PATENT CLASSIFICATION FROM The POINT OF VIEW OF The PUBLIC

I have the greatest admiration for those in the Patent Office and for those members of Aslib who have to concern themselves with problems of classification. The theory and practice of solving such problems, which no doubt occupy many members of Aslib, are of the greatest public importance. I have the greatest sympathy for the Patent Office in their efforts to overcome these problems, but members of the public who have to use the facilities of the Patent Office also deserve sympathy, for the system is as difficult to use as it was to devise. That remark is in no way meant to be disrespectful to Mr. de Bray and his colleagues. On the contrary, Patent Agents, members of the public and others who have to use the Patent Office Library find a system available to them which is based on something which has been devised for the purposes of the Patent Office only, namely, the checking to see whether inventions are really new ones.