How America's individual inventors persisted alongside corporate R&D labs as an important source of inventions.
During the nineteenth century, heroic individual inventors such as Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell created entirely new industries while achieving widespread fame. However, by 1927, a New York Times editorial suggested that teams of corporate scientists at General Electric, AT&T, and DuPont had replaced the solitary "garret inventor" as the wellspring of invention. But these inventors never disappeared. In this book, Eric Hintz argues that lesser-known inventors such as Chester Carlson (Xerox photocopier), Samuel Ruben (Duracell batteries), and Earl Tupper (Tupperware) continued to develop important technologies throughout the twentieth century. Moreover, Hintz explains how independent inventors gradually fell from public view as corporate brands increasingly became associated with high-tech innovation.
Focusing on the years from 1890 to 1950, Hintz documents how American independent inventors competed (and sometimes partnered) with their corporate rivals, adopted a variety of flexible commercialization strategies, established a series of short-lived professional groups, lobbied for fairer patent laws, and mobilized for two world wars. After 1950, the experiences of independent inventors generally mirrored the patterns of their predecessors, and they continued to be overshadowed during corporate R&D's postwar golden age. The independents enjoyed a resurgence, however, at the turn of the twenty-first century, as Apple's Steve Jobs and Shark Tank's Lori Greiner heralded a new generation of heroic inventor-entrepreneurs. By recovering the stories of a group once considered extinct, Hintz shows that independent inventors have long been—and remain—an important source of new technologies.
Author(s): Eric S. Hintz
Series: Lemelson Center Studies in Invention and Innovation
Publisher: The MIT Press
Year: 2021
Language: English
Pages: 368
City: Cambridge
Contents
Series Foreword
Acknowledgments
1. Introduction
From Heroic Individual Geniuses to Industrial R&D
Independent Inventors in an Era of Corporate R&D
2. The Invisible Inventor
Hidden by Prejudice
Overshadowed by Edison
Acquisition and Rebranding
Advertising R&D
Selling the Research Idea
A War of Words
Conclusion
3. Make, Sell, Ally
Make: Moonlighting Inventors, Reluctant Entrepreneurs, and Family Businesses
Sell: Assigning Patents (and Facing Rejection) in the Market for Inventions
Ally: Earning Royalties and Consulting Fees via Long-Term Partnerships
Mixed, Hybrid Innovation Strategies
Itinerant Careers and Permeable Organizational Boundaries
Conclusion
4. Banding Together
Banding Together for Commercial Support
Banding Together for Patent Reform
Banding Together for Recognition and Respect
Conclusion
5. The Elusiveness of Patent Reform
Aggressive Corporate Monopolies, Beleaguered Independent Inventors
Organizing the TNEC Hearings, 1937–1938
Patents in the Automotive and Glass Container Industries
Proposed Reforms to the Patent Laws
Independent Inventors and R&D Executives Testify
The National Association of Manufacturers and Its Modern Pioneers Program
Conclusion
6. Invent for Victory
World War I: The Genesis of the Naval Consulting Board
The Naval Consulting Board at Work
Tensions and Disappointments
World War II: The Genesis of the National Inventors Council
The National Inventors Council at Work
An Evolving Role for the National Inventors Council
Conclusion
7. Postwar Eclipse, Twenty-First-Century Resurgence
The Rise, Fall, and Restructuring of Postwar R&D
Commercialization: The More Things Change . . .
Government Crowdsourcing and Pro-innovation Policies
Fragile Support Groups
The Perils of Patent Reform
Changing Perceptions
Conclusion
8. Conclusion
Notes
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Index
