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 EXTENSION 
 
 THE GOODYEAR PATENT. 
 
 DECISION OF THE COMMISSIONER. 
 
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 United States Patent Office, 
 
 June 14, 1858. 
 
 In the matter of the application of Charles 
 Goodyear, for the extension of a patent 
 granted to him for ' ' improvement in India 
 rubberfabrics/'onthe 15th day of June, 1844, 
 and which was reissued in two separate 
 patents on the 25th day of December, 1849, 
 under the designations of ' ' improvement in 
 processes for the manufacture of India rub- 
 ber ' ' and ' ' improvement in felting India 
 rubber with cotton fibre." 
 
 It appears that on the 30th January, 1844, 
 the applicant, through his agent, (Newton,) 
 obtained from the English government a 
 patent for this invention or discovery, known 
 in popular parlance as a "process for vul- 
 canizing India rubber," and, on the 15th of 
 June thereafter, the patent now sought to 
 be extended was issued from this office. It 
 is assumed and insisted by the contestants 
 that the American patent should have borne 
 even date with the English, and tbat, in 
 law, it expired with it on the 30th January 
 last ; and, in consequence, it is denied that 
 the Commissioner has any authority to enter- 
 tain a petition for its renewal. What shall 
 be the date and duration of a patent, is a 
 question which must be decided by this 
 office on each original application ; and in 
 the case under consideration it was deter- 
 mined that it should bear date the 15 th 
 June, 1844, and should secure a monopoly 
 of the invention for fourteen years there- 
 after. If this was irregular, in view of the 
 English patent, it did not render that issued 
 by this office void, as was held by the Su- 
 preme Court in 15 Howard, 112, O'Reilly et 
 al. vs. Morse et al. Being at most voidable, 
 it woul,d seem that it should be treated as 
 valid until vacated by the judgment of some 
 
 judicial tribunal. At all events, whatever 
 may be the power of the courts over the in- 
 strument, it is not believed to be competent 
 for the Commissioner in a summary, and in 
 some respects a collateral proceeding like 
 this, to revise and reverse a former decision 
 of this office, under which so many rights 
 have been vested. Were his power, how- 
 ever, plenary in the matter, I should not 
 hesitate to hold that the provisions of law 
 cited do not sustain this objection, which has 
 been taken in the nature of a plea to the ju- 
 risdiction. The 8th section of the act of 
 1836, and the 6th section of that of 1839, 
 being in pari materia, must be construed to- 
 gether ; and as the latter is not, in its terms, 
 a repeal of the former, it can, according to 
 a well-settled principle of construction, be 
 allowed to have that effect only so far as the 
 provisions of the two are clearly incompati- 
 ble. The statute of 1836 declares that 
 nothing therein contained " shall be con- 
 strued to deprive an original and true in- 
 ventor of the right to a patent for his inven- 
 tion by reason of his having previously 
 taken out letters patent therefor in a foreign 
 country, and the same having been published, 
 at any time within six months next preceding the 
 filing of his specification and drawings. And, 
 whenever the applicant shall request it, the patent 
 shall take date from the filing of the specifi- 
 cation and drawings ; not, however, exceed- 
 ing six months prior to the actual issuing of 
 the patent." It is sufficiently clear that 
 this clause applies only to those cases in 
 which the foreign patent has been issued be- 
 fore, but within six months of the filing of 
 the specification and drawings. A reference 
 to the record, however, shows that the spe- 
 cification and drawings in this case were filed, 
 on the 15th of January, 1844, so that the 
 foreign patent, instead of having been taken 
 
A 
 
 2 
 
 
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 out before, as contemplated by the act, was 
 in fact taken out fifteen days after the filing 
 of the specification and drawings in this 
 office. This would seem to relieve the case 
 entirely from the operation of the provision. 
 But should it be treated as subject to it, as 
 the American patent was issued four and a 
 half months after the publication of the 
 English, the most that could be claimed 
 would be, that the applicant might, "on re- 
 quest," have had his patent ante-dated, so 
 as to have reached back to the filing of his 
 specification and drawings, but he was not bound 
 to do so. It is manifestly a privilege bestowed , 
 and not a duty imposed upon him. He did 
 not choose to avail himself of that privilege ; 
 and hence the patent went out, properly 
 bearing its actual date. The act of 1839 
 asserts that ".no person shall be debarred 
 from receiving a patent for any invention or 
 discovery, as provided in the act approved 
 on the 4th of July, 1836, to which this is 
 additional, by reason of the same having 
 been patented in a foreign country more than 
 six months prior to his application: Provided, 
 That the same shall not have been introduced 
 into public and common use in the United 
 States prior to the application for such patent : 
 And provided, also, That in all cases every such 
 patent shall be limited to the term of four- 
 teen years from the date or publication of 
 such letters patent. ' ' It will be perceived 
 that this provision is confined expressly to 
 an invention or discovery for which letters 
 patent shall have been taken out in a foreign 
 country more than six months prior to the 
 filing of the application here, and declares 
 such invention or discovery patentable under 
 limitations. The act of 1836 referred to this 
 class of cases, and, in effect, treated them as 
 unpatentable. To this ex'ent it is repealed by 
 the act of 1839, because irreconcilable with it. 
 But the act of J 836 refers to another and 
 very distinct class of cases, in which the for- 
 eign letters patent were not published more than 
 six months before the date of the application here, 
 and declares them patentable. To this lat- 
 ter class no allusion is made by the act of 
 1839 ; and as this act is, in this respect, in 
 no degree inconsistent with that of 1836, 
 and as it professes to be not abrogatory of, 
 but "additional" to it, it must, upon the 
 soundest principles of interpretation, be held 
 that this feature of the act of 1836 remains 
 in full force. The closing language of the 
 clause quoted is not regarded as in conflict 
 with the construction insisted on. The 
 words are, "in all cases every such patent shall 
 be limited , " &c . What is intended by ' ' every 
 such patent?" Undoubtedly the kind of 
 patent spoken of in the preceding part of 
 the section, and no other, to wit : a patent 
 based on an invention for which letters pat- 
 ent had been issued in a foreign country more 
 than six months before the filing of the ap- 
 
