Patent was granted to Samuel Hopkins of Vermont for a process for making potash and pearl ashes. Potash was important as an ingredient in soap and fertilizer. The patent was granted for a term of 14 years and signed by President George Washington, who had the previous month signed the first U.S. patent statute into law on 10 April 1790. Hopkins did not get Patent with a serial No.1 as thousands of patents were issued before the Patent Office began to number them. Congress had passed the Patent Act on 10 Apr 1790. Two other patents were granted that year - one for a new candle-making process and the other the flour-milling machinery of Oliver Evans. The next year, 1791, Samuel Hopkins also was granted the first Canadian patent.

Near Mast Hope, Pennsylvania, collapsed as a stock train was crossing. The engineer heard a loud cracking, pulled the throttle wide open, and succeeded in getting the engine across in safety. However, the rest of the train fell into the deep ravine of the Westcolang Creek along with the wrecked bridge. A brakeman and two stockmen lost their lives. The New York and Erie Railroad had that year experimented by building three iron bridges, including the one that failed. In 1850, an article in the Scientific American magazine reported that the company, having lost confidence in iron bridges, would tear down the two remaining and replace them with wooden structures.