1869.] Mechanical Science. 619 



plishing a result of general utility. The State, being interested to 

 secure the information, and to induce the inventor to put his 

 invention into practice, grants him the exclusive right of practising 

 it, or of authorizing others to do so, for a limited number of years, 

 in consideration of his making a full and suflficient description of 

 the same. Unfortunately, this simple and equitable theory of the 

 patent system is very imperfectly carried out, and is beset with 

 various objectionable practices which render a patent sometimes an 

 impediment to, rather than a furtherance of, applied science, and 

 sometimes involve the author of an invention in endless legal con- 

 tentions and disaster, instead of procuring for him the intended 

 reward. These evils are so great and palpable that many persons, 

 including men of undoubted sincerity and sound judgment on most 

 subjects, advocate the entire abolition of the patent laws. They 

 argue that the desire to publish the results of our mental labour 

 suffices to ensure to the Commonwealth the possession of all new 

 discoveries or inventions, and that justice might be done to meri- 

 torious inventors by giving them national rewards. This argument 

 may hold good as regards a scientific discovery, where the labour 

 bestowed is purely mental, and carries with it the pleasurable 

 excitement peculiar to the exercise and advancement of science 

 on the part of the devotee ; but a practical invention has to be 

 regarded as the result of a first conception, elaborated by experi- 

 ments and their application to existing processes in the face of 

 practical difficulties, of prejudice, and of various discouragements, 

 involving, also, great expenditure of time and money, which no 

 man can well afibrd to give away, nor can men of merit be ex- 

 pected to advocate their cause before the national tribunal of 

 rewards, where, at best, only very narrow and imperfect views 

 of the ultimate importance of a new invention would be taken, not 

 to speak of the favouritism to which the doors would be thrown 

 open. Practical men would undoubtedly prefer either to exercise 

 their inventions in secret, where that is possible, or to desist from 

 following up their ideas to the point of their practical realization." 



Mr. Siemens also referred to Watt's invention, patented 100 

 years ago ; to recent progress and prospective efibrts in railway 

 and telegraphic engineering ; to the engineering progress in respect 

 of ofiensive and defensive warfare ; to the newest methods of making 

 steel for constructive purposes ; to Mr. Whitworth's experiments, 

 the results of which seem likely to render the steam-hammer and 

 rolling-mills obsolete in the process of forging steel ; to scientific 

 economy in generating heat from coal ; and to the production of 

 refrigeration at an extremely moderate expenditure of fuel and 

 labour. On the motion of Mr. Bidder, a hearty vote of thanks was 

 awarded to Mr. Siemens for his interesting, instructive, and very 

 appropriate address. 



