Most of the patents prior to 1836 were lost in the December 1836 fire. Only about 2000 of the almost 10000 documents were recovered. From an 1830 issue of the Journal of the Franklin Institute: “On the 14th of April, a patent was obtained by Nathaniel Bushnell, of Connecticut, for manufacturing quill backed combs of wood, by making the back and teeth in separate parts, with the grain in each running longitudinally, the part forming the teeth being let into a groove in the back; this appears to us preferable to the plan now proposed. There is not any drawing accompanying this specification; the patentee may say that it can be perfectly well understood without one; but the law says, 'and shall accompany the whole with drawings and written references, whenever the nature of the case admits of drawings.'”

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