 plication here. It may be very well supposed 
 that Congress might consider six months as 
 too small a fraction of time to require its in- 
 troduction as a part of the lifetime of the 
 patent, and would, therefore, leave it to be 
 embraced or not, at the option of the appli- 
 cant ; while to guard against abuse, if the 
 period were longer, the inclusion of the 
 whole might be consistently and properly 
 exacted . 
 
 The novelty and original patentability ©f 
 this invention, as well as its great public 
 utility, are fully established by the report of 
 the examiner and by the depositions on file. 
 But two leading questions, therefore, remain 
 to be disposed of : 
 
 1st. Has the applicant used due diligence 
 in developing his invention and in introducing 
 it into public use ? 
 
 2d. Has he, from the use and sale of the 
 invention, received a reasonable remunera- 
 tion for the time, ingenuity, and expense 
 bestowed upon the same, and the introduc- 
 tion thereof into use ? 
 
 Upon the first point, the testimony alike 
 of the applicant and of the contestants is 
 concurrent and conclusive. From the first 
 moment that the conception entered his mind 
 until his complete success — embracing a pe- 
 riod of from sixteen to eighteen years — he 
 applied himself unceasingly and enthusiasti- 
 cally to its perfection and to its introduction 
 into use, in every form that his fruitful genius 
 could devise. So intensely were his faculties 
 concentrated upon it, that he seems to have 
 been incapable of thought or of action upon 
 any other subject. He had no other occupa- 
 tion, was inspired by no other hope, cherished 
 no other ambition. He carried continually 
 about his person a piece of India rubber, and 
 into the ears of all who would listen he poured 
 incessantly the story of his experiments and 
 the glowing language of his prophecies. He 
 was, according to the witnesses, completely 
 absorbed by it, both by day and night, pur- 
 suing it with untiring energy and with almost 
 superhuman perseverance. Not only were the 
 powers of his mind and body thus ardently 
 devoted to the invention and its introduction 
 into use, but every dollar he possessed or 
 could command through the resources of his 
 credit, or the influences of friendship, was 
 uncalculatingly cast into that seething cal- 
 dron of experiment which was allowed to 
 know no repose. The very bed on which his 
 wife slept, and the linen that covered his 
 table, were seized and sold to pay his board ; 
 and we see him with his stricken household 
 following in the funeral of his child on foot, 
 because he had no means with which to hire 
 a carriage. His family had to endure priva- 
 tions almost surpassing belief, being fre- 
 quently without an article of food in their 
 house, or fuel in the coldest weather ; and 
 indeed it is said that they could not have 
 
lived through the winter of 1839 but for the 
 kind offices of a few charitable friends. They 
 are represented as gathering sticks in the 
 woods and on the edges of the highways, 
 with which to cook their meals, and digging 
 the potatoes of their little garden before they 
 were half grown, while one of his hungry 
 children, in a spirit worthy of his father, is 
 heard expressing his thanks that this much 
 had been spared to them. We often find 
 him arrested and incarcerated in the debtor's 
 prison ; but even amid its gloom his vision of 
 the future never grew dim, his faith in his 
 ultimate triumph never faltered. Undis- 
 mayed by discomfitures and sorrows which 
 might well have broken the stoutest spirit, 
 his language everywhere, and under all cir- 
 cumstances, was that of encouragement and 
 of a profound conviction of final success. 
 Not only in the United States did he thus 
 exert himself to establish and apply to every 
 possible use his invention, but in England, 
 France, and other countries of Europe, he 
 zealously pursued the same career. In 1855 
 he appeared at the World' s Fair in Paris, and 
 the golden medal and the Grand Cross of the 
 Legion of Honor were awarded to him as the 
 representative of his country's inventive ge- 
 nius. Fortune, however, while thus caress- 
 ing him with one hand, was at the same 
 moment smiting him with the other; for we 
 learn from the testimony that these brilliant 
 memorials passed from the Emperor and 
 reached their honored recipient, then the 
 occupant of a debtor's prison among stran- 
 gers and in a foreign land — thus adding yet 
 another to that long sad catalogue of public 
 benefactors who have stood neglected and 
 impoverished in the midst of the waving 
 harvest of blessings they had bestowed upon 
 their race. Throughout all these scenes of 
 trial, so vividly depicted by the evidence, he 
 derived no support from the sympathies of 
 the public. While the community at large 
 seem to have looked on him as one chasing 
 a phantom, there were times when even his 
 best friends turned away from him as an idle 
 visionary ; and he was fated to encounter on 
 every side sneers and ridicule, to which each 
 baffled experiment and the pecuniary loss it 
 inflicted, added a yet keener edge. The mer- 
 cenary naturally enough pronounced his ex- 
 penditures, so freely made, culpably wasteful; 
 the selfish and the narrow-minded greeted 
 the expression of his enlarged and far-reach- 
 ing views as the ravings of an enthusiast; 
 while it is fair to infer from the depositions 
 that not a few of the timid and plodding, who 
 cling, tremblingly apprehensive of change, 
 to the beaten paths of human thought and 
 action, regarded him as wandering on the 
 very brink of insanity, if not already pursu- 
 ing its wild and flickering lights. Such in 
 all times has been the fate of the greatest 
 spirits that have appeared on the arena of 
 
 human discovery, and such will probably 
 continue to be the doom of all whose stalwart 
 strides carry them in advance of the race to 
 which they belong With such a record of 
 toil, of privation, of courage, and of perse- 
 verance in the midst of discouragements the 
 most depressing, it is safe to affirm that not 
 only has the applicant used that due diligence 
 enjoined by law, but that his diligence has 
 been, in degree and in merit, perhaps with- 
 out a parallel in the annals of invention. 
 
