THE ART OF INVENTING

BY

EDWIN J. PRINDLE, M.E., L.L.M.,
of the New York Bar.

A paper read at the 23d Annual Convention of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, Milwaukee, Wis., May 28-31, 1906.

A paper presented at the 23d Annual Convention of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, Milwaukee, Wis., May 28-31, 1906.

Copyright 1906. By A. I. E. E.

THE ART OF INVENTING.

BY EDWIN J. PRINDLE.

There are many kinds of invention. The poet, the artist, the playwright, the novelist all exercise or may exercise invention in the production of their works. The merchant may exercise invention in the devising of a new method of selling goods. The department store was an invention of this class.

The subject of my paper is, however, the art of making technical inventions, and particularly patentable inventions. And, first, of its commercial importance; for the engineer is concerned with things having a commercial value. By the art of inventing, wealth is created absolutely out of ideas alone. It usually takes capital to develop an invention and make it productive, but not always. A notable recent example is Professor Pupin's loaded telephone line. He received a very large sum of money, and his expenditures, as I understand, were comparatively trivial.

The certificate of ownership of an invention is a patent, and the importance of the art of invention will be made apparent from a brief consideration of what rights a patent confers and of the part that patents play in the industries.

A patent is the most perfect form of monopoly recognized by the law. As was said in a recent decision:

"Within his domain, the patentee is czar. The people must take the invention on the terms he dictates or let it alone for seventeen years. This is a necessity from the nature of the grant. Cries of restraint of trade and impairment of the freedom of sales are unavailing, because for the promotion of the useful arts the constitution and statutes authorize this very monopoly."

There is an enormous amount of wealth in this country that is based upon patents. As an instance, might be mentioned the fact that the United Shoe Machinery Company is, by means of patents, able to control the sewing machines upon which ninety per cent. of the welt shoes in the United States are sewed. The Bell Telephone Company, and the Westinghouse Air Brake Company and many other corporations of the first importance built themselves up on patents. Patents have become so well recognized a factor in commerce that, in many lines of manufacture, concerns do not depend simply upon cheapness of manufacture, or quality of product, to maintain their trade, but they count on always having a product which is at least slightly better than that of their competitors, and which is covered by patents, so that they do not have to compete with an article of equal merit. And they keep a corps of inventors at work in a constant effort to improve the product, so that, when the patents now giving protection have expired, they will have a better article to offer, which shall also be protected by patents.

Inventing has become almost a recognized profession. Many large concerns constantly employ a large corps of inventors, at liberal salaries. Besides the inventors employed by large corporations, there are many inventors who have maintained their independence, and are free lances, so to speak. Some inventors have become wealthy almost solely by their inventions, such as Edison, Bell, Westinghouse, Marconi, Pupin, Tesla, and Sprague. A considerable number of the smaller manufacturing concerns are built largely or wholly upon the inventions of their principal owners.

Aside from the question of financial returns from inventing, the inventor has the satisfaction of knowing that he is a producer of the most fundamental kind. All material progress has involved the production of inventions. Inventors are universally conceded to be among the greatest benefactors of the human race.

The art of invention is therefore one of great commercial and economical importance, and it becomes a matter of much interest to know how inventions are produced. It is my object to attempt an explanation of the manner of their production.

If it be inquired on what grounds I offer an explanation of this apparently most difficult subject, I reply that, in the practice of patent law, I have often had occasion and opportunity to inquire into the mental processes of inventors, and that the subject is one to which I have given considerable attention.

It seems to be popularly believed that the inventor must be born to his work, and that such people are born only occasionally. This is true, to a certain extent, but I am convinced there are many people who, without suspecting it, have latent inventive abilities, which could be put to work if they only knew how to go about it. The large percentage of inventors in this country compared with all other countries, shows that the inventive faculty is one which can be cultivated to some extent. The difference in ingenuity is not wholly a matter of race, for substantially the same blood exists in some other countries, but it is the encouragement of our patent laws that has stimulated the cultivation of this faculty.

The popular idea seems to be that an invention is produced by its inventor at a single effort of the imagination and complete, as Minerva sprang full grown and fully armed from the mind of Jove.

It is, undoubtedly, true that every inventor must have some imagination or creative faculty, but, as I shall seek to show, this faculty may be greatly assisted by method. While reasoning does not constitute the whole of an inventive act, it can, so to speak, clear the way and render the inventive act easier of accomplishment.

Invention has been defined as "In the nature of a guess; the mind leaps across a logical chasm. Instead of working out a conclusion, it imagines it." The courts have repeatedly held that that which could be produced purely by the process of reasoning or inference, on the part of one ordinarily skilled in the art is not patentable, but that the imaginative or creative faculty must somewhere be used in the process. The mind must somewhere leap from the known to the unknown by means of the imagination, and not by mere inference in making the invention. But the inventor, consciously or unconsciously, by proper method, reduces the length of this leap to much more moderate proportions than is popularly supposed.

That reasoning and research frequently enter very largely into the inventive act in aid of the creative faculty is the opinion of Dr. Trowbridge, of Columbia University who said:

"Important inventions leading to widespread improvements in the arts or to new industries do not come by chance, or as sudden inspiration, but are in almost every instance the result of long and exhaustive researches by men whose thorough familiarity with their subjects enables them to see clearly the way to improvements. Almost all important and successful inventions which have found their way into general use and acceptance have been the products of well-balanced and thoughtful minds, capable of patient laborious investigation."

Judge Drummond, in a decision many years ago, said:

"Most inventions are the result of experiment, trial, and effort,