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Robert Bunsen, Open Source Pioneer?

Posted by timothy on from the you-mean-a-google-doodle-isn't-enough? dept.

cygtoad writes "Today marks Robert Bunsen's 200th birthday. I found this interesting factoid on the man: 'Bunsen and Desaga did not apply for patent protection on their burner and it was quite soon that others began to produce their own versions. Some even went so far as to claim the invention as their own, including one person who was granted a patent on the device. Both Bunsen and Desaga were involved in writing letters to the proper authorities to refute these claims.' Does anyone have an older example of such an open information pioneer? In my book he deserves some honor." Benjamin Franklin famously chose not to patent the design of the stove that bears his name, too; you can read all about it.

4 of 127 comments (clear)

  1. Fire was patented and the patent was enforced by perpenso · · Score: 5, Funny

    Fire. The inventor of fire never got a patent on it. Think of all the royalties he missed out on!

    Untrue. Zeus held the patent, there was even enforcement. Prometheus paid quite a high price for his infringement.

    1. Re:Fire was patented and the patent was enforced by brentrad · · Score: 4, Funny

      Actually Zeus was ok with Prometheus using fire for his own personal use, but then Prometheus decided to make fire available to mankind through torch-to-torch networks, and he got hit by a massive distribution judgement.

    2. Re:Fire was patented and the patent was enforced by Chrisq · · Score: 3, Funny

      No, it was George Flint, a young man from Wales. The lore is that he was banging rocks around 842BCE, and sparks flew, catching his little pile of pine needles on fire. George ran to Uck, who said, "do it again". Bang, George went. Uck killed George, then claimed to invent fire and got 72 virgins. Uck's decendants include Edison and Sarnoff.

      Obvious nonsense. It's never dry enough to light anything with a flint in Wales. Besides which if a welshman invented fire it would be much more likely to involve friction and wool than flint and pine needles.

  2. Re:Fire by SnarfQuest · · Score: 3, Funny

    I'm going to apply for a patent for "fire, on the internet,"

    Let the flamewar begin. I'll sue you all for patent abuse!

    --
    Who would win this election: Andrew Weiner vs Andrew Weiner's weiner.