically and eco
nomically transforming heat into mechanical energy without increase
in entropy"). They prompt us to inquire why people considered certain
ends desirable while sometimes overlooking qualities we might see
as advantageous. What, for example, is considered environmentally
friendly, efficient, or better at the time?
Mysteries
Indeed, part of what makes patents such useful teaching tools is that
they are such obviously incomplete stories. Each patent presents us
with a small mystery. Who were these inventors? Did they invent any
thing else? What were they trying to accomplish? Why did they care
about this? How did they come up with the idea, and why did they
take the approach they did? What became of their invention? Did they
intend to manufacture these things, and if not, why not?

46 OAH Magazine of History July 2010

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 Questions persist even in the case of our most famous and prolific
inventors. Could anyone contemplate the hundreds of patents granted
to Thomas Edison (see <http://edison.rutgers.edu/patents.htm>) and
imagine one man alone in a laboratory putting all of these things to
gether? His name may be listed, but part of the story of invention is
missing. During Edison's working life, invention grew increasingly
industrialized. It became predominantly work for hire, performed by
a series of specialists under company auspices. Patent records may
suggest as much, but further digging is necessary to get the full story.
Variety
One of the most useful aspects of patents is that they address such
a wide array of human activities. Amidst the machinery, light bulbs,
carburetors, steam engines, and such, one can find vast numbers of
creations intended to relieve daily toil or otherwise enrich life in some
modest way. Consider pre-sliced bread, Velcro, washing machines,
nylon fishing line, clothes hangers, contact lenses, or rubber bands.
One of the largest areas of patenting in the late nineteenth century,
for instance, related to the outsourcing of previously domestic indus
tries. Prepared foodstuffs and medicines, machines for sewing gar
ments and footwear, knitting machines, packaging?all of these at
tracted inventive talents. No one browsing through patents issued in
the 1920s could miss the revolutionary changes in American kitchens
and bathrooms wrought by indoor plumbing, electricity, and colored
ceramics. Exploring an earlier period, one can spend hours poring over
the extraordinary number of patents involving the home processing of
fruits, vegetables, and meats. They remind us of how much time Amer
icans used to spend working with their hands and doing for themselves
things that subsequent generations would purchase from others.
Nineteenth- and twentieth-century patents remind us as well that
people have always sought fun and entertainment. Sports and recre
ation, for instance, have long been fertile areas of invention, one that
many students enjoy exploring. Football, basketball, cricket, baseball,
and foosball all spawned patents. As electricity became more wide
ly available at the turn of the twentieth century, the patent registers
swelled with amenities such as invigorating electric belts, scalp mas
sagers, furniture warmers, and other ideas of how electricity might
enhance life. Dig into patents from the 1910s, and you will find a
similar cavalcade of modest inventions conceived in the wake of the
Model T and mass automobile ownership (e.g., #1,314,004, Cooking
Vessel for Exhaust-Pipes of Internal-Combustion Engines; #785,831
Automobile Clock; #1,049,695, Combined Foot-Warmer and Muffler;
#1,383,569, Parking-Light). These and many other examples suggest
how patents can illuminate the ways in which ordinary Americans?
as users and consumers?responded to major changes in technology
and incorporated breakthrough innovations into their lives. In the
patent records, one finds not only the iPhones of their day, but the
holders, skins, and sometimes apps as well (although software patents
remain contentious).
Pitching an Invention
One engaging way to utilize patents is to have student groups select
a well-known invention, then "pitch" it to a relevant group such as
a board of directors, corporate shareholders, a prize committee, the
board of prisons, families at an auto show, or television viewers. Stu
dents must get inside the heads of people at the time and figure out
why they considered the patented invention worthwhile, even if that
means trying to convince the prison board to use their new electric
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chairs. This project has been particularly useful in classes with sig
nificant numbers of non-history majors. Students start contributing
to the group from within the comfort zone of their own discipline, and
start seeking out more and more nuanced historical information in
order to achieve a specific goal (to sell their invention).
Value of Obscurity
Famous patents have their uses, but in many ways obscure patents
are more effective teaching tools. Undistracted by the reputation of
a famous inventor, students can concentrate instead on what a pat
ent tells us about the hopes and aspirations of the times. Often, you
can hook student interest by focusing on something we would now
consider fanciful or preposterous. Say you want to teach about early
Cold War America. Go to <http://www.google.com/patents> and type
in "bomb shelter." Sort the patents from oldest to newest and look for
something post-Hiroshima. One item you will come across is Corwin
D. Wilson's Sedan Having Versatile Structure (#2,638,374). This mar
velous document describes the reasons for building a bomb-shelter
as a family vehicle. Once the chuckles subside, students reading even
just the first page of the patent can ponder serious matters regard
ing the assumptions and concerns of the day. Cars are central to so
ciety. Atomic war is an imminent threat and would probably result
in destruction of cities. Family units must stay intact as city-dwellers
disperse during threatened atomic attacks. Shelters should be mass
produced for purchase by families, who would not want to live in com
munal shelters. Bomb shelters would need to house people for "some
duration" while the military reinstituted social organization.
Patents as Touchstones
When teaching history, I use patents as touchstones, visible markers
that work as bridges between topics. The familiar cotton gin (X72,
Cotton Gin), for instance, touches upon a cluster of important mat
ters from the early nineteenth century. Patent diagrams of the simple
cranked device suggest at once how useful it could be for those per
forming the troublesome task of cleaning short-staple cotton by hand
and how easily someone could build such an uncomplicated machine.
From there you can discuss how famed inventor Eli Whitney could not
protect his invention from infringers and fulfill his vision of operating
factories based upon his patented creation. Critics contended that gins
predated Whitney and originated in Africa or among the local popula
tion of slaves and poor white women who customarily picked cotton.
The contested patent claims left rivals free to concentrate on manufac
turing gins cheaply, without paying royalties to Whitney, and selling
them to slaveowners who were the real beneficiaries of the technology.
With access to cheap gins, owners could redirect their enslaved labor
to more profitable tasks, such as growing and picking cotton. This
single patent thus encapsulates a host of themes involving early indus
trialization, the division of labor among men, women and slaves, and
the differing trajectories of North and South.
Hollerith Tabulator
Far more obscure than the cotton gin, but no less influential, was
the Hollerith Tabulator (#395,782). Developed by Herman Hollerith,
founder of a company that eventually morphed into future computer
giant International Business Machines (IBM), the Tabulator (see illus
tration on p. 46) counted punch cards that encoded social or business
information in ones (holes) and zeros (no hole) in order to generate
basic statistical information. (For more on Hollerith, visit: <http://
OAH Magazine of History July 2010 47

