Historedia
Episode 1 of 1

Grant of U.S. Patent No. 1

When
13 July 1836
Where
U.S. Patent Office
Part of
U.S. Patent No. 1 granted to John Ruggles for locomotive tire improvements

John Ruggles received U.S. Patent No. 1 on July 13, 1836, for locomotive tire improvements, the first under the new examination system.

The patent was issued to John Ruggles, an inventor and Maine politician, for improvements to railroad steam locomotive tires. This grant marked the first patent issued under the rigorous examination system established by the 1836 law, distinguishing it from earlier X-Patents granted without examination.

Sources

  1. John Ruggles Wikipedia, revision of 2026-10-03
  2. Patent Wikipedia, revision of 2026-10-03
  3. United States Patent and Trademark Office Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-28

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.