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First U.S. Patent Issued to Samuel Hopkins

Name: First U.S. Patent Issued to Samuel Hopkins
Start: 1790-07-31
Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

When: July 31, 1790
Where: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Part of: Issuance of the First U.S. Patent

Samuel Hopkins received the first U.S. patent on July 31, 1790, in Philadelphia, for an improved method of making potash and pearlash.

Hopkins was granted the first U.S. patent under the new statute signed by President Washington on April 10, 1790. The patent covered an improvement in the making of Potash and Pearlash by a new Apparatus and Process. This event occurred in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Sources

Samuel Hopkins (inventor) 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.