L. O. Form No. 52.-Desert Land-Act of March 3, 1877.

AFFIDAVIT.

No.

County,, being duly sworn, declare, upon

oath, that I am a resident of said County and

and by occupation a

that I am

that I am well

of the age of acquainted with the character of each and every legal subdivi- . sion of the following described land: The

containing

section No.

acres;

, township No.-, range No. that I became acquainted with said land by ; that I have been acquainted with it for years last past; that I have frequently passed over it; that my knowledge of said land is such as to enable me to testify understandingly concerning it; that the same is desert land within the meaning of the second section of the Act of Congress approved March 3, 1877, entitled "An Act to provide for the Sale of Desert Lands in certain States and Territories;" that said land will not, without artificial irrigation, produce any agricultural crop; that no agricultural crop has ever been raised or cultivated on said land, for the reason that it does not contain sufficient moisture for successful cultivation; that the same is essentially dry and arid land, wholly unfit for cultivation without artificial irrigation; that said land can not be successfully cultivated without reclamation by conducting water thereon; that said land has hitherto been unappropriated, unoccupied, and unsettled, because it has been impossible to cultivate it successfully on account of its dry and arid condition; that it is a fact well-known, patent, and notorious, that the same will not, in its natural condition, produce any crop; that the land is the ; that there is no timber growing thereon, but that it is devoid of timber; that there is not, to my knowledge, within the limits thereof, any vein or lode of quartz or other rock in place, bearing gold, silver, cinnabar, lead, tin, or copper, or any deposit of coal; that there is not, within the limits of said land, to my knowledge, any placer, cement, gravel, or other valuable mineral deposit or salines; that no portion of said land is claimed for mining purposes under the local customs or rules of miners or otherwise; that no portion of said land is worked for mineral during any part of the year by any person or persons; that said land is essentially non-mineral land; that I am not interested in any way or manner, directly or indirectly, present or prospective, in any appli

cation or declaration made or to be made for said land, or in the land itself, or in the title which may, by any person or in any manner, be acquired thereto.

L. O. Form No. 58.- Sworn Statement under Act of

I, ——————, of County,, desiring to avail myself of the provisions of the Act of Congress of June 3, 1878, entitled "An Act for the Sale of Timber Lands in the States of California, Oregon, Nevada, and Washington Territory," for the purchase of the of section township - of range do solemnly that I -; that the said land is unfit for cultivation, and valuable chiefly for its; that it is uninhabited; that it contains no mining or other improvements, nor, as I verily believe, any valuable deposit of gold, silver, cinnabar, copper, or coal; that I have made no other application under said Act; that I do not apply to purchase the land above described on speculation, but in good faith, to appropriate it to my own exclusive use and benefit; and that I have not, directly or indirectly, made any agreement or contract, in any way or manner, with any person or persons whomsoever, by which the title which I may acquire from the government of the United States may inure in whole or in part to the benefit of any person except myself.

Sworn to and subscribed before me this

CHAPTER XI.

OF PATENT RIGHTS.

As Americans are an inventive people, and have a natural love for mechanical and labor-saving contrivances; and as the Government fosters this particular genius of the people by giving to the discoverer and maker of any new and useful machine or device the exclusive right to its use and control for a period of seventeen years from the date of Letters Patent for his invention, the following condensed statement of the principal Rules of Practice in the United States Patent-office, supplemented by forms prepared by the Commissioner of Patents, showing what must be done to secure Letters Patent for machines, composition of matter, designs, trade-marks, labels on prints, etc., will be presented in this chapter, together with directions for securing "copyrights."

WHO MAY OBTAIN A PATENT.

Any person, whether citizen or alien, being the original and first inventor or discoverer of any new and useful art, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent for his invention or discovery, subject to the conditions as to public use and abandonment hereinafter named.

In case of the death of the inventor, the patent may be applied for by, and will issue to, his executor or administrator. In case of an assignment of the whole interest in the invention, or of the whole interest in the patent if granted, the patent will issue to the assignee, upon the request of the latter, or his assignor; and so, if the assignee holds an undivided part interest, the patent will, upon a similar request, issue jointly to him and the inventor; but the assignment must first have been entered of record, and at a day not later than the date of the payment of the final fee; and the application must be duly made, and the specification sworn to by the inventor.

