On September 6, 1819, a U.S. Patent issued to Thomas Blanchard on an Improvement in Machines for Turning or Cutting Irregular Forms, then of Middlebury, Connecticut. This was before patents were numbered, and this patent appears to be one of the ones lost in the USPTO fire of 1836. Blanchard’s device was capable of manufacturing irregular forms, such as gun stocks, doing the work of 20 people. Blanchard was recruited by the U.S. Armory at Springfield, Mass. to build machines to efficiently produce gun parts.

So important was the invention, that Congress twice extended this patent, first to 1834, then to 1848, giving a total of 42 years in force. Congress has occasionally extended patents by private act, sometimes even after the patents have expired. Among the more well known of these patents are U.S. Patent No. D54296 on the badge of the American Legion, U.S. Patent No. D55398 on the American Legion Auxiliary, and U.S. Patent No. D92187 on the badge of the Sons of the American Legion, which were extended multiple times through at least 2020:

One of the most recent (but unsuccessful) attempts by Congress to extend a patent was the 111th Congress’ H.R. 2508 trying to extend U.S. Patent 5,180,715 by two years: