William Thornton Re-examined by Bob Arnebeck

  The Doctor Examined, or Why William Thornton Did Not Design the Octagon House or the Capitol by Bob Arnebeck Table of Contents I am revising this chapter Chapter Twelve: On the heights of Mount Chimborazo Capitol in 1800 Thornton lost his power over the Capitol in the nicest way. On June 2, 1802, Madison hired him to be the one State Department clerk who would process patent applications. All Thornton had to do was pass on the $30 application fee to the Treasury, fill out a patent form for the signatures of the Secretary of State and President, file away the application and a description of the invention, and if possible, retain a model. Thornton did not have to verify that the invention was both useful and novel. The applicant signed an oath that it was. The salary was very high for a clerk but not for a federal officer, only $1400. After 8 years of government service, he took a 12.5% cut in salary. But the president also appointed him a Commissioner of Bankruptcy for the Distr...