Joint inventors are entitled to a joint patent; neither can claim one separately; but the independent inventors of separate and independent improvements in the same machine cannot obtain a joint patent for their separate inventions.

A patent will not be granted to an applicant if what he claims as new has been, before his invention, patented or described in any printed publication in this country.

APPLICATION.

No application for a patent can be placed upon the files for examination until the fee is paid, the specification and the petition and oath are filed, and the drawings and a model or specimens (when required) are furnished. The application must be completed and prepared for examination within two years after the filing of the petition.

The application and oath must be made by the actual inventor, if alive, even if the patent is to issue to an assignee; but where the inventor is dead, the application and oath must be made by his executor or administrator.

The application must be in writing, in the English language, and addressed to the Commissioner of Patents. The petition and specification must be separately signed by the applicant. The specification, claims, and all amendments must be written in a fair, legible hand.

The applicant, if the inventor, must make oath or affirmation that he does verily believe himself to be the original and first inventor or discoverer of the art, machine, manufacture, composition, or improvement for which he solicits a patent; that he does not know and does not believe that the same was ever before known or used; and shall state of what country he is a citizen, and of what a resident. If the application be made by an executor or administrator, the form of the oath will be correspondingly changed. The oath or affirmation may be made before any person within the United States, authorized by law to administer oaths.

SPECIFICATION.

The specification is a written description of the invention or discovery, and of the manner and process of making, constructing, compounding, and using the same, and is required to be in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms, avoiding unnecessary prolixity, as to enable any person skilled in the art or science to which it appertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make, construct, compound, and use the same. It must be followed by a specific and well-defined claim of the part, improvement, or combination which the applicant regards as his invention or discovery.

Where there are drawings, the specification should refer by letters and figures to the different parts; and it must set forth the precise invention for which a patent is claimed, explaining the principle thereof and the best mode in which the applicant has contemplated applying that principle, so as to distinguish it from other inventions.

In all applications for patents upon mere improvements the specification must particularly point out the part or parts to which the improvement relates, and must by ex

plicit language distinguish between what is old and what is claimed as the improvement.

Two or more separate and independent inventions can not be claimed in one application; but where several inventions relating to the same subject are necessarily connected each with the other, they may be so claimed.

If more than one invention is claimed in a single application, and they are found to be of such a nature that a single patent may not be issued to cover the whole, the office will require the inventor to confine the description and claim of the pending application to whichever invention he may elect; the other inventions may be made the subject of separate applications.

The specification must be signed by the inventor or by his executor or administrator, and must be attested by two witnesses. Full names must be given, and all names, whether of applicants or witnesses, must be legibly written.

DRAWINGS.

The applicant for a patent is required by law to furnish a drawing of his invention, where the nature of the case admits of it.

Three several editions of patent drawings are printed and published: one for office use, certified copies, etc., of the size and character of those attached to patents, the work being about six by nine and one half inches; one reduced to half that scale, or one fourth the surface, of which four will be printed on a page to illustrate the volumes distributed to the Courts, etc., and one reduction, to about the same scale, of a selected portion of each drawing, to illustrate the Official Gazette.

Drawings should be made on paper stiff enough to stand in the portfolios, the surface of which must be calendered and smooth. "Two-sheet" bristol board or sheets cut from Whatman's hot-pressed drawing paper, "antiquarian" size, are recommended.

Indian ink of good quality, to the exclusion of all other kinds of ink or color, must be employed, to secure perfectly black and solid work.

The size of a sheet on which a drawing is made should be exactly ten by fifteen inches. One inch from its edges a single marginal line is to be drawn, leaving the "sight" precisely eight by thirteen inches. Within this margin all work and signatures must be included. One of the smaller sides of the sheet is regarded as its top, and, measuring downward from the marginal line, a space of not less than one and one quarter inches is to be left blank for the insertion of title, name, number, and date. The signatures will be placed in a space left at the bottom of the sheet.