X-Patent
On July 31, 1790 inventor Samuel Hopkins of Pittsford, Vermont became the first person to be issued a patent in the United States. His patented invention was an improvement in the "making of Pot Ash by a new apparatus & process." The earliest patent law required that a working model of each invention be produced in miniature.
Salvator Dormus pistol
The Salvator-Dormus pistol was the earliest-patented semi-automatic pistol. It was patented on 11 July 1891 by Archduke Karl Salvator of Austria and Count . As the first of its kind, it was designed without the benefit of experience with earlier models. Various modifications were made with approximately twenty prototypes before thirty pistols of a workable design were submitted for Austrian military trials in 1896. This 8mm blowback pistol loaded through the top and had a hinged magazine door on the butt. The pistol had a separate bolt release and safety. The production delay between patent and military trials allowed comparison with other self-loading pistols, and the Salvator Dormus was considered inferior to its competition. The designers abandoned this project; and few pistols survive.