1865 U.S. PATENT GRANT & PATENT APPLICATION FOR ARTIFICIAL LIMBS WITH DRAWINGS

Description

We are offering the official United States patent grant issued to Jesse Coombs of Greenfield, Massachusetts on August 8, 1865 for Coombs’ invention of “New and Useful Improvement in Artificial Limbs”.  The document has a very nice steel cut engraving of the Treasury Building.
The grant is signed by W. T. Otto, Acting Secretary of the Interior and by D. P. Holloway, Commissioner of Patents; and is sealed with the Patent Office seal.
Bound together with the grant, by ribbon, is Jesse Combs’ 3-page hand-written application for the grant describing in great detail his invention, and the drawings he submitted with his application.
In his application, Coombs writes “I do hereby declare that the following description and accompanying drawings are sufficient to enable any person skilled in the art or science to which it most nearly ascertains, to make and use my said invention or improvements without further invention or experiment”.  Coombs’ description is fascinating.  His invention, which improved existing artificial limbs, was probably considered “state of the art” for that time.
The patent was granted a little over two months after the Civil War ended, at a time when artificial limbs were desperately needed for the tens of thousands (if not more) of soldiers who lost limbs during the war.  **CONDITION: The grant and application, which measure 14 1/4″ x 20 1/4″, are in Excellent Condition**