Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles, 155 



ciple of science, such as the condensation of steam, and its appli- 

 cation to mechanism, how would you propose to secure the advan- 

 tage to the discoverer of that principle, without precluding the 

 attempt at improvement by other persons?— I do not conceive that 

 patents are or ought to be a recompense to the inventor for the merit 

 he has displayed, in what he has done previous to the grant being 

 made; it is a sort of bargain, or a lease granted of some small por- 

 tion of tbepublic employment that has not hitherto been cultivated ; 

 that if the lessee will go to work to bring the new invention to bear, 

 he shall have the benefit of working it for some certain time, which 

 it is supposed will leave him a fair term, after it is brought into pro- 

 fitable exercise; but if the time, when properly employed, does not 

 allow that fair term of profitable exercise, then some extension or 

 recompense should be allowed, to cover the deficiency. 



Supposing a person had discovered the principle of the conden- 

 sation of steam, as applicable to first movers, and had merely given, 

 as the mode of carrying that into effect, the form of the atmospheric 

 engine ; do you think that his patent ought to have precluded Mr. 

 Watt, during the continuance of fourteen years, from applying for 

 a patent for his steam-engine ? — Certainly not ; but at the same time 

 it is very unjust to an inventor, that because he is superseded by 

 some successor, he should lose all benefit from his patent ; they 

 ought to be allowed to go on together, and the profit ought to be 

 fairly divided between them according to their previous labours, 

 and expenses not yet recompensed, and the share each one has had 

 in obtaining the improved result ; neither ought to be stopped, the 

 public ought to be served in all cases, and a recompense ought to 

 be found for all those that have served the public. Such cases are 

 not likely to occur very frequently in great inventions, unless very 

 long patent rights were established ; a term even of twenty years is 

 barely sufBcient to establish one such invention, much more to see it 

 superseded by another. 



Supposing a person has discovered a principle, without inventing 

 any method of carrying it into effect, and subsequently some method 

 of using that principle is invented by another person ; do you con- 

 ceive that the person who has invented the method, should make 

 some compensation to the person who has discovered the principle ? 

 — I think that he who has invented the method should be made to 

 divide the advantage with him who had before discovered the prin- 

 ciple, because both parties have contributed to the public benefit; 

 they are in the relative situation of a land-owner, and the farmer 

 who cultivates his estate, — both should participate. 



How could you arrange the compensation ? — It could only be 

 arranged by arbitration. 



Do you know any instance of a secret patent being granted? — 

 Some specifications have been kept secret by specific Acts of Par- 

 liament. In the interval between granting the patent and inrolling 

 the specification, application is made to Parliament to suspend the 

 operation of that clause in the patent, whereby the specification is 

 to be inrolled; and to enact that the sjiecification shall not be made 

 public, commissioners are appointed by the Act to take charge of 



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