U.S. Invention Patent Models
Patent models are unique to a brief period of American history, when U.S. patent law required that all inventors submit a scale model of their invention in order to be granted a patent. With the recision of those laws in the late 1800s, models were no longer required, and the collections of the Patent Office’s 19th century models were placed in storage until budget constraints eventually forced the government to dispose of them, pursuant to an Act of Congress.