British Patent Information - Resources, And Need Help With Details

October 27, 2017

As far as I can tell, the British patents are not as accessible as the US patents. I may be missing some great resource, and if so, please tell me. Otherwise, I've gathered the following resources from Google Books. I am focusing on British patents to about 1860, but have gathered resources for up to 1850, then 1852 - 1869 and 1881.

Unfortunately, these indices get you the patent number, date and patentee, but no real details around the patent. If anyone knows of a way, short of visiting the British national archives in person, to get the details, or even a good summary of these patents, please let me know.

So, for patents up to Oct1852 start with these two indices of titles. "Pens" are under "Stationery" so they're in volume two. I'm going to list the patents I've found from this volume related to pens (I'm focused on metallic pens, but I've included others that may be of interest on FPN).

Titles of Patents of Invention, Chronologically Arranged: From March 2, 1617 (14 James I.) to October 1, 1852 (16 Victoriae) Vol 1 up to 5th june 1823

Titles of Patents of Invention: Chronologically Arranged from March 2, 1617 (14 James I.) to October 1, 1852 (16 Victoriæ), Part 2, Issues 4801-14359

For those patents for 1852 on, they were published in yearly pamplets. The patent numbers changed to be the year+number. Google books has some of the indices for these years after Oct. 1852. Here are some of the resources on a year-by-year basis. Look in the front to find on what page the pens, pencils etc.. category is found. There are some gaps in the years. I have not found the subject matter indices for 1862, 1865, 1870-1880 yet. They may be out there, if so, let me know.

Subject-matter Index of Patents Applied for and Patents Granted 1852

https://books.google.com/books?id=OA1HAQAAMAAJ

Subject-matter Index of Patents Applied for and Patents Granted 1853

https://books.google.com/books?id=n_bHSOv4E0MC

Subject-matter Index of Patents Applied for and Patents Granted 1854

https://books.google.com/books?id=kQX501VYA2AC

Subject-Matter Index Of Patents Applied for and Patents Granted For the Year 1855

https://books.google.com/books?id=cq05AQAAMAAJ

Subject-Matter Index Of Patents Applied for and Patents Granted For the Year 1856

https://books.google.com/books?id=c605AQAAMAAJ

Subject-matter Index of Patents Applied for and Patents Granted 1857

https://books.google.com/books?id=8n1w3mAER1IC

Subject-Matter Index of Patents Applied for and Patents Granted, for the Year 1858

https://books.google.com/books?id=7K05AQAAMAAJ

Subject-Matter Index of Patents Applied for and Patents Granted 1859

https://books.google.com/books?id=Ca45AQAAMAAJ

Subject-Matter Index of Patents Applied for and Patents Granted for the Year 1860

https://books.google.com/books?id=ia45AQAAMAAJ

Subject-matter Index of Patents Applied for and Patents Granted 1861

https://books.google.com/books?id=156Fj-WntwcC

Subject-matter Index of Patents Applied for and Patents Granted 1863

https://books.google.com/books?id=Tf8VGpFN-4MC

Subject-matter Index of Patents Applied for and Patents Granted 1864

https://books.google.com/books?id=PsfuvWKnbuQC

Subject-matter Index of Patents Applied for and Patents Granted 1866

https://books.google.com/books?id=0uomv_waIGsC

Subject-matter Index of Patents Applied for and Patents Granted 1867

https://books.google.com/books?id=IvPMOMGbLt8C

Subject-matter Index of Patents Applied for and Patents Granted 1868

https://books.google.com/books?id=_ltMtuunDScC

Subject-matter index of patents applied for and patents granted 1869

https://books.google.com/books?id=M9bJzZjzuc4C

Subject-matter Index of Patents Applied for and Patents Granted 1881

https://books.google.com/books?id=56NkqczPHOUC

I'm cross posting this list, and will keep it updated, out on my steel pen blog. https://thesteelpen.com/

Edited October 27, 2017 by AAAndrew

October 27, 2017

Here are some of the patents I've found up to 1853. I'll post more as I work my way through. Now just to see some of the details.

The Goodyear ones are interesting. I'm going to write some about those in the future. Goodyear made a very short-lived attempt at making dip pens out of rubber.

Andrew