On July 31, 1790, Samuel Hopkins was granted the first U.S. patent, under the new U.S. patent statute just signed into law by President Washington on April 10, 1790. He was granted a patent for an improvement “in the making of Pot ash and Pearl ash by a new Apparatus and Process.

Till then, the Patent Office was not established, so a committee of the Secretary of State, Secretary of War and the Attorney General were authorized to make a decision on the merit of the patent application.

The patent was signed by President George Washington, Attorney General Edmund Randolph, and Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson.