• group of people working towards a particular goal
• use science
• you need business skills to bring a new product into use
  
• base your business strategy on new and improved products (this works because of patents)
  

• most new products today come from industrial research labs
• but sometimes radical new ideas come from individuals
  

• Patent--invention
• for 20 years from filing date (or 17 years from issue date) no one can make your new technology without your permission
  
• example--a new medication gets 20 years of patent protection but it may take 10 years or more to do the trials before bringing it to market
• that gives the company a chance to recover the cost of invention and development
  
• once a patent runs out then anyone can make a duplicate product and sell it for less--generic drugs
  
• Copyright--writing, music, art, movies
  
• ownership of expression
  
• initially copyright was for 28 years but it has been repeatedly extended
  
• in 1998 it was extended to life of the author plus 70 years (for works of corporate authorship: 120 years after creation or 95 years after publication, whichever endpoint is earlier)
• technology is making it difficult to enforce but
  
• Trademark--business symbol
• based on common law, does not have to be registered
• rights to a trademark cease if it is not used for five years
  

• the Constitution calls for a patent system, and it was put in place in 1790
• to get a patent you must prove that an idea is new and provide a complete description 
• once you have a patent no one can copy your idea for 17 years without your agreement, after that the idea can be freely copied
• U.S. patent law doesn't require patents to be used (useless patents )
  

• the patent office was building a fireproof building, but the old building was not only not fireproof, but in addition the ashes from fires used to keep the offices warm were disposed of in the basement
• there was a fire station around the corner but the leather hose turned out to have rotted and the pump didn't work
  
• 2004 story about recovering the 10,000 lost patents
• patent numbers were started again with number 1 after the fire so the earlier patents are called x patents
  

recreated drawing for 1830 patent for mechanical fan

• in the late 19th century people started trying to make their living or at least their name as inventors
• the problem is it isn't enough to invent a gadget, you need to fit it into a system and manufacture and market it.  Some inventors were good entrepreneurs, some were not
• what are the steps from idea to new product?
  • identify (or create) a need (preferably a bottleneck whose solution will lead to rapid progress)
  • invention--a new way of accomplishing something--probably takes research to get it right
  • design/development--making that idea work on a reasonable scale at a reasonable cost as a product
  • bringing your new technology into production--developing production and markets
  • diffusion--the spread of the new technology into widespread use
• the whole process is rarely done by one person
  
• technology push vs. demand pull
• the role of consumers

• in the early 1830s Charles Goodyear became obsessed with the idea of improving rubber, which was not very useful because it had a sticky surface and it melted at high temperatures and cracked at low temperatures
• he found a way of improving the performance by treating the rubber with acid
• then in 1839 he accidentally dropped a rubber-sulfur mixture on a hot stove and noticed that under the charred surface there was a tough, springy substance
• he then spent years figuring out what combination of heat, pressure and ingredients worked best--he didn't have a working process ready to patent until 1844
• so much for accidental inventions--chance favors the prepared mind
• he was not able to make money off his invention--he licensed out his patent to support his efforts to develop the right product but was not successful and ended up in debtors prison
• rubber tires and rubber condoms were among the successful early products, but there were all sorts of other ideas.  Goodyear alone: "churned out more than a thousand rubber inventions, including rubber inkstands, syringes, breast pumps, dolls, gas bags, air cushions, windmill sails, wheelbarrow wheels, bellows coverings, horse collars, imitation buffalo robes, and something he called "baptizing dresses." (source was a Discovery Online article that is no longer available )
• in 1898 several men started the Goodyear Company, naming it in honor of the inventor who had died in 1860, $200,000 in debt

 Charles Goodyear experimenting
(source was a Discovery Online article that is no longer available )

Example: Eastman Kodak  (History of Kodak) 

• invention of photography: 1839 Daguerreotype, 1855 wet collodian plate, 1880 gelatin dry plate
• George Eastman started mass production of dry plates in 1880, but other companies got into the business and it quickly turned into a price war
• George Eastman wanted to avoid this by inventing and patenting improvements--he hired a research scientist to work on product improvements in 1886
• developed roll film in 1885, but professional photographers didn't buy it
• 1888 started to produce a camera for amateurs
• this turned out to be a great success--he had invented a new market

What is the pattern in this boom in invention?

