“A person obtaining a Patent for a crude invention prevents other persons from entering upon the same ground unless at their own peril, and I have known cases where, in the ignorance of the existence of a Patent, improvements have been made, and practical value given to an invention which has been previously patented, and then that patentee has come forward and said, ‘That is my invention, and you must pay me for using it.’ Other people have given additional value to his Patent, that is to say, they have made improvements which he can appropriate to his Patent, and in that way it gives it an additional value. The mere conception of primary ideas in inventions is not a matter involving much labour, and it is not a thing, as a rule, I think, demanding a large reward; it is rather the subsequent labour which the man bestows in perfecting the invention—a thing which the Patent-Laws at present scarcely recognise. “But you are unable to do so, because you cannot interfere with the Patent over it. Do you find practically that that clogs the progress of invention?—I will take one of my own inventions. I will take an hydraulic crane, for example, which I will suppose that I do not patent, and I will suppose that another person invents an improved valve and applies it to hydraulic cranes, and that he patents that improvement upon hydraulic cranes; clearly the result of that is, that if it gives an improved character to the whole machine he will obtain the monopoly of the machine, because he has a Patent for the improvement, and that carries with it the machine itself.” Mr. Webster shows how it is that men of science, the real discoverers, miss reward:— “The number of inventions brought out by purely scientific people I believe to be very few, and for this reason: purely scientific people want practical knowledge to enable them to carry out their own ideas; the mass of inventions, I have no doubt, are made by workmen, or persons of skill and science engaged in some actual manufacture.” Mr. I. K. Brunel tells— “Cooke and Wheatstone derived, I believe, a large sum of money from the electric telegraph; and I believe you will find fifty people who will say that they invented it also. I suppose it would be difficult to trace the original inventor of anything.” Sir W. Armstrong speaks regarding that frequent case— “An idea which is present to the minds of very many persons at the same time. Without any reference to his competency to develop that idea, and to give it practical value, he is allowed to have a monopoly of it, and thereby to exclude all other persons.” He points out that—