Abstract
FROM the days of Jabal, Jubal, and Tubal-Cain people have been engaged in producing articles, both useful and ornamental—articles of necessity and luxury; and we are all (with rare exceptions) interested directly and indirectly in inventions, either as inventors or as benefiting by the ingenuity of others. Where the present is in advance of the past is in the protection afforded to those who desire to receive for a period the pecuniary reward attaching to their inventive powers. Naturally, the patent laws of different countries exhibit certain variations, but there is more than a mere family likeness pertaining to them in common. Mr. Milton Wright, in his book on “Inventions and Patents” writes as an American under the U.S.A. law, but his book is both interesting and valuable to citizens of other States. It may be added that one chapter is devoted to the rights as existent in the various countries. He quotes the saying of an inventor, adapted from a dictum of Thomas Edison's, that a successful invention is 2 per cent inspiration and 98 per cent perspiration, which crystallises the view that genius unallied to industry cannot hope to succeed. Of the twenty-three chapters, those containing “Don'ts” and answers to questions are not the least interesting; but from cover to cover the book merits careful reading and a place on one's bookshelf for the purposes of handy reference.
Inventions and Patents: their Development and Promotion.
Milton
Wright
By.Pp. vii + 225. (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co., Inc.; London: McGraw-Hill Publishing Co., Ltd., 1927.) 12s. 6d. net.
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M., P. Miscellany. Nature 122, 539 (1928). https://doi.org/10.1038/122539c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/122539c0