US Patent: 140,245
|
| Improvement in scrap-books
|
|
Patentee:
|
|
| Samuel L. Clemens (exact or similar names) - Hartford, CT |
|
|
Patent Dates:
|
| Applied: |
May 07, 1873 |
| Granted: |
Jun. 24, 1873 |
USPTO (New site tip)
Google Patents
Report data errors or omissions to steward
Jeff Joslin
|
|
Description: |
| The inventor is Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known as Mark Twain. He was granted three patents in his lifetime. This scrapbook has mucilage-covered pages that need only be moistened to affix something. This was the only one of his patents that achieved any commercial success, reportedly earning him $50,000. An example has a cover reading "Mark Twain's Scrap Book. Registered April 23rd 1878. Patents United States June 24th 1873, Jany 25th 1881. England May 16th 1877. France May 18th 1877. Published by Daniel Slote & Co., New York". The "Jany 25th 1881" refers to patent 237,061.An early version of this scrapbook came with a reproduction of the following hand-written "certificate". "Messrs. Slote, Woodman & Co. I hereby certify that during many years I was afflicted with cramps in my limbs, indigestion, salt rheum, enlargement of the liver, & periodical attacks of inflammatory rheumatism complicated with St. Vitus's dance, my suffering being so great that for months at a time I was unable to stand upon my feet without assistance or speak the truth with it. But as soon as I had invented my Self-Pasting Scrap-Book & begun to use it in my own family, all these infirmities disappeared."In disseminating this universal healer among the world's afflicted, you are doing a noble work, & I sincerely hope you will get your reward—partly in the sweet consciousness of doing good, but the bulk of it in cash. Very Truly Yours, Mark Twain. Given under my hand this 10th day of February, A. D. 1878." |
|
