After posting my previous Christmas patent post, I thought I’d look for the oldest Christmas related patent in the Google Patent Search.
The oldest Christmas-related patent in Google’s Patent Search is for a “Design for a Christmas-Tree Ornament” from 1868 by Philipp Knorpp. Knorpp was a resident of Richmond County, NY. Richmond County is more commonly known today as Staten Island, one of the five boroughs of NYC.
Knorpp’s patent was rather plainly written:
The leading feature of our new design for Christmas-tree ornaments consists of a tapered body, shoulders or offsets at the wider end of the same, a slightly-flaring head on the wider j 15 end, a representation of a face on said head, depressed cross-lines on the body, and circular depressions in the panels produced by the crossed lines.
Knorpp went on to patent about ten other inventions, including a Pneumatic Vehicle-Tire, Design for an Article of Confectionery, and a Machine for Making Confectionery.