Description:Protecting ideas
Printed notice informing pottery manufacturers of Valentine Close and James Keeling's successful application for patent on a new oven design.
The new design promises to use less coal, reduce waste from firings, and produce a more regular and even firing throughout the oven.
An address is supplied for information on the terms and conditions for purchasing the oven.
Dispute
An inventor named Ralph Wedgwood had been contacting manufacturers at the time, also claiming to have an oven that promised the same as Keeling's.
During this year he and Keeling seem to have been in dispute over the idea for the oven.
Keeling claimed that Wedgwood had stolen his idea but had made some minor modifications in an attempt to claim originality.
About this document
Burslem pottery manufacturer Enoch Wood collected this document, and it is now among the collections at Stoke-on-Trent Museums.