Patent Office 1836 fire
Blodget's Hotel with stagecoach parked in front, in around 1800s—before 1836 Great Fire
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| Date | December 15, 1836 |
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| Location | U.S. Patent Office, Blodget's Hotel, Washington, USA |
| Outcome | Entirety of the library lost (except one volume) |
The December 15 1836 U.S. Patent Office fire was the first of several disastrous fires the U.S. Patent Office has had in its history. An initial investigation considered the possibility of arson due to suspected corruption in the Post Office, which shared the same building, but it was later ruled out. The cause was ultimately determined to be accidental. This event is considered to be a turning point in the history of the Patent Office.
Local fire suppression efforts were incapable of preventing the damage due to lack of fire personnel and old equipment. Many patent documents and models from the preceding three decades were irretrievably lost. As a result of the fire, Congress and the newly legally revamped Patent Office changed the way it handled its recordkeeping, assigning numbers to patents and requiring multiple copies of supporting documentation.
The fire broke out at 3 a.m. on December 15. At that time the Patent Office was located in Blodget's Hotel, as was the fire department and the post office. Patent Office employees stored firewood in the basement of the hotel, near where postal employees disposed of the hot ashes from their fires. Sometime after midnight that morning the hot ashes ignited the firewood. The fire department's hose was old and defective and would not funnel the water onto the fire. All 10,000 patents and several thousand related patent models were destroyed.
In 1810, Congress had authorized the purchase of the unfinished Blodgett's Hotel from its builder to house the Post and Patent offices. Congress was aware of the fire risk. During the War of 1812, Superintendent Dr. William Thornton convinced members of the British expeditionary force to leave it standing while they burned the rest of the city. "When the smoke cleared from the dreadful attack, the Patent Office was the only Government building . . . left untouched" from the Burning of Washington.
Consequently, a well-equipped fire station was located nearby. In 1820, "Congress authorized the covering of the building with a slate roof and the purchase of a fire engine for its protection against fires." Unfortunately, the volunteer fire department lost its sense of purpose and was disbanded. In fact, a complete firehouse equipped with a fire engine was just down the street. Although equipped with a forcing pump and with riveted leather hose 1,000 feet (300 m) long (all purchased 16 years earlier by Act of Congress), there were no firefighters. Running a bucket brigade to put out the building blaze was totally ineffective.
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Wikipedia