Unfettered Invention: How the X Patents Sparked Early American Technology with Scott B. Guthery, Julie Burke, and Michael Risch
59m | Oct 14, 2026What happens when nearly 10,000 patents from the earliest years of the American patent system are lost, scattered, or destroyed? Those records tell a much bigger story than who invented what. They capture a period when inventors were solving practical problems, sometimes arriving at the same ideas independently, sometimes getting things wrong, and often making small improvements that helped move American industry forward.
My guests are Scott B. Guthery, Julie Burke, and Michael Risch, coauthors of Unfettered Invention: How the X Patents Sparked Early American Technology. Scott is an inventor with more than 50 U.S. patents and an author on technology and its history. Julie is a former USPTO patent examiner and quality manager, the founder of IP Quality Pro, and a member of the Board of Directors of the Association for American Innovation. Michael is a professor at Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law whose work includes patents, information access, and America’s earliest patent records.
We talk about how the X patents came to exist, why so much of the original record disappeared, and what it took to piece parts of that history back together. We also look at some of the unusual inventions the authors uncovered, what failed and overlapping ideas can teach us about the way innovation really happens, and what this early chapter of the patent system may still have to say to today’s inventors, patent professionals, and technology transfer community.
In This Episode:
[02:23] Scott B. Guthery explains what X patents are and how nearly 10,000 early patent records were lost.
[05:27] Reconstructing the patent record after the 1836 Patent Office fire.
[09:14] Julie Burke on what X patents reveal about America’s early Industrial Revolution.
[11:15] Scott shares how the idea for *Unfettered Invention* began and how AI helped unlock handwritten patent records.
[14:04] Michael Risch discusses his earlier research into America’s first patents and what it revealed about patentable subject matter.
[18:13] How the U.S. patent system worked before 1836 and the role courts played in defining patent law.
[22:11] Julie compares early Patent Office operations with the challenges faced by the USPTO today.
[25:03] How ordinary inventors learned to navigate the early patent system.
[27:47] Thomas Jefferson, Jacob Isaacks, and an early example of outside technical review.
[29:09] Thomas P. Jones and the *Franklin Journal’s* role in sharing patent and technology information.
[32:35] Reconstructing lost patents through archives, historical societies, court cases, and auction records.
[36:23] How AI helped uncover missing patents and make difficult historical documents more accessible.
[39:52] Examples of overlapping inventions and what they reveal about independent innovation.
[43:06] Memorable inventions, including water turbines, horse-powered ferries, alarm clocks, and coil mattresses.
[46:55] What failed inventions can teach us about experimentation, timing, and technological progress.
[51:06] The drawbacks of an early patent system where inventors often had little access to existing patent information.
[52:57] Lessons from the X-patent era for Patent Office administration, preservation, and access to information.
[56:07] What technology transfer professionals can learn about supporting promising inventions.
[57:05] Why the X patents still matter today.
Resources:
Unfettered Invention: How the X Patents Sparked Early American Technology
Association for American Innovation
Michael Risch - Villanova University
Patents by Inventor Scott B. Guthery
