Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 429: Volume 17, New Series, March 20, 1852Various
History
Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 429: Volume 17, New Series, March 20, 1852
Various
Periodicals
From thence I walked to the show of products of industry. I found a
building 600 feet in length, 40 feet wide, and two storeys high,
crammed with such a variety of articles that it is extremely difficult
to describe them, or, indeed, to reduce them to order in the mind. I
do not propose to send you a catalogue, but to convey, as far as I
can, the impression made upon me. The ground-floor is devoted to the
exhibition of agricultural implements and machinery. I have no
intention to enter into the question of our own patent laws, but I
cannot refuse to acknowledge the superiority of the arrangements here.
The greatest advantage is, that the right to an invention is so
simply, cheaply, and easily secured, that there is no filching or
ill-feeling. Talking with a very intelligent person, who was kindly
trying to give me definite ideas in this labyrinth of cranks and
wheels, by shewing and explaining to me the movements of a most
singular machine for making carding implements--I said: 'How is it,
that with these wonders, the American portion of the Crystal Palace in
London should have been so scant? Here is enough for almost an
indefinite supply: the reaping-machine is but a unit.' 'True,' he
replied, 'but we could get no guarantee for securing the patents; and
if one man was simple enough to give the English his reaping-machine,
it did not suit others to be robbed. We have little ambition about the
matter: satisfied with what we have, we cannot afford to give away
inventions for the sake of fine words.' This explained the whole to
me.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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