 Before entering upon an examination of 
 the second leading question, several prelimi- 
 nary issues raised by the contestants must 
 be met and decided. 
 
 The account of expenditures and receipts 
 originally presented, it is admitted, was too 
 general in its terms to be accepted as a com- 
 pliance with the requirements of the statute. 
 Hence subsequently in April an additional 
 or amended account was offered, which, in 
 consequence of the absence of the applicant 
 in England, was not sworn to by him until 
 the 23d of that month, and was not filed in 
 this office, as thus verified, until the 8th May. 
 This amended statement was intended, not 
 as a substitute for the original, but as a cor- 
 rection of certain inaccuracies which had 
 crept into it, and as furnishing the details 
 which law and usage demand. It is objected 
 that it should not be considered, because, 
 when first lodged here, it was without the 
 oath of the applicant, and because, when 
 that oath was appended on the 8th May, it 
 was too late for the contestants to take their 
 rebutting testimony. It will be observed 
 that there is nothing in the circumstances 
 attending this delay calculated to excite a 
 suspicion of a desire on the part of the ap- 
 plicant to suppress the truth by stifling in- 
 quiry ; and it must be also borne in mind, 
 that, although there is a rule of this office 
 on the subject, the statute is silent as to the 
 time when the account shall be filed. It is 
 true that it must be "under oath," and the 
 oath of the patentee was no doubt contem- 
 plated by the framers of the law , but it is 
 also true that cases have arisen in which that 
 oath was necessarily and properly dispensed 
 with, as when the patentee had died or 
 become insane. Other cases may well be 
 imagined in which the oath of parties en- 
 tirely disinterested and having a thorough 
 knowledge of the subject-matter would be 
 more satisfactory to the judicial mind than 
 that of the patentee. The amended account 
 was, as early as the 8th of April, verified by 
 the oaths of a number of disinterested wit- 
 nesses professing an acquaintance with the 
 transactions to which it relates ; and this is 
 claimed to be a substantial compliance with 
 the statute. Assuming that the contestants 
 were not bound to take rebutting testimony 
 until after the account had been sworn to by 
 the applicant, yet they had notice of the ex- 
 
4 
 
 istence and character of that account, through 
 a copy served on them as early as the 20th 
 April, and this was sufficient to put them 
 upon inquiry. Being thus distinctly apprised 
 of what it was proposed to prove, they could 
 have occupied themselves in discovering such 
 evidence as might exist in their favor, and 
 in taking at least the preliminary steps to 
 the examination of the witnesses. The time 
 for taking the proof having heen extended, 
 there was at least sixteen days, between the 
 8 th and 24th of May, allowed for assailing 
 the account by counteracting testimony; and 
 we are warranted from the record in pre- 
 suming that this time was, with the greatest 
 zeal and activity, devoted to the taking of 
 depositions, and that all the witnesses who 
 could be found, having knowledge of facts 
 deemed important for the contestants, and 
 who were willing to depose, were examined. 
 It is true that Mr. Cozzens, in his deposition, 
 expresses the opinion "that there had not 
 been anything like enough time since the 
 filing of the applicant's petition and state- 
 ment to properly prepare an opposition there- 
 to." Waiving the obvious criticism upon 
 this language, it is a complete answer to say, 
 that the name of no witness is given whom 
 the contestants were prevented from exami- 
 ning for want of time, nor is any fact ma- 
 terial to them alleged to exist and to be 
 susceptible of proof, but which they were 
 denied an opportunity of establishing. In 
 the absence of any such specific averment, it 
 is impossible to decide, in the language of a 
 rule of this office, that ' ' a substantial injury 
 has been wrought to the party raising the 
 objection;" and hence, according to that 
 rule, such objection cannot prevail on the 
 final hearing. When a party frankly avows 
 that he has committed an error in a judicial 
 oath, and asks the privilege of correcting it 
 under the same sanctions, a tribunal whose 
 mission is the ascertainment of truth should 
 rather encourage him to make such cor- 
 rection than rebuke him for an offer to do 
 so. 
 
 Another question to be answered before 
 proceeding to the main inquiry is, whether, 
 in determining the adequacy of the remune- 
 ration received by the applicant, the receipts 
 of his assignees and licensees — admitted to 
 amount to many millions — should be charged 
 to the patent. The first impression of my 
 mind was favorable to the position taken by 
 the contestants ; but a more critical examina- 
 tion of the statute has led me to an opposite 
 conclusion. At the time of the passage of 
 the act of 1836, it was the universal custom 
 of inventors to sell and assign the rights se- 
 cured to them by their patents ; and this 
 course on their part has been constantly con- 
 templated and sanctioned by law. Hence 
 the statute declares that if the ' ' patentee ' ' 
 shall fail, from ' ' the use and sale of his in- 
 
