Hot Pick! Google Patents

For those researching an inventor or businessman, locating patents was a real problem. In the past, historians had to travel to Washington, DC and go through the books at the U.S. Patent Office. The government's web site was less than friendly to any one searching for the patents of an important inventor. Example: A student needed the patents of John Harvey Kellogg. Other students have researched the history of certain machines (including sex toys!). Where to begin?

Google Patents is buried in the "More" tab of the Google home page. Along with Google Books, Google Patents is a treasure trove of primary source material for material unavailable in your local library system:

http://www.google.com/patents