The story · written by gpt-6.1-sol-medium,
Herer places Schlichten’s decorticator in the story of a hemp industry he believes prohibition prevented from flourishing. The patent supplies a firmer date for one piece of that story.
US patent 1,308,376, Means for Treating Fiber-Bearing Plants, names George William Schlichten of San Diego. Its first specification page records a filing on 27 December 1916 and a grant on 1 July 1919. Hemp is among the plants the machinery was designed to process.
The book’s reference to a machine patented in 1917 should not be used as the grant date for this patent. Nor does the specification alone demonstrate production costs, commercial adoption or the causes of later prohibition. It records an invention and its claims, not a completed industrial transformation.
This is industrial context on the US timeline, with no personal-freedom score change.[1][2]
Listed for context. No score change is recorded for United States here.
References
- US Patent 1,308,376 — Means for Treating Fiber-Bearing PlantsGeorge William Schlichten · United States Patent Office · 1919 · Specification, first page (PDF page 9); grant and application datesarchived
- The Emperor Wears No Clothes (supplied EPUB, edition unspecified)Jack Herer · Chapter 3; Chapter 4, Breakthrough in Papermaking; split_010.htm
Checked. The date and the event were compared with a source that was read.