 vention," to realize a reasonable remunera- 
 tion, he shall be entitled to an extension. 
 The law, in its enactments, is generally found 
 to be a faithful reflection of the actual life of 
 the world. It was well known that inventors, 
 as a class, were particularly liable to be over- 
 reached in their contracts, and to be driven 
 to dispose of their inventions at ruinous rates, 
 under the pressure of poverty, and often be- 
 fore their utility had been fully demonstrated. 
 Hence the generous guarantee was given 
 them that if from such "sales," no matter 
 how made, and from such "use" as they 
 might choose to make of their inventions, 
 they were unable to secure a reasonable com- 
 pensation, their monopoly should be further 
 extended . There is not the remotest allusion 
 to their assignees and licensees ; and, as the 
 reason of the enactment does not reach them, 
 it would be an unsound principle of construc- 
 tion which should embrace them by impli- 
 cation. A further reason why they should 
 not be thus embraced is found in the fact 
 that a very large part of the profits of these 
 assignees, who are generally manufacturers, 
 is the product of their own capital and enter- 
 prise in association with the invention, and 
 could not therefore be properly charged to 
 its account in this proceeding. Assignees 
 and licensees constitute a very numerous 
 class, scattered throughout the length and 
 breadth of the land, and their profits from 
 inventions must be regarded as the profits of 
 that great public of which they are so im- 
 portant a part. The very large sums which 
 they are alleged, by all the witnesses who 
 have spoken on the subject, to have made 
 from this invention, is but another of the 
 ever-multiplying proofs of its extraordinary 
 value to the world ; for it is safe to conclude 
 that the consumers of the fabrics have been 
 equally benefited with the manufacturers 
 who produced them. If, on an application 
 for an extension, the patentee were charge- 
 able with the receipts of his assignees and 
 licensees, it would then follow that he would 
 be bound to exhibit them in his accounts — 
 a manifest impossibility, it is scarcely neces- 
 sary to say, in the great majority of cases. 
 
 The first step in determining the suffi- 
 ciency of the remuneration is, to ascertain, as 
 far as practicable, the amount of the appli- 
 cant's receipts and expenditures in connexion 
 with the invention. The apparently dis- 
 crepant and informal character of the ac- 
 counts filed has provoked much severity of 
 criticism and some denunciation on the part 
 of counsel. It is admitted that they have 
 not the precision and symmetry which be- 
 long to the products of the counting-room, 
 and which might have been imparted to 
 them by the applicant, had he been a mer- 
 chant's clerk, instead of the brilliant and 
 impulsive genius that he is. In explanation 
 of the generality and uncertainty by which 
 
it is insisted they are marked, it is in proof 
 that the applicant never kept any books or 
 memoranda from which more reliable state- 
 ments could be prepared. In this respect 
 his course of life has been in entire harmony 
 with that of the class to which he belongs. 
 Inventors and other men of high creative 
 genius have ever been distinguished for a 
 total want of what is called ' ' business 
 habits." Completely engrossed by some 
 favorite theory, and living in the dazzling 
 dreams of their own imagination, they scorn 
 the counsels and restraints of worldly thrift, 
 and fling from them the petty cares of the 
 mere man of commerce as the lion shakes a 
 stinging insect from his mane. The law, in 
 its wisdom, takes cognizance of human 
 character, and deals with men and with classes 
 of men as it finds them. It seems, in this 
 instance, to have assumed, and justly, that, 
 if we would have the magnificent creations 
 of genius, we must take them with all those 
 infirmities which seem as inseparable from 
 them as spots are from the sun. Hence the 
 statute does not require that the accounts of 
 inventors shall have that formality and that 
 severe exactitude which might well have 
 been claimed of a merchant, with his ledger 
 open before him. All that is insisted on is 
 that the statement furnished shall be ' 'suffi- 
 ciently in detail to exhibit a true and faithful 
 account of loss and profit in any manner ac- 
 cruing to him from and by reason of said 
 invention." It is manifest that it is to the 
 results — which indicate "loss and profit" — 
 rather than the minute elements of the 
 transactions which form the subject of the 
 account, that the law looks. The applicant's 
 statement, as amended, appears to have been 
 compiled with the most laborious care, and 
 from every source of information accessible 
 to him or his attorneys. It is regarded as 
 fully conforming to the letter and spirit 
 of the statute. The principal discrepancy 
 between the original and amended statement 
 is satisfactorily explained. The applicant 
 held at the same moment three patents for 
 processes connected with the manufacture of 
 India rubber, viz : that of Chaffee, that of 
 Hayward, and that for his own vulcanizing 
 process. In all his contracts, he transferred 
 these three patents together, making no 
 designation, in the body of the assignments, 
 of the estimate placed upon either of them 
 separately. In his original statement, he 
 inadvertently charges to his own patent the 
 whole of the receipts from this source ; in 
 his amendment, he sets the Chaffee and Hay- 
 ward patents down as properly chargeable 
 with one-fourth of the proceeds of such sales, 
 and makes, accordingly, a corresponding de- 
 duction from his exhibit of receipt. The 
 language of his first statement, properly in- 
 terpreted in the light of the assignments 
 themselves, justified this step. Whatever 
 
 those patents may have cost him, they were 
 his property, and it was due to truth and to 
 the claim now under consideration that their 
 actual value should have been ascertained. 
 The witnesses who speak of them prove con- 
 clusively that the applicant has rather under 
 than overrated them, which relieves him 
 from all imputation in the matter. 
 