Census employee Ann Oliver, at left, operates a Hollerith unit tabulator to pro
cess cards containing 1940 census information, at the rate of 400 per minute.
The machine could extract twelve separate categories of statistical information
from each card. Later, Eugene M. La Boiteaux invented a more compact version
of the machine, here operated by Virginia Balinger, at right, which extracted
fifty-eight statistics from 150 cards per minute. With the aid of this new tech
nology, statistical information from the 1940 census was compiled in just over
two years. (Courtesy of the Library of Congress)
wwwxolumbia.edu/acis/history/hollerith.html>.) In the 1880s, the
machine opened new possibilities in information management, part
of a broader effort in the social sciences to gather quantifiable data to
answer pressing social, political, and economic questions. This tech
nology also helped transform the U.S. census, which is one of the
places easiest to see how its development and use reflected contempo
rary concerns about health, race, and immigration.
When Hollerith joined the census bureau in 1879,tne ?ffice was
in crisis. A booming population combined with governmental agen
cies asking for more extensive information made existing methods
of tallying and sorting non-viable. With workers performing most of
the calculations by hand, complete census results could take over ten
years to compile. Hollerith's Tabulator, the winner of a three-way com
petition among inventors, substituted machines for hand methods.
The move not only sped up the calculations; it also enabled census
processors to sort the results in various ways and generate a much
more nuanced picture of the American population.
Effectively, the Hollerith system took information gathered on
individual schedules (sheets with space to write answers to specific
questions), and translated it onto a series of cards. Data from each
household were contained on a single card containing rows and col
umns of potential holes. Holes punched in one area of the grid rep
resented the number of people in the household. Other parts of the
grid encoded information such as gender, age, ethnicity, education,
marital status, occupation, and citizenship?whatever enumerators
were instructed by Congress to ask. The tabulator took a card, checked
for a hole in a specific place, and, if found, added one to the tally. By
running stacks of cards through a sorting device, census processors
48 OAH Magazine of History July 2010
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could rapidly count the number of households containing an immi
grant from Russia, for example, or those containing a person whose
parents came from Russia. The selected cards fell into a specific slot,
from where they could be collected and statistics on Russian immi
grants calculated.
The Hollerith system presented Congress with a powerful new
tool, one which enabled it to slice and dice information on the Ameri
can population and target legislation at particular groups. In 1890,
for instance, a Republican-dominated Congress gathered data about
Civil War military service in order to implement a controversial new
pension system. This information had an overt political purpose, as
Republicans sought to secure loyalty from Union veterans. As the Jim
Crow era dawned and cities grew crowded with immigrants, Congress
also asked for information regarding race, ethnicity, and status as a
first- or second-generation immigrant. Questions established whether
an individual was "white, black, mulatto, quadroon, octoroon, Chi
nese, Japanese, or Indian." Some racial categories were absolute; a per
son was either classified as Indian or not. Black and white, however,
were not discrete categories. Pressure from elements in Congress cre
ated categories that would provide ammunition for debates over mis
cegenation, fertility of "hybrids," or the educational potential of vari
ous social groups. In addition to reading the basic Hollerith patent,
students and teachers can easily access Schedule 1 of the 1890 census
(<http://www.census.gov/history/www/through_the_decades/ques
tionnaires/i890_2.html>) as well as the diagrams from Hollerith's
patent #395782 (Statistics).
Just as the cotton gin patent serves as an overture to early industri
alization in the antebellum period, the Hollerith documents provide
an excellent point of entry into the Progressive Era, with its height
ened concern for proper citizenship and its commitment to statistical
evidence and government reforms that often worked to exclude and
discriminate. (As a nice capstone to this discussion, instructors might
point out that during the New Deal of the 1930s, the federal govern
ment filled large rooms with later versions of the Hollerith machines
built by IBM for purposes of calculating Social Security benefits. And
shortly thereafter, in 1940, the Selective Service Administration used
them while implementing the military draft.) And since we are living
through a census year, and the issues of race, immigration, and the
census have hardly gone away, this exercise could be a particularly
useful entry point into the history of technology.
Conclusion
From the cotton gin to the Hollerith Tabulator to the iPhone, patents
provide a unique and accessible window not only into the history of
technology, but into history at large. They act as markers of impor
tant events, trends, and issues. They tie together various themes. They
reach out to broad groups of students, giving visual and experiential
learners something tangible. And they can help us reach new audi
ences by refusing to divide the mechanical arts from the humanities,
thus creating a more inclusive approach to the nation's past.
Cai Guise-Richardson received her PhD from Iowa State University
in 2009. She is a fellow at the Chemical Heritage Foundation. Her re
search interests span the history of mental health and psychiatric drugs,
pharmaceutical development and marketing, the early vulcanized rubber
industry, patents and invention, and genetics and gender. Her current book
project is a history of Valium entitled Emotional Aspirin.