Activate your office, game room, and home with panache with this 1897 bicycle patent, elegantly printed on canvas with archival ink. It is finished with a distressed vintage effect bringing character and atmosphere.

"The object of my invention is to furnish a device by which to connect or disconnect the sprocket-wheels with the shaft on which they are placed, so that the motion of the shaft may be communicated to the one or the other of the sprocket-wheels, as desired, for the purpose of increasing or decreasing the speed of the bicycle while propelling it on a level or up an incline."--John J. Hentz. Filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office November 3, 1897.

The patent act of 1790 established the rules for submitting a patent application. Each application had to be submitted with specifications, a patent drawing, and if possible a model of the invention. Eventually, models were no longer required.

The National Archives holds nearly three million patent case files from 1836-1956.