1. enthusiasm for invention--modern era interest in new ways of doing things
   
2. businesses come to see developing new products as a key strategy for competition
3. invention is becoming more based on science
4. science education becomes more available and more practical
   

Three things change:

1. Science becomes more useful
2. science education becomes more widespread
3. businesses figure out how to organize invention using science
   

In the late 19th century technology became more based in science (because science has progressed and is more useful)--this also speeds up progress

• science was becoming more useful in the 19th century, where earlier scientific theory hadn't been of much practical use (increased role of science #2)
  • electricity--the battery was invented by Alessandro Volta in 1800: a scientist who worked out the basic laws of electric current
  • the basic laws of thermodynamics were worked out in the first half of the 19th century, as people tried to understand how to design better steam engines.
    • Second law of thermodynamics (entropy) laid out by Sadi Carnot in 1824 in a book analyzing steam engines.
    • The first law of thermodynamics (conservation of energy was stated in the 1840s by Robert Mayer and Hermann Helmholtz on the basis of physiology, and by James Joule (a Manchester brewer and amateur scientist) on the basis of experiments (he proved the point in 1843 but had trouble getting it published).
  • development of organic chemistry in the second half of the 19th century--in the 1860s German dyestuff companies had turned to chemistry professors at the universities for new organic dyes.  The result was aniline and alizarin dyes--very successful
• scientists were doing more practical research (increased role of science #3)
  • sometimes in universities with industry funding
  • particularly in the industrial research labs that developed in the early 20th century

• Gave each state federal land (or land script)--30,000 acres for each Senator and Representative--to sell to raise money for colleges "to teach such branches of learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts... in order to promote the liberal and practical education of the industrial classes..."
• problem of what to teach--engineers weren't using much theory.  Three possibilities:
  • same as other colleges (classics) to make education democratic.
  • science, which was somehow the theory behind engineering, but not in fact very useful.
  • technical training (farming and shop practice)--why go to school to learn that?
  • the eventual solution to this problem was to teach applied science, but there wasn't much of that to teach before about 1900
  how can the college provide helpful knowledge not just to the students but to other people in the state as well--land grant mission
• 
  

• agricultural extension service and short courses for farmers

• research and transmit practical knowledge that will help the state's economic growth
  
• Clemson University opened in 1893 with 446 white male students who were required to be members of the Corps of Cadets. History of Clemson
• Focus was on agriculture, political supporters were white populists seeking more political clout relative to the low-country planter elite
  

 Fort Hill

• MIT 1861 (instruction began 1865--followed a Russian model emphasizing teaching students to use machine tools but not manufacture of finished products), Worcester Polytechnic Institute 1865 (intended to train foreman for shops, not professionals--put its emphasis on actual production of items for sale by students in the shops), Lehigh 1866, Stevens 1871 (mechanical engineering only--no general cultural education).
• 17 schools taught engineering in 1870 (11% of American engineers were college graduates), 85 in 1880, 110 in 1890
• they taught science to future engineers (school trained engineers learned more science than apprentice trained ones)
• made engineering more scientific in order to teach it
  

• A Ph.D. is supposed to train you to do research and discover new knowledge, not just teach you existing knowledge
• university professors were expected to do research, while earlier college professors had just been teachers
• doing scientific research became professionalized, where earlier it had been done mostly as a hobby

Applied science:

• Engineering became increasingly scientific
  • the new fields of electrical engineering (professional society 1884) and chemical engineering (professional society 1908) had a scientific base from the beginning, but employment opportunities were almost entirely with large corporations
  • Starting in the 1870s engineering schools latched onto the idea of building laboratories for technical research or testing.
• Development of agricultural experiment stations, particularly after the passage of the Hatch Act in 1887.
• during World War I Arthur D. Little articulated the concept of "unit operations," breaking chemical engineering processes down into individual building blocks like "pulverizing, dyeing, roasting, crystallizing, filtering, evaporations, electrolyzing, and so on." Now there was a theory you could teach students, instead of explaining the process by which you make bleach.
   Arthur D. Little

• Nearly all engineers entering the profession after 1910 had engineering degrees.  Applied science was fairly well established, though what else should be taught was still controversial
• Corporations created industrial research labs, starting in 1905, in large numbers after 1920
• hired scientists with PhDs
• to develop new products
  

By the time television was invented, organized industrial research based on science was replacing the lone inventor.

