Digitized "patents" of the 19th and early 20th centuries issued to the inventors of tsarist Russia, Europe, America and Japan

2023: Digitization of 19th and early 20th century "patents" issued to inventors of Tsarist Russia, Europe, America and Japan

The Federal Institute of Industrial Property, together with the IT company ELAR, carried out a large-scale project - the digitization of an array of descriptions of inventions of the Russian Empire to privileges and patents for inventions - 36 thousand documents were translated into electronic form from 1814 to 1917. This was announced on December 13, 2023 by representatives of ELAR.

Digitized "patents" of the 19th and early 20th centuries issued to the inventors of tsarist Russia, Europe, America and Japan

As reported, ELAR specialists digitized 315 volumes of the publication "Code of Privileges Issued in Russia," which are part of the State Patent Fund. Its formation and provision of access to it to all interested users is entrusted to the All-Russian Patent and Technical Library of FIPS. It is in the VPTB FIPS that this fund is presented in full.

The books describe 36,078 inventions. And these "golden pages" of scientific and technical information allow us to trace the formation and development of inventive thought in Russia, the level of its scientific and technical achievements by the beginning of the 20th century. They can certainly be categorized as book monuments. told Tatyana Viktorovna Kuznetsova, head of the department of VPTB of the Federal Institute of Industrial Property

Tsiolkovsky, balloon device, 1911.

In fact, privilege is a prototype of a modern patent. In 1812, Emperor Alexander I approved a patent law - the Manifesto "On Privileges for Various Inventions and Discoveries in Crafts and Arts," which was the first legislative act in Russia in the field of protection of inventions.

Privilege is a security document that is evidence "certifying that the invention referred to in it was at one time presented to the Government as property belonging to the person named in the privilege. Almost until the 1880s privileges were issued at the request of applicants on behalf of the emperor, by his special decree, by domestic state bodies that carried out administrative functions in various years to regulate inventive activities. As early as the 19th century, patent information was stated as follows: "The importance of patents is associated with the rapid publication of new inventive concepts, since each new idea is distributed around the world; thus, hundreds of minds will perceive it and can even modify and develop it in a completely new special way. explained Tatyana Viktorovna Kuznetsova

These words belong to Werner von Siemens, a German electrical engineer and entrepreneur, founder and chief owner of the large electrical engineering concerns Siemens and Galske, Siemens and Shukkert, in whose name hundreds of privileges and patents were issued in Russia.

Throughout the 19th century, applications for privileges were received and security documents were issued to residents of all of Russia, including the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Finland, but still they accounted for a relatively small part (20%) of the total number of issued documents. Basically, applicants from almost all countries of Europe, as well as the USA and Canada, became Russian patent owners. It is also noteworthy that the list of descriptions of inventions includes authors from Australia and New Zealand, Argentina, Brazil and Chile, as well as Egypt, Ceylon, the Republic of South Africa, Japan and other countries. This indicates the importance that already in the 19th century - early 20th century. foreign applicants attached legal protection to their developments in Russia.

The social composition of copyright holders is also interesting. Security documents in different years were received by representatives of the highest circles of the Russian aristocracy and sovereign houses of Europe, military personnel and serfs, representatives of the clergy and merchants, bourgeois, students, etc. Many descriptions indicate the professions of the owners: process engineer, professor of shorthand, forest conductor, locksmith, etc. The fact of obtaining a privilege for invention by playwright A.V. Sukhovo-Kobylin is noteworthy. However, this fund is of particular importance due to the presence in it of documents related to the inventive activities of prominent Russian and foreign scientists, engineers, inventors, industrialists. These are, for example, M.O. Dolivo-Dobrovolsky, N.D. Zelinsky, A.S. Popov, B.L. Rosing, D.K. Chernov, V.G. Shukhov, O. and L. Lumiera, O. and W. Wright, P.O. and V. Mauser, G.Daimler, N.Tesla, T. Edison, representatives of three generations of A.B. Nobel families in total of 100. continued story Tatyana Viktorovna Kuznetsova

Turning to the fund, you can also evaluate the "patent portfolios" of the 19th century of large Russian and foreign enterprises and companies that had just begun their activities at that time, for example, the Partnership of the Prokhorov Trekhgorny Manufactory, the Society of Putilov Plants, the Kolomna Machine-Building Plant, the Baltic Shipbuilding and Mechanical Plant, the Obukhov Steel Plant, as well as foreign companies: Singer, Ford Motors, Karl Zeiss, etc.

The foundation's documents were scanned in 2021 using modern domestic equipment - ELAR planetary scanners. Specialized complexes that make it possible to scan carefully in contactless mode made it possible to create high-quality digital copies even for the most dilapidated pages. The work on translation into electronic form was complicated not only by the dilapidation of some originals, but also by discrepancies in the details of documents (in particular, their numbers), due to the peculiarities of the publication of documents of that time, the variability of the text part of documents and graphic materials, etc.

The foundation's documents digitized , in addition to their common historical value, are of particular importance for such categories of users as scientists, including those involved in history sciences and technology; engineers and designers - developers of technology; employees of the sphere, formations students and graduate students; employees of museums - polytechnic and memorial, as well as museums of the largest enterprises, and in general - the entire inventive community, since until now this fund has been used to a very small extent, including due to insufficient awareness of it.

Therefore, the provision of wide access to this fund to interested users on the basis of modern information technologies is of particular importance. This is the beginning of an interesting work of popularizing invention. added Tatyana Viktorovna Kuznetsova, head of the department of VPTB of the Federal Institute of Industrial Property