Railroad Spike patents

Railroad spikes -- what a common item. Little noticed, except by railfans and Maintenance of Way crews-- but read on--

The current issue of American Heritage's Invention and Technology (summer 2009, vol 24, no 2) has an interesting article on
"Building a Better Spike", (subtitle -- "Two 19th-century industrialists fought the longest patent case in U.S. history over a lucrative machine that mass-produced railroad spikes")
Patent #1,757 was filed on September 2, 1840 by Henry Burden of Troy New York. The patent infringement case was argued all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled against Erastus Corning ( the man who grew the New York Central Railroad into the nation's largest corporation and whose name lives on in Corning Ware). In April, 1869, Burden was finally awarded $80,000. Quite a large award. But think of how many spikes were, and are, made.
For instance, as early as 1838, Burden made one hundred tons of spikes for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.
I recommend reading the entire article. It is only pages 14-16 in the magazine and includes the patent drawing and explanation.