The world's first patent for a “Machine for Transcribing Letters” was granted in England by Queen Anne to Henry Mill (1683?-1771), a waterworks engineer with the New River Company. The patent (No. 395) described the invention as “an artificial machine or method for impressing or transcribing of letters, one after another, as in writing, whereby all writing whatsoever may be engrossed in paper or parchment so neat and exact as not to be distinguished from print; that the said machine... may be of great use in settlements and public records, the impression being deeper and more lasting than any other writing, and not to be erased or counterfeited without manifest discovery.” There is no remaining record that he actually built the machine.

Louis Daguerre made the first announcement of his photographic system at the Académie des Sciences in Paris, though details were not presented until 19 Aug 1839 when the process was announced publicly. By that time, the French government had bought the rights to the process from him, and then made them freely available to the world. However, this process had also been patented in England and Wales on 14 Aug 1839 - only five days previously.