181.9.1 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



103 



transactions, that it is a fair division to give one-third of the 

 patent to the inventor, one-third to the party finding the money 

 to talie out the patent, and one-third to tlie party finding the 

 money for worliing it; but we believe there are few cases where 

 an inventor, whether having found tlie funds for the patent or not, 

 gets one-tliird of the patent for liis sliare, independently of the 

 share for talung out the patent; therefore it may be considered as 

 a general rule, that tlie cost of the patent to the inventor is not 

 the money cost for the patent fees, but the share of profit which 

 he loses, and this may be taken at a third; and there are persons 

 who have thus beeii mulcted on profitalile patents, of ]0,0U0/. 

 '20,000/., 30,000/., or even more. It would be thei-efore more mer- 

 ciful, if the government wants money, to levy it from the yearly 

 earnings, as is done elsewhere, and not force the patentee to sell 

 part of his property at an enormous sacrifice. 



Under all circumstances, the cost of the patent is a deduction 

 from the capital available for commencing the undertaking and 

 making the trial machine. In the case already cited of Stephen- 

 son and Dodd, the sum paid for the patent was probably nearly as 

 much as that for constructing tlie only engine made under the 

 patent, and may have been raised by Dodd at interest ; and being 

 a total loss, contributed to tliose embarrassments, the pressure of I 

 which led him to commit suicide. It is very well known that those 1 

 who advance money for patents often borrow it themselves, so 

 that the money cost for patents becomes more than the fees. 

 Considered in the point of view now before us, a fund of more 

 than 100,000/. yearly, contributed by the private enterprise of the 

 country for the encouragement of useful inventions is fraudulently 

 diverted from it by the government, who are trustees of the public 

 interests, and is wasted in the maintenance of useless placemen— 

 the chaft'wax, the sealer, the train-bearer, the clerks of the signet, 

 the receivers of signet fees, and a swarm of sinecurists, deputies, 

 and assistants. 



We may therefore very fairly assume that the first two hundred 

 or three hundred pounds which the inventor might obtain towards 

 beginning business, is directly taken from him by the government: 

 as if, when a pains-taking writer has finished a book, the govern- 

 ment should take from liim the sum which he could obtain for 

 printing it. In many cases, and more particularly of the less pro- 

 fitable inventions, the cost of the patent would be sufficient for 

 working the invention; and it may cease to be profitable if bur- 

 thened with double the amount. 



It will be seen that the patent-tax must act as a direct prohi- 

 bition on the prosecution of many inventions. Taking the esti- 

 mate already given as to the distribution of the shares of a patent, 

 and supposing that it is necessary to go to a cost of 300/.; then the 

 party making such advance must look to a probable return of 

 twice that sum to reimburse him, and that, multiplied by three, 

 will give very nearly 2,000/. as the profits which must be realised on 

 an invention to justify a patent being taken out tor it. Thus the 

 inventor and the manufacturer are to be deprived of the oppor- 

 tunity of making a profit of 500/. or 600/. a-piece, that the 

 government may waste 300/., and the miserable chafi'wax may get 

 his fees. If 200/. profit only can be made, instead of 2000/., the 

 patent is quite out of the question. 



It must not he forgotten that, however good his invention may 

 be, there is a limit on the inventor, besides that imposed by the 

 government tax. If the capital required to be laid out in manu- 

 facturing is too great in proportion to the profit to be got, then 

 the invention is financially impiacticable. At all events, it is 

 quite clear that the patent-tax is as much an oppression on the 

 capitalist and manufacturer, as it is on the inventor; and being an 

 oppression on these, so is it on the working classes, who are de- 

 prived of employment. It is not to be assumed that because a 

 patent is taken out it is therefore worked, for many a patentee 

 e.xhausts himself in taking out a patent, and therefore it falls to 

 the ground. It often happens that terms cannot be come to with 

 a capitalist, as the share he requires will not leave enough for the 

 inventor and the party who has advanced funds for taking out the 

 patent. The legal status of this latter creates, too, an additional 

 impediment in the way of the inventor. 



