Abstract
IN continuation of a practice that NATURE has pursued for the past four years, there is printed elsewhere in this issue the first instalment of a new calendar, which will be devoted to items of importance and interest from the records of British and other patents for inventions. No apology is needed to our readers for the choice of this subject, for it will be fully realised that the literature of patents (which now includes amongst a mass of other material upwards of four million separate specifications of inventions from all countries) forms a survey of the industrial progress of the world from the seventeenth century onwards that stands unrivalled. Not much of this literature, of course, is concerned with epoch-marking inventions, but a great deal of it refers to lesser-known patents which have had no little influence on subsequent developments. Some of these have made their contribution direct, whilst others, though not themselves put into practical use, have yet stimulated later inventors, and have often formed the basis on which the final success has been achieved; others, again, have had their day and (perhaps only for a time) have passed into oblivion. It is with this class rather than with the well-known inventions that the calendar is intended mainly to deal, whilst it is felt also that a few notes should be included on some of those fruitless and extravagant ideas that are scattered through the records and have resulted in nothing but the shattering of life-long ambitions. Of necessity, the bulk of the material will be taken from British records, since these cover a longer period of time than any others, and are for the most part more easily accessible; but foreign dates of interest will also be included from time to time.
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[News and Views]. Nature 123, 23–26 (1929). https://doi.org/10.1038/123023a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/123023a0