The AFU and Urban Legend Archive
Misc
 patent office ul more




Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: sfenick@quads.uchicago.edu (sharon fenick)
Subject: Apocryphal Patent History debunked again
Date: Thu, 18 Jan 1996 00:33:51 GMT

Found on misc.int-property:

>From: hbaker@netcom.com (Henry Baker)
>Subject: Apocryphal Patent History debunked again
>Message-ID: <hbaker-1601961747550001@10.0.2.15>
>Sender: hbaker@netcom16.netcom.com
>Organization: nil organization
>Date: Wed, 17 Jan 1996 01:47:55 GMT
>
>On page 32B of the Feb. 1996 Scientific American, John Horgan debunks the
>famous myth about "the commissioner of U.S. patents who in 1899 asked that
>his office be abolished because `everything that can be invented has been
>invented'". Bill Gates's recent book/CDROM about the road apples ahead and the
>March 17, 1995 issue of Science magazine perpetuate this myth.
>
>Apparently, a 1940 article in the Journal of the Patent Office Society
>by Eber Jeffery investigated this myth, and found that the possible source
>of this myth was Henry Ellsworth's (commissioner of patents) testimony to
>Congress in 1843. He apparently said that the rapid pace of innovation
>"taxes our credulity and seems to presage the arrival of that period when
>human improvement must end". However, far from asking that the office be
>closed, he asked for additional funds to cope with the flood of inventions,
>and 2 years later, when he stepped down, he was proud of having expanded
>the Patent Office.
[...]

Faq sez:
>F.*U.S. Patent Office head once said that it be closed because "Everything
> that can be invented has been invented."

Sharon "That faq is a wunnerful thing" Fenick


Any proceeds (net proceeds from merchandise sales) from TAFKAC solely benefit The Chuck Reed Fund.

Copyright Information

http://tafkac.org/