 What, then, has been the amount of the 
 applicant's remuneration? His account, as 
 amended, exhibits $162,894 09 of receipts, 
 and $129,535 46 of expenditures — thus show- 
 ing a profit of $33,358 63. Numerous intel- 
 ligent and unimpeached witnesses having 
 intimate relations with the applicant, and 
 acquainted with his business affairs, have 
 deposed in reference to this account ; and 
 their testimony, without an exception, pow- 
 erfully supports its truth. Considering the 
 remoteness and complicated character of the 
 transactions, the statements in this paper are 
 illustrated and sustained with singular force. 
 The rebutting evidence assails directly no 
 item either of the receipts or expenditures, 
 but consists of the opinions and conjectures 
 of a large number of witnesses who clearly 
 had no means of knowing either the truth 
 or falsehood of the matters set forth in the 
 account. They profess to believe that the 
 applicant could not have expended such large 
 sums in his experiments, because he was poor ; 
 and this is the sole basis of almost every 
 opinion expressed on the subject. Had these 
 witnesses known — what this record makes 
 so apparent — the overwhelming debts which 
 have hung over the applicant throughout his 
 long and self-sacrificing career, and many of 
 which still bear him down, his enormous 
 outlays would not have been to them so im- 
 penetrable a mystery. The very elaborate 
 report of the examiner, after a severe scrutiny 
 of the expenditures and receipts as exhibited, 
 restates the account, and, in doing so, in- 
 creases the applicant' s profits to $114,128 09. 
 In arriving, however, at this conclusion, he 
 has excluded two items of expenditure which 
 1 am well satisfied should have been retained. 
 The first is for $13,310, and is not allowed 
 because for disbursements occurring before the 
 invention or discovery was made. The act 
 of Congress directs an inquiry into the " loss 
 and profit in any manner accruing to him (the 
 inventor) from and by reason of said inven- 
 tion." Whether we consult the letter or 
 reason of the law, I entertain no doubt but 
 that expenditmes made in the progress of 
 experiments preceding the invention, but look- 
 ing to it, are as clearly chargeable to the 
 patent as those made aft-erwards, either in 
 perfecting it or introducing it into use. The 
 other item is for $46,084 46, as set forth in 
 exhibit No. 2, and I am at a loss to perceive 
 any sufficient reason for its rejection. The 
 applicant alleges expressly in his sworn state- 
 ment that the whole of this sum " was ex- 
 
pended by him. in perfecting his said inven- 
 tion and bringing the same into use." De 
 Forest, who advanced the money, and who 
 holds the drafts specified in the exhibit, 
 when interrogated on the point, says ex- 
 plicitly that it was applied by the applicant 
 to ' ' experiments in developing his improve- 
 ments and new applications, and branches of 
 the India rubber manufacture;" and this 
 statement is uncontradicted. The fact averred 
 and not denied, that De Forest has not been 
 reimbursed these advances, which constitute a 
 subsisting debt on the part of the applicant, 
 furnishes no argument against their being 
 charged to the patent. All moneys expended 
 upon the invention and its introduction into 
 use are properly so chargeable, no matter 
 whence cr how obtained. Restoring, then, 
 these items, and adopting the other correc- 
 tions of the examiner, there will still remain 
 to the credit of the invention a clear profit of 
 $54,733 63 The applicant, in his amended 
 statement, acting under the promptings of 
 the same high sense of honor which led him 
 to satisfy an indebtedness of $35,000 from 
 which he had been discharged by a certificate 
 of bankruptcy, shrinks from debiting the 
 patent with any expenditures the particulars 
 of which he cannot, recall with some degree 
 of certainty, but, while doing so, unhesitat- 
 ingly expresses the belief that they were 
 quite as large as the sums set forth in gross 
 in the first account. It is probable — indeed, 
 in view of the whole testimony, it is my firm 
 conviction — that if it were possible to extract 
 from the tangled mazes of the multifarious 
 and now half-forgotten transactions connect- 
 ed with the invention all the moneys ex- 
 pended therein, it would be found that, 
 instead of there being a balance to its credit, 
 the balance would be on the other side. I 
 am justified in arriving at this conclusion 
 from the fact, that, although the applicant 
 has had no other occupation or business, yet, 
 instead of having now in hand this sum of 
 $54,733 63, he is admitted to be penniless 
 and overwhelmed with debt — and this, too, 
 notwithstanding his life is shown to have 
 been temperate, frugal, and in all respects 
 self-denying. Being reimbursed his actual 
 "expenses," is this sum of $54,733 63 a 
 reasonable remuneration to the applicant for 
 the "ingenuity and time" bestowed on the 
 invention and the introduction thereof into 
 use? 
 
 An earnest endeavor has been made to 
 depreciate the ingenuity displayed in the 
 invention, by representing the discovery to 
 have been the result rather of ' ' accident ' ' 
 than of scientific investigation. As early as 
 1834-'5, Mr. Goodyear seems to have formed 
 a most exalted estimate of the capabilities, 
 as a material for manufacture, of the gum 
 known as caoutchouc, or India rubber. This 
 gum had been previously extensively em- 
 
