Samuel Hopkins
(1743-1818)
inventor and holder of the first US patent (from 1790)
Died aged c. 75
Wikidata WikipediaSamuel Hopkins (December 9, 1743 – 1818) was an American inventor from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, On July 31, 1790, he was granted the first U.S. patent, under the new U.S. patent statute just signed into law by President Washington on April 10, 1790. Hopkins had petitioned for a patent on an improvement "in the making of Pot ash and Pearl ash by a new Apparatus and Process." The statute did not create a Patent Office. Instead a committee of the Secretary of State, Secretary of War and the Attorney General were authorized to make a decision on the merit of a properly documented petition. The patent was signed by President George Washington, Attorney General Edmund Randolph, and Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson. The other U.S. patents issued that year were for a new candle-making process and Oliver Evans's flour-milling machinery. Hopkins also received the first "Canadian" patent from the Parliament of Lower Canada in 1791, issued "by the Governor General in Council to , a Scottish soldier garrisoned at Quebec City, and to Samuel Hopkins, for processes to make potash and soap from wood ash."
DbPedia
Commemorated on 1 plaque
Samuel Hopkins (1743-1818). The holder of the first U.S. patent, signed by George Washington, lived here. On July 31, 1790, Hopkins received a patent for an improvement in making potash, a major industrial chemical. In succeeding centuries, the U.S. Government issued millions of patents.
119 Arch St., Philadelphia, PA, United States where they lived