Patents can appear to be very dry and technical documents with their use of esoteric terminology and geometric diagrams which wouldn’t seem out of place in a draftsman’s handbook. Due to their specialised content, they can often receive scant attention as documents in the research of local industrial heritage. The official recording and publication of new technological innovations was significant in encouraging greater technical investigations and may have been a contributory factor in firing Britain’s role as the first industrialised nation and the part Birmingham played in this historic process.
In this blog, we will take a look at the following points surrounding the subject of patents:
What a patent is, how they can play a role in researching Birmingham’s industrial heritage, what’s available to view at the Library of Birmingham, what you can access online to assist your research?
Birmingham’s Industrial Heritage
Birmingham has a prestigious history of industrial and technological innovation. It’s manufactory identity was never defined by one particular trade although it does have close associations with the production of jewellery, steam power, engineering, pens and metal ware amongst others.
By the middle of the nineteenth century, descriptions such as ‘city of a thousand trades’ and ‘workshop of the world’ were in common use when branding the identify of Birmingham. Its reputation was built upon its primacy as an industrial urban town which offered varied economic opportunities unregulated by the control of guilds. The town was instrumental in firing the wheels of industrialisation across the globe aided amongst other things by the profits procured from colonialism.
A couple of years ago I remember reading a book on Birmingham’s industrial heritage which stated – and don’t quote me on this one as it may be apocryphal – that in the nineteenth century, a third of all patents issued in Britain arose in Birmingham. I’ve tried tracking the source but failed miserably but wanted to include the statement in this blog as I think it sounds plausible and I hope helps colour the role Birmingham played as a seat of technological innovation. It seems to ring true considering the vast array of trades which were able to coexist and flourish in the town.
What is a Patent
A patent is an intellectual property right granted by government which gives the creator or owner of an invention the sole right to make, use and sell that invention for a set period of time in that country – no one can import products made using the patent. An inventor is not required to obtain a patent to put their invention into practice but without one, they make themselves vulnerable to others laying claim to it and stealing a profit. A patent is an exchange between the inventor and the public which offers the creator protection by excluding others from copying and selling their innovation whilst giving access to new ideas and processes.
For a patent to be issued, your invention has to adhere to three steps :
It has to be new – never have been used in public anywhere in the world prior to the date of the application being filed.
It has to be practical – something which can take the form of an object or device which can be applicable to an industrial process.
It has to involve an inventive process – a new way of approaching a process which would not be obvious to a person with existing familiarity and understanding of the topic.
Birmingham Patent Collection
Archives & Collections retains a Birmingham Patent Collection (1722 – 1865), consisting of abridged copies of patents for inventions born in Birmingham.
There’s an accompanying card index arranged in three categories to help identify what the collection contains:
Subject
An alphabetical listing of inventions and processes.
Lists the date, number and name of the patent owner.
Author
The Author of the patent is the inventor who has the right to sell their patent to a third party (patentee).
The index lists the dates, the name of the invention/process and patent number.
Patentee
A patentee is the party who possesses or has been granted a patent and appears on a government registry as the owner.
Again, the index provides a date, but also lists a series of inventions under the name of the Patentee and relevant patent numbers.
Materials from the collection can be viewed by appointment in the Wolfson Centre. Please check the website for details of how to make an appointment.
Patent Collections in the library
Reader Services located on Level 2 of the library holds a National Patent Collection and full text copies of patents in paper format are available:
1617-1863 (by year then numerical)
1921-1977 (numerical)
Please note there is a gap of over 50 years.
Full text copies are accessible on CDROM (requiring ‘Espace’ reader)
1978- c.2003
After this date, the Espacenet website is your go to for published copies of patent applications (see below).
For abridged versions:
These date from 1617-1977 in various formats including the ‘Woodcroft’ Abridgements and the Illustrated Journal of Patents.
Please contact Reader Services for further information.
And whilst we’re conversing on the topic, just a brief mention of the British Library’s Patent Collection –
British Library
The British Library is the UK’s national patent library. It holds a comprehensive collection of British and foreign patent specifications:
https://www.bl.uk/collection-guides/patents
The collection was first established in the mid 19th. century as the library of the British Patent Office. Its collections are international – covering in excess of 40 other countries.
Espacenet
https://worldwide.espacenet.com/
Espacenet is an online service for searching patents and patent applications. Espacenet was developed by the European Patent Office (EPO) together with member states and launched in 1998. In 2015, the Espacenet worldwide service claimed to have records of more than 100 million patent publications from over 100 countries.
You can search under the name of a company, an inventor or a technology. The Advanced Search option allows you to set parameters such as a date range or a country code for a publication number. Espacenet is particularly useful if searching for British patents from 1890 onwards.
I made a basic search for patents relating to Joseph Gillott, the well known Birmingham pen manufacturer which produced this Hit List available here.
I then selected the entry at the top of the Hit List and was greeted by the thumbnail account of the patent along with illustration available here.
It’s important to note not all entries have an accompanying drawing and it’s recommended to include a location such as Birmingham when using the basic search option to look for a range of patents for a particular type of manufacture. The Advanced Search option would be preferable if you are searching for a particular inventor or company and date range.
Happy searching!!
Paul Taylor, Archives & Collections Co-ordinator
The Iron Room 
Reblogged this on Andrew James.