 ployed in the fabrication of a variety of 
 articles ; but, owing to their indifferent 
 quality, all concerned in these enterprises, 
 as well as in those which followed for a series 
 of years afterward, were involved in bank- 
 ruptcy and ruin. The fabrics thus made 
 could not keep the market, because they 
 were found to grow rigid under the influence 
 of cold, and to soften and become sticky 
 under that of heat, while they rapidly de- 
 composed when brought into contact with 
 perspiration and the animal oils. The ap- 
 plicant was thoroughly convinced that these 
 qualities, which had proved so disastrous to 
 to the trade, could be removed, and he set 
 himself resolutely to work to ascertain the 
 process for accomplishing this result. Sul- 
 phur had already been advantageously com- 
 bined with India rubber by Hay ward, so that 
 the discovery had been approached to its very 
 verge. The step, however, which remained 
 to be taken, short as it was, was indispensa- 
 ble, and without it all those which had pre- 
 ceded it would have been unavailing. Sci- 
 ence could afford but little assistance in the 
 inquiry ; for, as the event proved, the most 
 potent element in the process was too subtle 
 to be disclosed by the severest chemical 
 analysis. The applicant had therefore to 
 pursue the investigation gropingly ; but he 
 persisted in it with an ardor and a courage 
 which nothing could abate or daunt. His 
 aim was definite, his conviction as to its 
 attainability complete. As one who searches 
 for a hidden treasure in a field where he 
 knows it is to be found, so pursued he his 
 explorations in quest of this secret. He 
 sought it on the right hand and on the left, 
 by day and by night, in the midst of ceaseless 
 toil and lavish expenditure, and by the light 
 of every form of experiment which his most 
 fertile genius and daring spirit could suggest. 
 He became completely 7 master of everything 
 known in regard to the properties of the 
 material which it was his ambition to im- 
 prove ; and so thoroughly was he imbued 
 with the soul of his inquiry, and so intensely 
 quickened was his vigilance, that no phe- 
 nomenon, however minute, could meet his 
 eye, no sound, however faint, could fall upon 
 his ear, without his at once detecting and 
 appreciating its bearing upon the great prob- 
 lem whose solution he was seeking. From 
 four to five years were passed in these unre- 
 mitted labors, when an incident occurred 
 which at once revealed the long-sought 
 truth. And it is a singular coincidence, that 
 the spark of light yielded by this incident was 
 elicited by a collision, so to speak, the result 
 of that intense zeal which, so far as health 
 and fortune were concerned, had been the 
 consuming fire of his life. In one of those 
 animated conversations so habitual to him 
 in reference to his experiments, a piece of 
 India rubber combined with sulphur, which 
 
he held in his hand as the text of all his dis- 
 courses, was by a violent gesture thrown into 
 a burning stove near which he was standing. 
 When taken out, after having been subjected 
 to a high degree of heat, he saw — what, it 
 may be safely affirmed, would have escaped 
 the notice of all others — that a complete 
 transformation had taken place, and that an 
 entirely new product — since so felicitously 
 termed "clastic metal" — was the conse- 
 quence. When subjected to further tests, 
 the thrilling conviction burst upon him that 
 success had at length crowned his efforts, 
 and that the mystery he had so long wooed 
 now stood unveiled before him. His history 
 in this respect is altogether parallel with that 
 of the greatest inventors and discoverers who 
 have preceded him. The lamp had swung 
 for centuries in the Cathedral of Pisa, but, 
 of the thronging multitudes who worshipped 
 there, none had heeded the lessons which it 
 taught. It was reserved for the profound 
 and observant intellect of young Galileo to 
 extract from its oscillations the true laws of 
 the pendulum, which led to the creation of 
 an infallible measure of time. The theory 
 of universal gravitation loses nothing of its 
 grandeur or value because suggested by the 
 falling of an apple from the tree. In all 
 lands, by teeming millions, this phenemenon 
 had been observed; but to none had it impart- 
 ed instruction — to none had it spoken of that 
 wonderful secret which lurked beneath its 
 simple features. At length its "still small 
 voice" fell upon the delicate and apprecia- 
 tive ear of one whom it startled into inquiry. 
 The light thus afforded, to which all had 
 been blind, was indeed dim and twinkling ; 
 but, following its guidance as one who traces 
 back the dawn, the great Newton soon 
 plunged into the full-orbed splendors of a 
 discovery confessedly the most brilliant which 
 has gilded and ennobled the annals of science. 
 On all the hearth-stones of the civilized 
 world, for thousands of years, the kettle 
 had boiled and lifted its lid by the expansive 
 power of its steam ; yet for none had this 
 seemingly trite and ever-recurring incident 
 been significant — to none had it announced 
 that measureless power of which it was the 
 humble but distinct exponent. At length 
 the movement caught the eye of a lonely 
 student of nature, then a prisoner in the 
 Tower of London ; and in the soil of his pro- 
 lific mind it proved the rapidly expanding 
 germ of that steam engine whose triumphs 
 have changed the social, political, and com- 
 mercial aspects of the globe. So India rub- 
 ber, in combination with sulphur, may by 
 accident have been exposed to a high degree 
 of heat often before without attracting the 
 attention of any ; and it is safe to allege that 
 it might have been thus exposed a thousand 
 times afterwards without the world's having 
 been the wiser or wealthier for it. The 
 
 thorough self-culture and training of the 
 applicant and his unwearied researches, pre- 
 pared him at once to seize upon, to compre- 
 hend, and embody in a practical forrn, the 
 truth he sought, the moment it presented 
 itself, no matter how dimly, to him. This 
 was his merit- -the same in kind with that 
 of Ihe most illustrious inventors who have 
 appeared in the world, and by that of but 
 few of them surpassed in degree. It is a 
 figure of speech- -but an exalted mode of ex- 
 pression — which assigns to man any part in 
 the work of creation. In his very best estate 
 he is but a ministering priest at her altar ; 
 and when he has reached the highest walk 
 in the drama of intellectual power to which 
 his feeble steps can ascend, he is still but an 
 humble translator of the languages of nature. 
 It is a fact which singularly increases the 
 credit due to this inventor, that the very 
 path in which he finally achieved success 
 was the one which the experience of the past 
 had taught him to shun. A low degree of 
 heat had been been applied to a combination 
 of India rubber and sulphur, and it had 
 melted under it ; so that heat — hte increased 
 intensity of which consummated the dis- 
 covery — was the very element which he had 
 felt himself admonished to avoid. The dis- 
 covery being made, the applicant soon there- 
 after added white lead to the combination, 
 which rendered it complete ; and, assuming 
 that his mission was but begun, he bravely 
 bent himself to the task of surmounting the 
 obstacles which still frowned upon him on 
 every side. These obstacles, so graphically 
 sketched in the testimony, seem to have been 
 almost unprecedented. Capitalists shrunk 
 away from the discovery, so confidently an- 
 nounced, as a chimera ; and manufacturers, 
 who had suffered so deeply by the India rub- 
 ber business, denied it their confidence. Its 
 practicability had to be demonstrated by a 
 long series of illustrations, which the total 
 want of experience rendered protracted and 
 often ruinously expensive. Every inch oc- 
 cupied in the enlarging field of its usefulness 
 had to be conquered by many sacrifices, while 
 of the Protean-formed applications to which 
 it was destined to attain, there was not one 
 that did not involve an outlay of treasure, of 
 toil, and high artistic skill. All these, from 
 the beginning to the present hour, have been 
 bestowed— unceasingly bestowed — upon it; 
 and as the fruits of all these have been, and 
 are still being, reaped by the public, the ap- 
 plicant is entitled to remuneration for them. 
 
