The Daily Maine Fact from Around Maine: Famous Firsts Department: U.S. Patent No. 1 - for a steam locomotive design - was issued to Maine Senator John Ruggles in July 1836. Ruggles subsequently reformed Patent Office practices to include the patent search and require applicants to prove the novelty and utility of their inventions. (Source: The Inventive Yankee, Andrea Chesman, editor. Dublin, N.H.: Yankee Publishing Inc., 1989.)