In tin- ilifii-uxm'on tif //// 



"ON THE KXI'EIUEXCY nF I'RoTKi'TloN 'FOR 

 IXYEXTIOXS," by F. J. RIIAMWKU,, C.E., F.R.S., 



DR. SIEMKXS, F.K.S.,* said he wished to be allowed to say \\ 

 few words with regard to the Vienna Congress, which had been 

 referred to at the last meeting, as he had taken a somewhat 

 prominent part in connection with it. The idea of that Congress 

 originated with Baron Schwartz Senborn, Chief Commissioner of 

 the Vienna Exhibition, and invitations were issued to all nations, 

 in the name of the Austrian Government, with a view to establishing 

 international relations regarding the Patent Law. However, 

 before the Congress assembled, the Austrian Government, like 

 Frankenstein, became somewhat alarmed at their own creation, 

 and the Congress, instead of being an official one, was simply an 

 assemblage composed of manufacturers and others, especially the 

 jurors who had attended the Vienna Exhibition, though Baron 

 Schwartz still had the management of it. He (Dr. Siemens) was 

 summoned to Vienna from Switzerland to conduct the business of 

 this heterogeneous body, and amongst his duties was that of ex- 

 plaining if not translating the speech of any member of the 

 Congress into any other of the four languages which were in use 

 there. It was evident, therefore, that his position was not at all a 

 bed of roses, and if in the end the Congress arrived at any resolu- 

 tions which would stand the test of scrutiny, and form the basis 

 for further efforts in the direction of an international relationship 

 with regard to patent laws, he thought it might be said they had 

 not met in vain. Mr. Webster, Q.C., who represented England 

 at that Congress, worked most arduously in the endeavour then 

 made to arrive at some reasonable conclusions, and he had since- 

 worked still more arduously in p .ttiug the transactions of the 

 Congress before the English government in an intelligible form. 

 He believed that a better law would shortly be introduced into tin- 

 German legislature, which would compare favourably with that of 



Excerpt Journal of the Society of Arts, Vol. XXIII. 1874-75, p. 101. 



