sir john coode (2 Ergebnisse)

The Patent Office - now the Intellectual Property Office - was established by the Patent Law Amendment Act of 1852, which simplified the procedure for obtaining patents of invention and reduced costs. In 1883 another Act of Parliament brought into being the office of Comptroller General of Patents, with, according to the National Archives, 'a staff of patent examiners to carry out a limited form of examination; mainly to ensure that the specification described the invention properly, but without any investigation into novelty'. The present document, which fits exactly into the period immediately predating the 1883 act, is the work of a freelance examiner, employed on behalf of private individuals like Sir Henry Bessemer and Sir John Coode, and companies ranging from Wedgwood the potters to Bryant and May the match makers, to establish the 'Novelty' (newness of an application) and 'Validity' (examination on behalf of third party disputing an application) of a wide range of patents (for example industrial, railway, textile). 235pp., 4to, including thirty pages of parallel thumb-indexes at rear, one of them giving the names of the parties making the applications, and the other of subjects. In fair condition, on aged and worn paper, in quarter-bound notebook (carrying the ornate label of Partridge & Cooper, London stationers) with maroon leather spine and marbled endpapers. A substantial vertical strip has been torn away from the fore-edge of the front cover, on the remains of which is neatly written the word 'SEARC' (i.e. 'SEARCHES'). On the front pastedown: ' Buildings, | London, W.C.' (i.e. the address of the Patent Office, 25 Southampton Buildings, London, W.C.). A meticulous and neatly-presented document, with the main body of the entries in ink, and additions in pencil. Each entry gives the details of the client, a brief description of the subject, the date of the examination, and the date the resulting 'Letter' or 'Report' was sent to the client by the examiner, with a list of the reference numbers of the patents consulted in connection with the application, arranged in columns. Textual notes are appended to some entries (for example, an enquiry on behalf of W. Heath & Co, London, regarding the 'Validity of Jebb's & Wilhelm's patents [.] making glucose &c from maize', is accompanied by a page carrying five diagrams, with a description in sixteen stages of the 'Process'). A section at the rear of the document records how much the author was paid, in guineas, for his work, including a column of 'Bad debts', and another giving yearly totals, 1873-1884 (totalling 2164 guineas, and including 328 ½ guineas in 1881). As an example of the nature of the work, on 27 June 1882 the author gives his 'Verbal opinion' to Messrs Hunters, Gwatkin & Haynes of 9 New Square, regarding the 'Validity of Ward, 2538.81 | Lighting & heating trains by electricity generated by dynamos driven from axles': 'That Ward cannot maintain any claim to the general idea of warming railway carriages by resistances heated by a current from dynamo driven from axle'. Numerous diagrams throughout, including a full-page one of 'railway switches & crossings', for an application by the civil engineer Richard Price Williams (1827-1916); and four diagrams accompanying a four-page entry for Spielmann & Co, London, regarding the 'Validity of Siemens' patents | Gas burners & lamps', for which the author was paid 25 guineas. (Another application by Williams, again with a diagram, is for a 'fire jet - to force water from low pressure mainn by means of small quantity of high pressure water - Greathead & Martindale 4728.78'.) An enquiry by Blake & Snow, Cannon Street, London - 'Can tramway be made without infringing any existing patent?' - is accompanied by eight diagrams, seven of them crude and one finished. The first entry is for an application by the Welsh engineer Charles Scriven (1848-1909), of Leeds Old Foundry, and the last, for Captain J. T. Bucknill of the Royal Engi.

1st print. Original lithograph map, coloured in outline, 280mm x 170mm, framed and glazed, near fine condition. Sir John Coode (1816-1892), distinguished English harbour engineer of the 19th century visited Western Australia with the purpose of advising Sir John Forrest and the WA Government on the development of Fremantle Harbour. In 1885 after having examined the river mouth at Fremantle, he made two reports on its use as a harbour. This map originally published with one of the reports shows Fremantle Harbour including Gage Road, Success Bank and Owen Anchorage and the proposed harbour improvements, breakwater and dock designs intended for the landing and loading of goods. Coode ruled out building a port in the river mouth as he believed it would continually silt up due to lateral sand drift but by then C.Y. O'Connor had been appointed the Colony's Engineer-in-Chief and proposed an inner harbour to be built in the mouth of the Swan River. O'Connor submitted his scheme, meeting opposition from Coode. Nevertheless, construction of O'Connor's proposed harbour began in 1892. Coode Street in South Perth is named after Sir John Coode. An uncommon map.