Letter from the Editor-in-Chief

THOMAS A. WARD
Editor-in-Chief of New Matter

WELCOME TO THE SPRING EDITION OF New Matter for 2025. The cover of this edition provides a tribute to intellectual property that provided technology that aided in firefighting during the recent LA fires. The patent shown is an improvement to the fire hydrant or fire plug. Ironically, it is widely believed that the patent for the first cast iron fire hydrant was lost in the Great Patent Office Fire of1836. This calamity consumed thousands of patent documents, leaving historians to speculate and manufacturers to claim the title of "first" for numerous inventions including the fire hydrant. As a bit of history, the term "fire plug" comes from the wooden plugs that firefighters used to seal holes in wooden water mains after putting out fires. When a fire occurred, firefighters would dig into the street to access wooden water mains. They would then drill holes into the mains to fill buckets or pumps. After the fire, they would plug the holes with wooden plugs, hence the word "fire plug" that was later deemed synonymous with "fire hydrant." Even though there is no known initial or pioneering patent for the fire hydrant, there are many patents for improvements on fire hydrants, including the one shown on the cover art from 1908.

For this issue, I continue to thank our New Matter editorial staff for accomplishing the work to get this publication to you. In particular, thanks to Amanda Nye who is the Acquisition Editor, Anthony Craig and Leaf Williams who are Co-Production Editors, and Dabney Eastham who is Senior Articles Editor.

Also, I continue to thank the members of the IP Executive Committee and California Lawyer’s Association who provided support for each issue. On behalf of all the New Matter staff, we hope you are enlightened and informed by this issue of New Matter.