In preparing and arranging the following list of “American Patents and Claims,” we have given all the really important ones ever issued. Some of the descriptions are very brief, and necessarily so, from the fact that the Patent Office Reports have given but little more than the title, or “text” of the patent issued. It is a very singular, and somewhat remarkable fact, that our Patent Office Reports are exceedingly barren of information concerning the _nature_ and _description_ of inventions. Why this meagreness of detail is put forth, and important information thus withheld or _suppressed_, is a problem that we cannot solve. We have before alluded to the marked difference which exists between the English and American Patent Offices in this important particular, and while we are able to give full, minute, and instructive descriptions of English patents, we can only afford, in many American patents herein referred to, but little more than the announcement of the issue. SYNOPSIS OF AMERICAN PATENTS. _First American Patent_, received by Jacob H. Hummel, of Philadelphia, April 29, 1813, for India-rubber Varnish. _Second_, to George H. Richards, Washington, D. C., April 11, 1831, for India-rubber Fluid, to render articles water-proof. _Third_, to Wait Webster, New York, May 19, 1832, for attaching India-rubber soles to boots and shoes. _Fourth_, to Edwin M. Chaffee, Roxbury, Mass., Feb. 6, 1833, for India-rubber shoes. _Fifth_, to Nathaniel Ruggles, Bridgeport, Conn., Feb. 20, 1833, for attaching India-rubber soles to boots and shoes. _Sixth_, to Samuel D. Breed, Philadelphia, Pa., April 4, 1833, for attaching soles to boots and shoes by means of India-rubber. _Seventh_, to Samuel D. Breed, Philadelphia, June 29, 1833, for hose from cloth and gum-elastic. _Eighth_, to Edwin M. Chaffee, Roxbury, Mass., Dec. 31, 1833, for India-rubber mail and travelling bags. _Ninth_, to Edwin M. Chaffee, Roxbury, Mass., May 17, 1834, for boots and shoes from India-rubber. _Tenth_, to Patrick Mackie, New York, Oct. 16, 1834, for covering ropes with India-rubber. Re-issued, Dec. 3, 1834. _Eleventh_, to A. L. Van Horn, Philadelphia, Pa., June 26, 1835, India-rubber webbing for riding-saddles. _Twelfth_, to Charles Goodyear, New Haven, Conn., Sept. 9, 1835, for India-rubber cement. _Thirteenth_ and _Fourteenth_ to William Atkinson, New York, Oct. 6, 1835, for cutting India-rubber into threads; also, another patent same date, for spreading and drying India-rubber upon cloth. _Fifteenth_, to Patrick Mackie, New York, March 23, 1836, for dissolving India-rubber in naptha and sulphate of zinc. _Sixteenth_, to Ranson Warner, New York, May 18, 1836, for manufacturing gum-elastic suspenders.