Soon after the issue of the Graham patent, several
extinguisher firms, viz, Charles T. Holloway, of Baltimore; W. K.
Platt, of Philadelphia; S.F. Hayward of New York; the Protection Fire
Annihilator Co., of New York; the Babcock Manufacturing Co., of Chicago,
and the New England Fire Extinguisher Co., of Northampton, Mass., were
licensed to manufacture under the patent, by Archibald Graham, as
administrator of the estate of his father, who bound himself in these
licenses to issue no other licenses except with the approval of all
those who were included in the combination. This arrangement left
several enterprising manufacturers out in the cold, and one of these,
in investigating the status of extinguisher patents at Washington,
discovered an assignment of a quarter interest of the Graham patent to
a Mr. Burton, who, at the time of Graham's second application for a
patent, had assisted him with $500. This assignment had long been
forgotten--Burton having died, and his heirs knowing nothing of its
existence. The widow of Burton was hunted up, an assignment was secured
for $30,000, and a consolidated fire extinguisher company was formed,
which became the owner of the one quarter interest in the patent.
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