  Zworykin demonstrates electronic TV in 1930

• by the eve of the first World War several researchers had become convinced that cathode ray tubes were the key to television. Philo T. Farnsworth (independent inventor with only a high school education) and Vladimir K. Zworykin (Russian immigrant with a Ph.D. working for RCA) developed an all-electronic, higher definition form of television.
•  In Dec. 1923 Zworykin filed a patent for an all-electronic television, but the results were disappointing because of the failings of the cathode ray tube technology of the time.  RCA refused to invest in development until 1930, when Zworykin got more clout by becoming head of the RCA industrial research lab and the low-definition system was clearly on the way out.
• the significance was realized--the patent was not issued for 15 years because of disputes.
• In May 1935 RCA committed $1 million to research and development of the new technology.  They followed a careful R&D step by step program with extensive field demonstrations in New York City.  By Jan 1937 picture definition had been increased to 441 lines--for the first time you could see a baseball or football .
• the picture tube of the camera, however, was not efficient enough, and Philo Farnsworth didn't want to  sell his patent on a better one.  He wanted to license it, so his earnings would reflect its long-term success, and RCA had a policy to not license patents (they did offer to buy it).  Finally they signed a non-exclusive cross-licensing agreement, as each had technology the other needed.
• despite earlier disappointments, the public was eager.  But it was necessary to make sure it would pay--industry had invested something like $13 million by 1939 and earned nothing.  The advertising industry took a wait-and-see attitude.

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 early tv But they still needed FCC approval for commercial broadcasting (experimental noncommercial broadcasts were allowed).

• FM radio was coming in at the same time using the same part of the spectrum, adding to the complications.  FCC wanted to see a mature technology, which was pretty good at this point, and also agreement over standards, which was not.  RCA had major competitors, such as Philco, promoting rival systems.
• RCA went ahead anyway with public broadcasting in 1939, and a number of firms started to sell television sets (with disappointing results), but the quick FCC approval they expected did not come.  People were reluctant to buy sets without standardization--in some markets they could receive only one of two rival stations.
• There was a political uproar over FCC refusal to license, but meanwhile the industry could not agree on standards.  Finally a government National Television System Committee created in 1940 forced a compromise.
• commercial service was finally authorized in the spring of 1941: 525 lines, 30 frames per second.
• the interest was there--by the end of 1941 32 stations were licensed and experimenting with programming.  The first thing they learned was that sports were popular, and increased sports broadcasting.  Dramas and news were the other main components.  Variety shows were not as popular as radio experience would have suggested.  Political coverage was quite popular during the presidential election
• but sets could not be produced until the war was over--in fact all radio and TV production was banned in April 1942.  By the time the war was over the technology was there for a significantly improved receiver.

 WNBQ Chicago, 1948

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what has changed that has speeded up invention?

• companies are developing new products in in-house research labs
• lots of money
• business strategy: new products and patents
• hired scientists more than engineers
• how do you come up with something new?
• old way--random ideas and trial and error
• new way--explore scientific properties and when you find new scientific properties try to turn them into new inventions
• technology is becoming more based on science
  
• need more science education
  

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Other examples:

• Garrett Augustus Morgan and the safety hood
• Charles Lindbergh and the artificial heart
• Chester Carlson and the Xerox machine
• Edwin Land and the Polaroid  camera

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Current patent/copyright issues:

• Can living things (such as genetically engineered mice or plants) be patented?
• purified versions of natural chemicals (such as adrenaline) were patented as chemicals as early as 1906
  
• hybrid plants have been patented in the US since 1930
• this was expanded to cover seed as well as plants reproduced by grafting in 1970
• in 1980 the Supreme Court allowed the patenting of a newly-created living organism (bacteria that ate oil), on the grounds it was human-made through genetic engineering.  A genetically modified mouse was patented in 1988
• In a 2012 case the Supreme Court threw out a patent on a naturally-occurring DNA sequence (for the BRCA1 and 2 genes, but allowed patents on synthesized DNA sequences
  
• should Disney still have a copyright on Mickey Mouse (created 1928) ?
• is technology making copyrights unenforceable?  if so how should creators be rewarded?
  

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This page written and copyright Pamela E. Mack

HIST 1220
last updated 10/25/2023

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