 Has the applicant been remunerated for 
 the time which he has devoted to this inven- 
 tion and to its introduction into use ? 
 
 It is extremely difficult to estimate in the 
 coin of dollars and cents the worth of eight- 
 een years of the prime of human life— espe- 
 cially so, when that life is one of lofty genius, 
 of indomitable enterprise, and of stainless 
 
8 
 
 virtues. It is, however, about that period of 
 precisely such a life, that has been conse- 
 crated to the pursuit and development of this 
 discovery ; nor would a shorter period of time 
 have sufficed for the arduous and perplexing- 
 task. This declaration may be made with 
 the more emphasis, because, in all the vol- 
 umes of testimony filed, there is not one 
 word found tending to its contradiction. 
 Throughout those long and toilsome years, it 
 is apparent that there has been no compro- 
 mise with the suggestions of avarice or with 
 the claims to self-indulgence and ease. It 
 has been already fully shown that the ap- 
 plicant's fortune, his health, the comforts of 
 his family, the freshness of his early and the 
 patient energies of his later manhood, have 
 all been unhesitatingly melted down in the 
 crucible of his inquiry ; and he is now seen 
 tottering towards that grave which must soon 
 open in his path, with nothing left of the 
 heroic and athletic man but what remains of 
 the maimed and scarred soldier on the battle 
 field — a wreck which every great and gen- 
 erous people have taken fondly to their 
 bosom. The time of the indolent, the sel- 
 fish, the dissolute, and the dull, is little worth 
 to a world which they rather cumber than 
 bless by their presence ; but the time of the 
 gifted, the brave, the philanthropic, and un- 
 conquerable sons of genius, has for mankind 
 a value which we should but feebly express 
 in the arithmetic of dollars. But while we 
 may have no means by which to measure 
 with unerring accuracy the intrinsic worth of 
 the ingenuity and time which have been ex- 
 pended, and cannot by any analysis weigh or 
 compute their ingredients, there remains to 
 us one standard by which a proximate esti- 
 mate at least may be reached — that is, the 
 results which have been produced. What that 
 time and ingenuity have yielded to the public 
 is the true test of their value, alike to that 
 public and to the inventor ; for what the for- 
 mer have received the latter must, upon 
 every principle of sound logic, be held to 
 have parted with. What, then, have been 
 the results of the discovery and introduction 
 into use of the vulcanizing process? The 
 testimony is very full upon this point. We 
 learn that through this instrumentality a 
 large foreign commerce has been created in 
 the raw material, and an inland trade in the 
 India-rubber fabrics amounting to between 
 four and five millions of dollars annually ; 
 that extensive India-rubber manufactories 
 have grown up, giving profitable investment 
 to some seven millions of dollars of capital, 
 and active employment to some ten thousand 
 operatives ; and that a large portion of these 
 fabrics are intimately connected with human 
 comfort and the preservation of human life. 
 Not to enumerate more of the articles pro- 
 duced by this process, it would be hazarding 
 nothing to say that the shoes and wearing 
 
 apparel perfected by it, and now cheaply and 
 abundantly made, and almost universally in 
 use, have saved thousands from a premature 
 death, and may save millions in the ages 
 which are to come. In the presence of these 
 vast and still expanding achievements of this 
 invention, the criticisms which have been 
 made upon the applicant's accounts, as though 
 they were some petty grocer's bill, shrink 
 into insignificance, and, indeed, can scarcely 
 be listened to without a blush. We have, 
 however, a yet more definite basis on which 
 to rest our judgment — the testimony of Hay- 
 ward and Haskins. Both have long been 
 India-rubber manufacturers under the vul- 
 canizing process, and the former made the 
 valuable discovery of combining sulphur with 
 the gum, for which a patent was granted to 
 him. Their depositions are marked by frank- 
 ness, and leave no doubt of their perfect ac- 
 quaintance with this great interest in all its 
 ramifications and aspects. Hayward says 
 that the vulcanizing process for the next 
 seven years would be worth to the public 
 one million of dollars ; if so, it should have 
 been worth two millions for the last fourteen 
 years. Haskins does not hesitate to estimate 
 the process at "many millions of dollars." 
 It should be observed that the evidence of 
 the contestants does not reduce these esti- 
 mates. It is not possible to escape from the 
 conclusion to which statements so emphatic, 
 and coming from sources so fully entitled to 
 credit, lead us. If, then, this process is 
 worth two millions of dollars, the applicant 
 has received but a little more than one-for- 
 tieth part of the remuneration which he was 
 entitled to claim. 
 
