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Early British Patents

A Cradle of Inventions

British Patents 1617 to 1895

A fully searchable database of around 520,000 British patent titles, numbers, their dates and inventors.

"A Cradle of Inventions" provides for the first time, a fully searchable CD-ROM database adapted from the work of the great Bennet Woodcroft around the mid-19th century. It thus forms a unique "key" to a treasury of innovations patented from 1617 up to 1895, which triggered the Industrial Revolution, so changing our world forever.

Published by MFIS Ltd.

Now including 3,300 early Scottish Patents!
On a separate database, 3000 entries for Scottish patents. For a brief period, Scotland operated its own patent filing system. Inventors, patent titles etc are collected here, this information is not available, as
far as we know, anywhere else.

NEW! Extended version covering 1617 to 1895. Over 520,000 entries.
Price: £75 / US$120 (Including surface mail postage & packaging. Airmail US$5 extra)

Although the occasional patent was granted by kings and princes in the 15th century and thereafter, most famously to Brunelleschi, it is in Great Britain that the oldest continuous and formalised patent system is found. Patent Number 1 dates from 1617 and British patents have been continuously filed from then to this day. "A Cradle of Inventions" provides for the first time, a fully searchable CD-ROM database adapted from the work of the great Bennet Woodcroft around the mid-19th century. It thus forms a unique "key" to a treasury of innovations patented from 1617 up to 1895, which triggered the Industrial Revolution, so changing our world forever.Here are to be found the breakthroughs in spinning and weaving, in clockmaking, and perhaps most importantly, the harnessing of steam power. Agriculture and farming, the nascent food and drink industries, dentistry and medicine, printing and paper ... all these and many more will be found here.Users can browse through over half a million patent titles, search for inventors by name, for patent numbers, by year, or for key words in patent titles. A simple classification system to assist readers in this has been added. Historians, economists and sociologists of the period will find this a uniquely useful tool offering instant information in a way not previously available.

"A Cradle of Inventions" is an ISO 9660 compatible CD-ROM which will operate on any PC operating under Windows (any version) with RAM, hard disk drive and monitor specifications normally suggested for these operating systems.

See also our deluxe facsimile editions of

Plating & Electroplating of Metals
&
Medicine, Surgery & Dentistry - 250 Years of Medical and Dental Inventions
History & Patent Abridgements. 1617 to 1866