“Mediating the Public and the Private:  The Patent System, Technological Learning, and Invention in the Antebellum U.S.” Ross Thomson

Abstract:  The patent system is often justified on grounds that it benefits the public by providing  incentives to invent and mechanisms of diffusion.  This paper investigates a related possibility:  that patenting makes private knowledge of frontier techniques available to all, which enables individuals to invent in any field.  To understand how patenting fostered learning in the antebellum US, the paper characterizes the patenting process and its institutions:  patent examiners, patent agents, draftsmen, engineers and the technical press.  These institutions spread technological knowledge widely.  But this did not overcome knowledge barriers to invention.  Patent samples for several industries reveal that patentees commonly were employed within industries for which they invented.   Industry-specific knowledge was central in directing invention and understanding industry patents.  Two revealing exceptions are examined; individuals in professions tied to patenting invented frequently and widely.  In this they resembled machinists.  Both professions possessed widely applicable knowledge and ties to various industries.

“Iron Foundries Rule the Heavy Capital Equipment Industry in the East, 1820-1860” David R. Meyer

Abstract:  Because the heavy capital equipment industry served broad demands of the economy, as well as of manufacturing, its growth and transformation tracked economic and industrial change during 1820-1860.  Iron foundries expanded in the east-coast metropolises and their immediate environs, and foundries emerged in prosperous agricultural and industrializing areas.  Machinists operated effectively because there were few benefits from holding back information and substantial costs from being excluded from technical networks.  Much of the technical knowledge remained part of machinists' practices in the iron foundries; thus, most of the leading machinists gained their technical expertise through training in the foundries, and technical information moved among foundries as workers changed jobs.  Leading machinists and firms often passed from the scene, but leading foundry centers remained more stable; this suggests machinist skills were embedded in networks rather than in individuals and firms.

“Patenting and Licensing University Inventions: Lessons from the History of Research Corporation” Bhaven N. Sampat and David C. Mowery

Abstract:  Although links between R&D in U.S. industry and research in U.S. universities have a long history, recent developments in this relationship, especially the growth in university patenting and licensing of technologies to private firms, have attracted considerable attention.  Some view these developments as evidence that universities are becoming increasingly economically relevant, while others have expressed fears that these changes may reflect a "privatization" of public science and may have negative social welfare consequences. In this paper, we place the recent rise of university patenting in historical context, examining the history of Research Corporation, a non-profit organization (formed in 1912) that handled patenting and licensing activities for most major U.S. universities before 1980. The rise and fall of the Research Corporation highlight what has and what has not changed about university-industry relationships over the past two decades, and also has some implications for recent research on the role of markets for technology  in  U.S. economic history.

Page by Meredith Beechey
Prepared  06/27/02