June i, 1909.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



315 



The Relation of Patents to Progress. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN, in a public address, expressed the 

 opinion that the introduction of patent laws had con- 

 tributed to the world's progress to an extent to entitle 

 it to rank in importance with the invention of printing and the 

 discovery of America. This view of the importance of patent 

 systems is shown by Frederick P. Fish in a paper read before 

 the American Institute of Electrical Engineers (New York, May 

 18, 1909). Mr. Fish regards the patent system of Great Britain 

 as dating from 1558, and the ne.xt to be developed was in the 

 United States. The first patent granted in America, by the way, 

 was in the Colony of Massachusetts, being dated 1641. The 

 remarkably clear and well sustained argument made by Mr. Fisk 

 is too voluminous even for a synopsis in The India Rubber 

 World, but seems to justify the conclusion of his paper: 



"Generally speaking, however, it seems clear that in their 

 [patent statutes] present form and with their present spirit as 

 they have been developed and applied by the courts, they are 

 among the most effective agents for the promotion of our na- 

 tional and individual prosperity, and as such entitled to the 

 cordial support of all. They arc particularly entitled to recog- 

 nition as a social and industrial force of the utmost importance 

 by the members of this body, many of whom are inventors of a 

 high order, and all of whom are definitely engaged in lines of 

 work which probably could not have been developed to their 

 present state of relative perfection in a thousand years from the 

 date of Faraday's work and the construction of the Gramme 

 machine, if it had not been for the stimulus of the patent sys- 

 tems of the world, and in particular of the patent system of this 

 country." 



* * ^ 



A QUITE different view is expressed in an editorial on "Mono- 

 polies and Patents" in The Journal of Commerce (New York, 

 May 4, 1909), from which we quote: 



"The mother of the most monopolistic and oppressive trust in 

 the United States is not the tarif? but the patent law, which 

 gives an absolute and exclusive monopoly to the patentee of any 

 mechanical device, appliance or process. ... A trust that 

 is thus bound together by patent rights granted and protected by 

 the government becomes far more formidable than any that de- 

 pends upon tariff advantages. There needs to be a reform of 

 patent laws which shall induce competition in invention and in 

 the use of patented devices, instead of preventing it, and at the 

 same time insure a proper reward to the actual inventor, who is 

 now lost sight of in the patentee that gets possession of the 

 product of his ingenuity by assignment and arrogates to him- 

 self a huge monopoly profit." 



The "trust" mentioned by The Journal of Commerce is the 

 United Shoe Machinery Co., who lease their patented machines 

 only on the condition that the lessees shall use no other. [See 

 The India Rubber World, July i, 1907 — page 316.] It should 

 be pointed out that Mr. Fish does not consider any system of 

 patent protection perfect, all being of human origin, but whatever 

 the defects of existing systems he thinks the world's progress 

 has been so vastly enhanced by them as to compensate for their 

 faults, either in statutes or their construction. 



* * * 



Under the title "High Estimate of Patent Values" The Indi.\ 

 Rubber World already (November i, 1907 — page 35) has quoted 

 from a report of the directors of the Westinghouse Electric and 

 Manufacturing Co. to the effect that patents and licences for 

 patents are the very foundation of the business of the company 

 named and of the General Electric Co., with whom they have 

 certain working agreements. The cost of the patents referred 

 to they are not able to compute, but it is stated that: "Almost 



every detail of the entire product of both companies is dependent 

 upon the use of some one or more of the many thousand patents 

 jointly owned, the right use of which should be worth an average 

 of at least lo per cent, on the value of the apparatus manufac- 

 tured and sold under their protection." These patents, if capital- 

 ized at 10 per cent, on the basis of output of the two companies 

 at the time the report appeared, would have a gross value of 

 $30,000,000. In the latest annual report of the General Electric 

 Co., however, the item of "Patents, franchises and good will" 

 figures in the assets at only $1. 



* * « 



The twenty-sixth annual report of the British comptroller gen- 

 eral of patents derives special interest from the fact that it covers 

 part of the first year of the operation of the law providing that 

 British patents worked exclusively or mainly outside the United 

 Kingdom may be revoked, under certain conditions. It appears 

 that applications for such revocation were made in fifteen cases. 

 Two of these were abandoned, in two cases the patent was re- 

 voked and eleven cases were pending. The bearing of the law 

 is of widespread interest, since of the 16,264 patejitees in 1908 no 

 fewer than 2,8ig were resident in the United States, 2,516 in 

 Germany, 822 in France, and so on. 



Referring to the progress of invention, the British report says: 

 "The subject of locomotion in general occupies a prominent posi- 

 tion in the titles of applications for patents. . . . This may 

 be regarded as principally due to the continued interest taken in 

 the motor car and in subjects more or less directly connected 

 therewith. Thus great, though diminishing, activity still prevails 

 as regards wheels, where efforts have been largely directed to- 

 ward the provision of an easily detachable tire-carrying rim. 

 . . . The increasing importance of india-rubber in the in- 

 dustial world is shown by attention being given to processes for 

 the regeneration of waste rubber and the synthetic production 

 of rubber or rubber-like products." 



* * * 



A TRE.\TY covering the reciprocal protection of patents has 

 been concluded between the United States and Germany. Under 

 it is eliminated any requirement in either country that the manu- 

 facture of an article must be in the country issuing the patent. 

 The effect of this is to permit the issuing of patents in either 

 country and have them continue valid if the article patented is 

 manufactured in another country and imported to that in which 

 the patent is granted. 



USE FOR WASTE CIGARETTE SMOKE. 



■"PHF. British Government have been pleased to grant letters 

 *■ patent — whether or not in the absence of His Majesty the 

 King from his Realm in Foreign Parts. The Indi.^ Rubber 

 World is not advised — in respect of an invention which has to 

 do with pneumatic tires and which differs in noticeable degree 

 from any invention heretofore similarly recognized by His 

 Majesty's government. To wit: It relates to puncture locators of 

 the type fn which smoke from a cigarette or other smoke pro- 

 ducing material is pumped into the tire, the smoke issuing from 

 the puncture revealing the position of the same. The whole 

 thing is extremely simple. A lighted cigarette is fitted in a 

 holder which screws into a tapped cup engaging with a threaded 

 branch forming on a pump barrel. A valve, guided in the throat 

 of the branch, is covered by a rubber plug disk. On the out- 

 stroke of the pump, cigarette smoke is drawn through ports cut 

 in the valve setting; no air is drawn from above the plunger, as 

 oppositely disposed cup leathers are employed. During the com- 

 pression stroke the valve is moved off its seat, and presses the 

 plug against the orifice. 



