While researching historic U.S. patents, patent attorneys Scott Asmus and Andrew Cernota at the Nashua law firm of Maine & Asmus, encountered the story of a local early American inventor, Samuel Morey. This important inventor and his relative anonymity intrigued them. The attorneys were not able to locate any of Morey’s patents in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) database www.USPTO.gov, because the office’s copies of the records were destroyed in a fire.

During their research, Cernota, a Dartmouth College alumnus, discovered that 10 of the original missing Morey patents are preserved in the Rauner Special Collections Library at Dartmouth, including the 1826 patent for a rudimentary internal combustion engine. As can be imagined, these historical documents, some more than 200 years old, require very special handling. The Maine & Asmus firm is currently working with representatives from the library and the USPTO to restore the records of these patents for public access.

Orford resident Morey received his first patent in 1793—the first U.S. patent issued to an inventor from New Hampshire—for his invention of a steam-powered roasting spit. George Washington and Thomas Jefferson signed the patent. In 1795, Morey was granted a patent on a means for propelling a boat using steam. Unfortunately for Morey, the patent did not protect the most significant aspect of his design, using a paddle wheel to drive the boat. This allowed competitor Robert Fulton to lay claim to the paddleboat invention and to be lauded in the history books for doing so.

Over Morey’s career, between 1793 and 1829, the inventor received 20 patents. Later patents bear the signatures of John Adams, John Quincy Adams, and other historic figures. Regrettably, all records of Morey’s patents were lost in a fire that destroyed the federal patent office building in 1836. While some of the 9,957 patents issued between the office’s founding in 1790 and the year of the fire have been reconstructed, Morey’s patents were not. It is estimated that less than 3,000 of these historic documents have been restored.

In 1826, Morey was granted a patent from the USPTO for the first internal combustion engine, a gigantic step in the industrial revolution that is still unfolding into the far corners of the world. Lake Morey, in Fairlee, Vt., and the Samuel Morey Memorial Bridge between Fairlee and Orford were named after the Upper Valley’s resident inventor.

Founder of Manchester’s DEKA Research, Dean Kamen, owns a 1930s replica of the Morey engine. Kamen is another New Hampshire inventor with numerous patents—including the portable dialysis machine and the Segway human transporter. The comparison of the patent to the replica engine provides the viewer with a deeper appreciation of the subtlety and sophistication of Morey’s design. Considering the enormous technological advances in electronics and medicine—the principles of the modern internal combustion engine are remarkably similar to the original Morey design of 1826.

As a side note, Morey did not employ a spark plug for the ignition source because they were not yet invented. Instead, there was a flap valve that covered an ignited wick, and when the vacuum pressure inside the cylinder reached a certain level, the flame was drawn into the cylinder thereby igniting the fuel and air mixture. It is no wonder that there were reportedly many explosions in his lab over the years.

Asmus and Cernota have been coordinating with officials at the Office of the Commissioner for Patents at the USPTO and the Rauner Library to arrange for the reproduction and reconstruction of the historic patent records. Since they have started the project, Asmus and Cernota have identified about 10 more original patents to various inventors in the College’s collection predating the 1836 USPTO fire. Asmus and Cernota plan to continue their research with other institutions.

The almost 10,000 patents prior to the 1836 Patent Act were unnumbered. As a result, U.S. Patent No. 1 is dated July 13, 1836 to Maine Senator John Ruggles for railroad traction wheels. Interestingly enough, Sen. Ruggles was also involved in drafting the 1836 Patent Act. The early, unnumbered patents were subsequently designated as ‘X’ references and can be located by including the ‘X’ prefix in the patent number.

The accompanying table indicates the new X reference numbers for the U.S. Patents located by Asmus and Cernota that are being restored and should be available on the U.S. Patent database. In the interim, Maine & Asmus has been working on a comprehensive list of all pre-1836 patents currently in the patent database, and electronic images of these patents will be available for viewing at www.MaineandAsmus.com.

There are likely a number of other old patent certificates filed away in the archives of collectors, colleges, historical societies and other institutions. The public is encouraged to assist the USPTO in researching and locating any patent certificates issued prior to 1836. The USPTO is also interested in any additional historic documentation in relation to patents. Similar to other historic documents, if not carefully conserved, age can ravage pre-1836 patents causing ink to fade and the writing to become illegible. Today’s digital technology will be used to convert these historic records of the technology of yesterday into electronic images for the future, before they are lost forever.

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