Slashdot Mirror
Franklin's Glass Armonica
CoffeePlease writes "At the time of his death in 1790, when more than 5,000 of his glass armonicas had been built, Ben Franklin had collected no money from his glass armonica. He refused to patent any of his inventions, saying: 'As we enjoy great Advantages from the Inventions of others we should be glad of an Opportunity to serve others by any Invention of ours, and this we should do freely and generously.' Read more here and here. A historical/sci-fi novel by Louise Marley has come out on the subject also. It would be interesting to find out if any other early inventors shared Franklin's generous views on patents." There's even a FAQ.
It's worth pointing out that Franklin was also publisher and owner of the Pennsylvania Gazette (which I believe he eventually sold), as well as the publisher of Poor Richard Almanack, so he did have other sources of income to rely on. That's not to say it wasn't generous of him to refuse to patent his inventions, but I can understand why a person whose income depended on their inventions would want to patent things.
But, contrary to belief, not everything I do is for profit, or if so, very indirectly.
You see, I place value of the general welfare of my fellow person. I contribute to charties, and donate things I no longer need that are in good repair, so that they can either be given to the poor, or sold, and the proceeds used to help them. I've gone so far as to donate running cars.
Yes, either I benefit, or my descendents will benefit, in some small way, from these acts, so a Randian might consider them quite rational. But, and this is the important thing, the general welfare of "clan Hollan" was not in my mind when I undertook these acts.
While it is all fine and good to be able to participate in a free market, we are not without compassion for those less fortunate than ourselves, whatever the reason. I, for example, had the good fortune to study a field (Computer Science) that has blossemed to fill an as unquenched thirst for skill in the market place. However, to argue that this was a calculated optimal decision on my part, as opposed to a calculated risk would be arrogance. In fact, I chose it becase I liked it and was good at it.
So, I can certainly empathize with those who's fortunes have not been as good as mine, though I do not feel a particular obligation to help the less fortunate.
Nevertheless, parting with that for which one feels no desire to exploit, so that the lives of others can be, in some small way, enriched, is no great misery, and in the minds of the recipients, might translate into the most wonderful gift of all.
You could've hired me.
His more full quote
This pamphlet had a good effect. Gov'r. Thomas was so pleas'd with the construction of this stove, as described in it, that he offered to give me a patent for the sole vending of them for a term of years; but I declin'd it from a principle which has ever weighed with me on such occasions, viz., That, as we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others, we should be glad of an opportunity to serve others by any invention of ours; and this we should do freely and generously.
Not really surprising, given that Franklin was a printer, newspaper publisher, almanac writer, and colonial postmaster. All of these jobs have the common thread of promoting the spread of knowledge and ideas. To Franklin, the free dissemination of new and useful ideas was the key to progress.
And yes, the other jobs supported him well enough that he didn't need to make money from his inventions.
I read the book, and it was enough for me to take Franklin on as one of my personal heroes.
"As we enjoy great Advantages from the Inventions of others we should be glad of an Opportunity to serve others by any Invention of ours, and this we should do freely and generously."
They should make this the first line of The General Public License.
http://www.kubuntu.org/
There are many intelligent people out there who are not motivated purely by greed. You might want to look "Richard Stallman" up on the internet. Do you think the greed of others has kept his inventions from having a profound effect on the world? Sure, he may not be rich, but I think he is getting just about everything he wants from life.
They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security
Inventors contemporary to Franklin may have had similar feelings about patents for a variety of reasons. First, the patent process that they knew of in England may have been unfair and/or corrupt (sound familiar?). From what I've heard, English IP laws of that era bore little resemblance to the IP law envisioned by the founders. They were more about aristocratic control. Many argue that our IP laws have been corrupted in a similar fashion; just substitute "aristocrats" with "corporations".
Secondly, it was easier to dismiss the value of IP in Franklin's time because mass production and interchangeable parts were not generally available. Post-revolution, Eli Whitney and others developed the mass production techniques. As the industrial revolution progressed, the quantity and quality of labor required to make physical copies of a device shrank dramaticly in proportion to the labor required to invent a device.
Thus, it seemed a folly to Franklin to patent his stove when the idea took 1 man-week to sketch, and perhaps 2 man-weeks *per unit* to produce.
On the other hand, Edison's lightbulb and the ribbon machines used to manufacture them took years to develop. Once this was done, each lightbulb took only a fraction of a second to produce. Therefore, it now makes perfect sense that the knowledge of how to make the bulbs is far more valuable than even a truckload of the bulbs themselves.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
Feed Google with "Finkenbeiner" for some interesting hits.
Tragically, Gerhard Finkenbeiner disappeared. He was a licensed pilot, and owned a small plane. One day, he said he was going to make a flight, went out the door, took off, and was never seen again. There was a memorial service for him maybe a year later.
Enby in Waltham