We may here recall the reader to the very important results of 

 the prohibitory patent-tax, the delay of inventions. The patent 

 law makes it imperative that an invention must be kept secret 

 until a patent is obtained; and therefore there are few cases in 

 which less than three years elapse between the beginning of an 

 invention and its being brought into practical working. If we 

 reckon the extra time required in finding a capitalist to work the 

 patent, in consequence of the unnecessary outlay for a patent, the 

 time must be rated as three years before the public can get any 

 benefit; and this without any reference to what we may call the 



natural difficulties to be overcome. The time lost where a patent 

 is obtained and worked, is however seldom so short as three 

 years, and may extend over very many years: we know of cases 

 of valuable inventions delayed twenty years from want of means 

 to take out patents. In many cases the invention is never di- 

 vulged; aiul the inventor sinks into the grave without giving a 

 hint, leaving it to some other person, perhaps a long series of 

 men of science, to go through the same course of experiment and 

 research . 



We have instanced in the locomotive engine and the steam- 

 boat, the practical result of the prohibitory system and tlie 

 serious national evils which result from it; but the history of 

 every branch of invention yields the same lesson, and nothing 

 could be more humiliating to our national pride than an analysis 

 of such history, showing these facts in detail. These, however, 

 are not matters of the past, recorded only in the pages of the 

 historian, known only as having been remedied, as in progress of 

 extinction, or as already extinct; they are going on daily, their 

 evils increasing, and no attempt made to allay them,— nay, the 

 match of intellect only aggravates their enormity. While general 

 prices have fallen since the war, the cost of patents remains the 

 same, and is therefore heavier. As the progress of improvement is 

 more rife, so does the number of inventions increase, and a tax is 

 imposed upon them, which, at war prices, would directly and indi- 

 rectly represent a vast burthen upon the inventive skill and in- 

 dustry of the nation. This evil is going on, and any branch of 

 invention will show it: the railway system is sufl'ering from it, the 

 electric telegi-aph, the manufacture of gutta percha — thousands of 

 busy minds are kept back by a tax beyond their means of payment, 

 which damps their energies, and blights their exertions. 



In the peculiar circumstances of this country, nothing can be 

 more injurious than a system so wicked as the patent laws, whicii 

 check employment in the earliest stage, and the spirit of whic.'i, 

 propagated in the laws regulating partnership transactions, is con- 

 tinued throughout. With the development of the practical work- 

 ing of the patent laws, we must now leave oft', entreating our 

 readers to give their earnest attention to remedy an evil, so 

 serious in its operation on the industry and well-being of the 

 country. 



C Tu be cotilintu'dj 



LIFE OF GEORGE STEPHENSON. 



fCaiithiued from paje 72.J 



XII. THE SHARE MANIA OP 1825. 



We have already shown that everything was ready to enable the 

 railway system to start, and tiiat it awaited only the fitting time. 

 This was given by the mania of 1825. 



This mania has been the most spoken of, because it was the 

 greatest known to the generation which had sprung up since the 

 peace, and it may be almost called the first. There had been times 

 of share speculation during the war, in which the first railway-, 

 the docks and bridges of London, and some canals had been 

 begun; but the war sucked up most of the wealth of England. 



To make way for 1825, there were good harvests, taxes seemingly 

 lighter, a high "price of stocks, and therefore low income to stock- 

 holders; a held was therefore wanted for the overflowing wealth 

 of the middle classes. A great spur had been given to trade 

 abroad, by the starting of the new comm-jnwealths of America; and 

 there were strong hopes from the fresh opening of the gold and 

 silver mines, to which the steam-engine in the hands of Trevithick 

 had given new life. 



Had there been right knowledge on the side of the law-makers 

 and the people, the wealth of the higher classes would not have 

 been wasted as it was; for the only way in which it could be right- 

 fully brought to bear would have been better understood. A\'liat, 

 indeed, was this wealth whicli they had to lay out? It was not 

 wholly in the shape of gold, for gold does not grow, and there 

 could'be only more gold than was wanted by its having come in 

 from abroad. It was not in the shape of corn, for there was little 

 more corn than was needed for feeding the people. What then 

 was it? It was the means of commanding the labour of the people 

 at home, by having a hold on their food. This wealth, however 

 great at home, could not be taken abroad, and could only be made 

 fruitful at home. 



Had this been understood, time should have been taken by the 

 forelock, and undertakings should have been brought forwai'd by 

 which works would have been made at home, which would have 

 been gainful to the shareholders, and a mine of wealth in all time 



