1877 U.S. Patent Office fire
Patent Office 1877 fire woodcut published
in Harper's Weekly 13 October 1877 after Timothy H. O'Sullivan photograph |
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| Date | 24 September 1877 |
|---|---|
| Location |
U.S. Patent Office, Washington, D.C., USA |
| Coordinates | 38°53′52″N 77°01′23″W / 38.89778°N 77.022936°W |
| Outcome | Entire west and north wing of Patent Office building burnt. |
The Patent Office fire of 1877 was the second of several disastrous fires in the history of the U.S. Patent Office. It occurred in the Old Patent Office Building in Washington, D.C., on 27 September 1877. Although the building was constructed to be fireproof, many of its contents were not; some 80,000 models and some 600,000 copy drawings were destroyed. No patents were completely lost, however, and the Patent Office soon reopened.
On 4 July 1836, the Patent Office became a separate organization within the Department of State under the Patent Act of 1836 (5 Stat. 117). Henry Leavitt Ellsworth became its first commissioner. He immediately began construction of a new "fire-proof" building, which was not completed until 1864.
The Patent Office fire started at about 11 am on 24 September 1877. American author Bret Harte reports in The writings of Bret Harte that it was not known when or where the fire started. There have been guesses as to what started the fire, as the exact cause was never conclusively determined. One guess is that it was spontaneous combustion from chemical fumes in the upper part of one of the wings, as fumes collected there in condensed amounts, making it a potential fire hazard. There was a considerable amount of flammable material in that area and the roof was constructed of wood, which led to a rapid ignition and a fast-moving and disastrous building fire. The fire burned part of the upper portions of the north and west wings. Another theory was that a lens might have caught the sun's rays and focused them on a combustible object.
Others claim that it was an "unseasonably chilly" morning, and that a fire started by some copyists in their office grate emitted sparks that landed on the roof, igniting a wooden gutter screen. Before long, seemingly half the building was in flames. "The scene was one of awful grandeur," reported the Evening Star. Despite architect Robert Mills' best efforts, fire proofing was imperfect. "Ironically, although Mills' successor as architect, Thomas U. Walter, had been one of the harshest critics, claiming that Mills' vaulted ceilings would collapse in the event of fire, the conflagration actually consumed much of Walter's shallower, iron-reinforced vaulting, and left the earlier ceilings intact."
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