^^^: 



W 



GRANTING OF LICENSES. 227 



ful purposes and inventions,whichwouldotherwise probably escape 

 the notice and attention of others, as the original discovery might 

 have done had it been sought after with less enthusiasm by the 

 writer. Tlie granting of licenses to others has been attended 

 with much harm, as well as many advantages, in bringing the 

 manufacture into notice. A great number of establishments, 

 with means to operate, have accomplished much more in a 

 practical way, within the time, than one individual with limited 

 means could have done ; but on the other hand there was danger 

 that the reputation of the invention would suffer from so many 

 persons, unacquainted with the manufacture, being engaged in 

 bringing it forward. Thus it has suffered much harm in various 

 ways, and oftentimes the credit of the invention has suffered 

 from a wrong or defective mechanical construction of the 

 articles, when the quality of the materials were otherwise 

 good. Articles of various sorts have been very imperfectly 

 vulcanized, (many of which were made for the Government 

 of the United States,) insomuch that the credit of the discovery, 

 in some places, has been much impaired, or nearly lost for a 

 time, and nothing but its real merit could have sustained it 

 under such disadvantages. These, however, are accidents to 

 which all manufactures, and especially all new manufactures, 

 are liable ; for the writer there was no alternative but to intro- 

 duce his inventions by the granting of licenses. On the whole, 

 as the inventor anticipated, the good predominates ; the dangers 

 which threatened have passed by, and there are now twenty ex- 

 perienced establishments engaged in the manufacture, where 

 otherwise there would have been but one. By pursuing this 

 course the inventor has been enabled to devote himself to per- 

 fecting the processes, inventions, and fabrics appertaining to the 

 discovery. 



In the further prosecution of his plans, a serious obstacle was 

 presented by the conflicting of his views with those of his asso- 

 ciates, as well as his counsel. 



In the attempt to prosecute any enterprise, where there is a 

 want of facilities for carrying it on, and especially an untried 



