REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON PATENTS OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES, ADVERSE TO THE EXTENSION OF THE WOODWORTH PATENT. JULY 17, 1852. (Rep. No. 156. H. of Reps. 62nd Congress, 1st Session).

The report to Congress made by Mr. Cartter, Chairman of the Committee on Patents.

A house carpenter from Hudson, New York, William Woodworth (1780-1839) manufactured machines, in particular the Woodworth Planing Machine which he designed and built in 1828. His invention was regarded as the greatest improvement to the planing machine to date, allowing one to perform what had then required 25 laborers to do. Having little funds to take advantage of his patent, he sold all but a portion of the rights to a syndicate consisting of Samuel Schenck, John Gibson, and Samuel Pitts, who bought out his partner James Strong in the process. After making minor improvements to the machine, Woodworth applied for and was granted a new patent in 1836. After his death in 1839, the patent passed on to his son William W. Woodworth with Jason G. Wilson and Edward Bloomer and they went on to request an extension to the patent in 1842 and again in 1845. Although the patent office initially rejected this last extension, the patent owners bribed members of Congress and the patent was not only renewed but now expanded to include the Uri Emmons' patent which had expired in 1829. Tired of paying such a large royalty, lumber merchants and carpenters started one of the earliest community organizing campaigns in the country in opposition to the extension of the patent which they considered as granting a monopoly to the patent holders. A firestorm of protest ensued when William W. Woodworth sought yet another extension in 1850, and an article in a 1852 issue of Scientific American proclaimed that the "public are now paying fifteen millions of dollars a year for work done by the Woodworth machines", arguing that other machines could do the same for only 3 million. This time the extension was denied and the patent was allowed to expire in 1856.

RARE.