Doing what it does best, Google has now made each and every patent that you can find at the USPTO available as part of an easily searchable database using the Google search engine.   This includes patents issued from the 1790's through today (although there is some lag on current patents).  Using the same technology that powers Google Book Search, Google has converted the entire image database of U.S. patents into a format that’s easy to search. You can search the full text of U.S. patents from the Google Patent Search Home Page, or visit the Advanced Patent Search Page to search by criteria like patent number, inventor, and filing date.  Very cool.  You can find stuff like this device, that supposedly accelerates radio waves beyond the speed of light (who knew?), to the much maligned patent on the peanut butter and jelly sandwich, or the Wright Brothers patent on the flying machine, all as easily as looking for pizza in 90210.