Are these not the finest opening words ever written for an engineering document — maybe for any work of literature?
Be it known that I, Luther C. Barcus, of the town of Sidney, county of Champaign, and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Monkey-Wrenches…
That’s the beginning of the patent (US number 753837) issued to Mr. Barcus on March 8, 1904. Here’s an image of the original patent document:
And here’s a drawing of Mr. Barcus’s monkey wrench:
