During the afternoon of April 2, 1872, the delegates made a trip to the U.S Patent Office. The group was impressed by the thousands of inventions listed and on display – everything from toys to steamship designs. Kume Kunitake, the avid diarist of the journey, translated the name of the building to, “the Institution for rewarding ingenious inventions” (褒巧院). Kume noted that the degree of recognition given to an invention was determined by its quality. According to him, Americans were most proud of their mechanical and machine-related achievements, most notably the steamship and the eclectic telegraph. Soon after the group returned to Japan, the Meiji government issued an ordinance to create a prototype for the country’s modern day Patent Office.
