| THE STATE IN THE MARYLAND ECONOMY, 1776-1807 105
ning wool or cotton. Wishing to " encourage useful inventions
as well as promote the manufacture of cotton and wool with-
in this state," the legislature gave him the " exclusive right,
privilege and benefit " of making and selling these machines
within Maryland during the next fourteen years. The penalty
for making or selling these machines without the inventor's
license was £50, to be paid to Lemmon 1111
The only other patentee during this period was Oliver
Evans, a miller from Delaware, who desired a patent in 1787
on a series of inventions. They are named and describe in the
preamble of the act granting him his patent as an " elevator "
to raise and lower flour to different floors of a mill, a " hop-
perboy " to spread and gather the flour without manual as-
sistance, and a " steam-carriage," a vehicle " to move by the
power of steam and the pressure of the atmosphere " to con-
vey " burthens without the aid of animal force." er Evans'
steam-carriage had been " rejected and derided " by the leg-
islature of Pennsylvania shortly before he had applied to
Maryland .611 The General Assembly commented in granting
the patent that these inventions of Evans would " greatly tend
to simplify and render cheap the manufacture of flours, which
is one of the principal staples of this state." In order to make
" adequate compensation " to Evans, the legislature gave him
the exclusive privilege of making and selling his machines for
a period of fourteen years. Further, he was to be paid £100
for every machine made or sold without his license. Nothing
in the act was to prevent a future General Assembly from abol-
ishing Evan's exclusive right upon paying him £500 cur=rent
money.eB
Evans' mill inventions were soon introduced into the mills
around Baltimore, not without claims of prior invention by
some of the local mill owners.r0 After being installed in the
extensive mills of the Ellicotts on the Patapsco, the machines
'e Md. Sess., 1786, c. 23.
e715ad., 1787 Apr. c. 21. See [Edward Spencer], A Sketch of the History of
Manufactures in Maryland (Baltimore, 1882), pp. 42-44 for a r6sum6 of Evans
career and an explanation of his inventions.
°$ J. Thomas Scharf, History of Baltimore City and County from the Earliest
Period to the Present Day (Philadelphia, 1881) , p. 374. Hereafter cited as
Scharf, Baltimore.
e° Md. Sess, 1787 Apr. e. 21.
'° Griffith, p. 119.
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