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Patent Model of Plow

(c) Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield MA. All rights reserved.
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In 1836, a new law was signed by President Andrew Jackson that established a new patent system. It restructured the patent law that had first been passed in 1793. That law had required models for some inventions, but not all, and only if the Patent Office deemed one necessary. But patent disputes in courts increasingly began to use the models, and by the time a new law was drafted the requirements were changed to require a model with every patent application. This requirement held until 1880. A model like this one of Dexter Pierce's plough was submitted for a patent. Dexter Pierce was born in 1806 in Southbridge, Massachusetts. He moved to Sturbridge in 1830, and in 1835 bought land in the village of Montague, Massachusetts. There he lived with his wife, Mary Ann Fiske and their four daughters. In the years after, he purchased a significant amount of land in Sunderland and Northfield, where he had his home. His plough was not a big hit. He died in 1860.

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