 It has been assumed, as a means of avoid- 
 ing the force of these estimates, that the ap- 
 plicant is entitled to receive from the public, 
 not what the invention is now worth, devel- 
 oped and established as it is, but what it was 
 worth when the patent issued. This view 
 has been urged with much persistence and 
 plausibility ; but it has not impressed me as 
 liberal or sound When the invention came 
 timid and struggling into existence, meeting 
 in every quarter with scoffs and distrust, had 
 it been offered for sale in the market, it 
 would probably have commanded a few thou- 
 sand dollars — possibly less. But to say that 
 its value is to be measured by what it was 
 then considered to be worth would be to de- 
 termine that the character of the tree is to 
 be judged rather by the green than by the 
 ripe fruit found upon its branches The 
 present expanded and prosperous condition 
 of the invention is mainly owing to the ge- 
 nius and unceasing struggles of the appli- 
 cant, and he may justly reap what he has 
 sown and so diligently cultivated. In the 
 adjustment of machinery to accomplish the 
 ends so distinctly pointed out by the inven- 
 tor and in the manipulations of the gum and 
 
9 
 
 treatment of the fabrics in the various stages 
 of their manufacture, it is admitted that 
 many improvements have been made by 
 skilful mechanics and operatives, and these 
 have their utility and importance ; but to 
 allow such labors to rival or depreciate the 
 claims of the applicant, would be to rank 
 the simple ploughman of the fields with that 
 sublime and beneficent Providence which cre- 
 ates alike the soil out of which the harvest 
 springs and the sunshine and the shower by 
 which it is nurtured and matured. 
 
 Another and most potent reason why tbis 
 patent should be extended is found in the 
 acknowledged fact that the public have not 
 kept the faith which they plighted with the 
 applicant when he covenanted to surrender 
 to them a product which was, in effect, the 
 concentrated essence of the physical and in- 
 tellectual energies of his entire life. That 
 public stipulated with him that he should 
 peacefully enjoy for fourteen years the mo- 
 nopoly created by his patent, and, had he 
 been permitted to do so, he would no doubt 
 long since have realized an ample remunera- 
 tion ; but, so far from this having been the 
 case, no inventor probably has ever been so 
 harrassed, so trampled upon, so plundered by 
 that sordid and licentious class of infringers 
 known in the parlance of the world, with no 
 exaggeration of phrase, as "pirates." The 
 spoliations of their incessant guerilla warfare 
 upon his defenceless rights have unquestiona- 
 bly amounted to millions. In the very front 
 rank of this predatory band stands one who 
 sustains in this case the double and most 
 convenient character of contestant and wit- 
 ness ; and it is but a subdued expression of my 
 estimate of the deposition he has lodged to 
 say that this Parthian shaft — the last that he 
 could hurl at an invention which he has so 
 long and so remorselessly pursued — is a fitting 
 finale to that career which the public justice 
 of the country has so signally rebuked. 
 
 Important as are to the parties to this is- 
 sue the immediate consequences bound up 
 with it, they are insignificant indeed as com- 
 pared with the value to the public of the 
 principle involved. From the very founda- 
 tion of this government, it has been its set- 
 tled policy to secure a just reward to all 
 inventors ; and it is to the inflexible main- 
 tenance of this policy that we are indebted 
 for the unparalleled advancement which, as 
 a people, we have made in the useful arts. 
 All that is glorious in our past or hopeful 
 in our future is indissolubly linked with 
 that cause of human progress of which in- 
 ventors are the preux chevaliers. It is 1 no 
 poetic translation of the abiding sentiment 
 of the country to say, that they are the true 
 
 jewels of the nation to which they belong, 
 and that a solicitude for the protection of 
 their rights and interests should find a place 
 in every throb of the national heart. Sadly 
 helpless as a class, and offering in the glit- 
 tering creations of their own genius the 
 strongest temptations to unscrupulous cu- 
 pidity, they, of all men, have most need of 
 the shelter of the public law, while, in view 
 of their philanthropic labors, they are, of all 
 men, most entitled to claim it. The schemes 
 of the politician and of the statesman may 
 subserve the purposes of the hour, and the 
 teachings of the moralist may remain with 
 the generation to which they are addressed ; 
 but all these must pass away, while the 
 fruits of the inventor's genius will endure as 
 imperishable memorials, and, surviving the 
 wreck of creeds and systems, alike of politics, 
 religion, and philosophy, will diffuse their 
 blessings to all lands and throughout all 
 ages. 
 
 However much the seeming perplexity in 
 the applicant's accounts may expose him to 
 cavil and to that vituperation which is so 
 ready a coinage of professional zeal, and how- 
 ever short some of the points in the case may 
 fall of that complete elucidation which could 
 have been desired, there is one fact estab- 
 lished beyond all controversy, and which 
 stands out from this record with painful 
 prominence. . At the close of all his toils- 
 and sacrifices, and of the humiliations he 
 has been called on to endure, this public 
 spirited inventor, whose life has been worn 
 away in advancing the best interests of man- 
 kind, is found to be still poor, oppressed with 
 debt, and with the winter of age creeping 
 upon his shattered constitution. It is per- 
 fectly manifest that this is in no degree the 
 result of vice or of improvidence on his part, 
 but it is an inexorable consequence of the 
 impoverishing experiments inseparable from 
 the prosecution of his great enterprise, and 
 of that prolonged and exhausting strife in 
 which unscrupulous men have involved him. 
 He now begs of that country to which the 
 energies of his manhood have been so freely 
 and so faithfully given, that he may be al- 
 lowed to enjoy for a few years longer that 
 precarious protection which our most feeble 
 and imperfect laws extend to the fruits of in- 
 tellectual labor ; and were the appeal denied, 
 I feel that I should be false to the generous 
 spirit of the patent laws, and forgetful of the 
 exalted ends which it must ever be the crown- 
 ing glory of those laws to accomplish. 
 
 The patent will therefore be extended for 
 seven years from the 15th June, 1858. 
 J. HOLT, 
 
 Commissioner, 
 
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