Tips for finding when small events happened
For guidance on finding ebooks on the catalogue see our Finding ebooks tab above. Any items you find on the catalogue that have online content will have a View online tab. If the item is an ebook it will have a link to this guide and a link to the ebook.
The ProQuest company have a range of instructional media. These include:
British patent numbers - for the years 1617 to 1852
Click on the link above to go to the Intellectual Property Office page on the National Archives UK website. It has a table showing the patent numbers between the years 1617 and 1852. It is important to give the patent number and the year when ordering these patents from State Library staff, as similar numbers were used between 1852 and 1915.
British patent numbers - from 1st October 1852 to 1915
The table on the Intellectual Property Office page on the National Archives website shows the number of patent applications filed each year between 1st October 1852 and 1915. For this period, patent applications began with number 1 each year. Because of this regular repetition of numbers, it is important to provide the patent number and the year when ordering these patents from State Library staff. The number given for each year is the highest patent number for that year. Granted patents retained the same number as the application number.
Note: from 1st January 1884, generally only Granted patents were published.
Patent numbers 1916 to 1981
The Intellectual Property page on the National Archives website has the following index.
British patent numbers - for the years 1916 to 1981
From January 1916, published patents specifications were numbered in a series starting with 100,001, separate from patent applications. After 1916, generally only Granted patents were published. Use the granted number when requesting these patents.
Those patents not granted were not published and no information on them is available. The only exception is some patent applications originating abroad and which claimed priority. Under the Patents & Designs Act 1907 (Section 91 (4), these patent applications were printed and given numbers under the six-figure series. The printing of these foreign patents ceased during World War II.
British patent numbers (under the British Patent Act 1977) - from 1979 +
The Patents Act 1977 came into force on 1st January 1978. A new series of 7 digit patent numbers were published from 4 January 1979 to the present, beginning with the number GB2000001. The table shows the earliest patent published each year.
If you are a Victorian registered with the Library you can download an ebook to use offline on your device for up to 7 days. After this time the access will expire but you can immediately reborrow it if you wish.
Once you click the View ebook link, you will be prompted to log-in using your barcode barcode and your surname
Details of the book you have chosen will be displayed in a separate window and you can choose to download it. Click the Available for Full Download link
The next screen has three steps. Choose your device type. You will then be advised what software you need. For example Adobe Digital Editions on a PC; Bluefire Reader on an IPad or an Android device. These need to be available on your device to download the book. You only need to download this free software once.
Once you have the relevant software you can then download the book.
The final step - Download allows you to choose a download period of 1-7 days. After the period expires your access to this loan will cease, however you can re-borrow it immediately if you wish.
Note that some loan condition for ebooks from our other major provider EBSCO may have variable conditions.
