1840Indian rebirth

According to Mashao's original plan or some overly optimistic estimate, he was planning to improve the sewing machine first and then apply for a patent together with the jeans to save some time.

But he soon realized that improvements to sewing machines might not be possible for a while.

The second-hand sewing machine he bought does not yet have a foot pedal. This is an obvious shortcoming, which is easy to solve for him.

However, the sewing machine is not a simple machine. At least for a non-professional like Ma Shao, the sewing machine is already complex.

For any complex machine, it is almost impossible to rely on just one or two key improvements to make everything go smoothly.

Just like writing code, after inserting a new piece of code in the middle, it will most likely bring a bunch of new bugs, and it will require repeated adjustments to truly complete the improvement.

So Mashao gave up his plan to rush to manufacture a new sewing machine and concentrated on patenting jeans.

Jeans should be able to apply for two patents, one for its design and the other for the rivets on it.

Ma Shao is not optimistic about the former. After all, even in later generations when the patent system is more complete, appearance patents on clothing are of little significance. It is too easy to imitate.

The current patent system is full of loopholes, and this kind of patent is naturally even more useless.

It’s ridiculous to say that eight years ago, there was a fire in the U.S. Patent Office, and tens of thousands of patents were lost—including the patent for fire hydrants.

This fire improved the U.S. patent system a lot, but compared with later generations, it is still very crude.

Therefore, registering a patent for the design of jeans is basically just a name, which has no practical significance. It may even be judged as having no innovation at all, so it cannot pass the patent review. Others are copying what should be imitated and plagiarizing.

What is more valuable are the rivets on the jeans.

Because this can actually be regarded as a technology-reinforcement technology.

These rivets are not decorations. It is precisely because of their existence that jeans become stronger and more durable. In the original history, the inventor of jeans even designed a two-horse logo that resembles the scene of the "Magdeburg Hemisphere Experiment"

, let two horses pull the jeans in opposite directions to show their sturdiness...

As a practical technology, its patent is more meaningful.

Therefore, the core patent of jeans should be "a rivet reinforcement technology applied to pants."

Ma Shao was drafting application documents while checking the relevant regulations on patent applications.

The written document is actually secondary, the most important thing is the patent model.

The patent model is literally what it means. Specifically, Mashao needs to provide a pair of jeans with rivets installed, as shown in an example.

The reason for this provision is that patent office staff are often not able to understand the principles of most inventions based solely on paper descriptions.

We can't blame them for their lack of skills. After all, inventions are new things and involve all walks of life. It is not easy to understand and review them.

Drawings, text descriptions, and the finished jeans as models are the official patent application materials.

After preparing these materials, the police officer called Thomas, Floyd and another black policeman and handed them the materials.

"This is the patent application material, which is what needs to be sent to the patent office." Mashao said.

Thomas looked at the materials: "Are there two patents?"

Ma Shao: "Yes, one is the appearance design of the overalls, and the other is the rivet reinforcement technology. If you can't win the former, forget it, but you must win the latter."

"There are also six revolvers, two for each person, for your self-defense on the road."

"Three hundred US dollars is more than enough to apply for two patents... If you encounter some greedy patent office employees, you know what to do." Ma Shao handed the gun and coins to the three of them, "It's best to get it done quickly. Apply."

"I know." Thomas nodded expressionlessly.

"In addition, choose some fabrics that are similar to canvas, that is, strong and wear-resistant, preferably blue, and buy some samples to bring back." Ma Shao added.

Canvas is only the material of early jeans, not the most suitable material for jeans.

The fabric that really belongs to jeans is called "denim", which is the kind of blue fabric that is all over the streets in later generations.

But Mashao didn't know what this kind of cloth was, so he could only ask people to buy some samples for him to identify.

Thomas and Floyd left the town on fast horses and headed southeast.

They will first arrive at the famous Santa Fe Trail, then follow the road east and soon enter the first state in the east, Missouri.

Strictly speaking, Missouri cannot be considered the east; it is more appropriately called the center.

But Missouri is at least a serious state with a state government, and it is in the east. It is not wrong to be included in the "eastern region", at least in the eyes of westerners.

In contrast, Kansas here does not even have a designated governor, let alone a state government, and it is not even a territory, so it belongs to the United States in name only.

This "stateless" state will continue in the Midwest for a long time. As for the reason, the most important one is of course slavery - it is okay to establish states, but are the newly established states considered slave states or abolitionist states?

Now that there are still more than ten years left before the Civil War, the conflict between the North and the South has become more and more prominent. The North wants to abolish slavery, and the South wants to livestock slaves, but the two sides still maintain a balance.

If new states are established, this delicate balance will inevitably be tilted, or even completely broken.

In this case, large areas of unorganized territory are naturally the most acceptable solution.

Thomas and the three went to the east to apply for a patent, and Mashao continued to organize tailors to produce jeans.

He split the jeans process into several parts and assigned them to housewives who were proficient in tailoring in the town, asking them to complete the tasks at home, and then bring the finished products to Mary to check out.

This is a reference to the production method of the assembly line. Although the assembly line may have appeared when Qin Shihuang was making the Terracotta Warriors and Horses, this production method has not been popularized on a large scale so far.

This distributed jeans assembly line is of course very rough, but it still allows workers without factories to have a production efficiency that is not inferior to factory work.

One pair after another of denim pants was produced, and the old canvas was quickly consumed.

During this period, Mashao's main job was to train the Apache soldiers and black policemen in the town, and constantly instill in them the concepts of discipline and law.

During the indoctrination process, he also felt a little worried and confused: discipline and law will always be perfected, but what about faith?

Ma Shao found that he could not think of a suitable belief either among the aborigines or in Clark Town.

It cannot be said that there is no such thing. Isn’t it true that religion is still useful in terms of unity and maintaining stability?

But his resistance to this thing was too strong. In his opinion, being a magician might be the most shameful profession in the world, and it might as well be selling meat.

Even if I die, I will never become a god... Wait, no! This is like the rhythm of Zhenxiang's law, you can't say that!

Thinking of the terrible scene revealed by this sentence in the context of the True Fragrance Law, Ma Shao couldn't help but a trace of cold sweat broke out on his forehead.

What kind of faith should you choose?