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Just to be clear this isn't the first US patent, just the one assigned #1 in the current numbering system (I think?).

More info on the "first" US Patent. http://www.uspto.gov/news/pr/2001/01-33.jsp

According to wikipedia there were other almost ~10k patents before, but they were destroyed in a fire and are known as X-Patents

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-Patents

Like the line numbers in the margin.
It's that way in almost all patents, I think. It may be a style requirement.
It's so when your patent is disputed, you can cite things like "In column 9, lines 34-36 of document E2, it is disclosed that..." (I'm translating just such a dispute claim now. For a tampon applicator. I'd rather be learning about railroads.)
How long for OCR to become usable for something like this? Google's OCR transforms the readable "Locomotive Steam-Engine for Rail and Other Roads" to "BAIL AND OTHER ROADS"
So far? About 3 decades.
According to Wikipedia, it's been much much longer than that, but this is my point.
looks way more readable than modern patents. Almost like it wasn't written by a lawyer. Only 4 pages.
I see... patents have always been ridiculous. Unsurprising.
What is ridiculous about that patent?
That to any engineer worth his/her (but mostly his in that time) salt that must have been blindingly obvious.

After all, the 'rack and pinion' had been around for a while and the rack really is just a gear rolled out.