For the Nerd in You

1790: Samuel Hopkins, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania , received Patent No. 1 on July 31, 1790, for an improvement "in the making Pot ash and Pearl ash by a new Apparatus and Process." The patent was signed by President George Washington, Attorney General Edmund Randolph, and Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson.



I went to college with a lot of guys who made a lot of pot ash. Oddly enough, they never paid royalties.