The Most Powerful Idea in the World

A Story of Steam, Industry, and Invention

William Rosen, 2010, Beaverton 909.81 ROS

Rosen's "Most Powerful Idea" is government-issued patents.

The "deal" is that an inventor discloses details of an invention in return for the right to sue competitors who copy the invention. Rosen claims this is responsible for the rapid rise of industrialization in Regency England. He bases this on comparisons to other nations like (larger) France and (smaller) Holland, which did not produce as many inventions and did not have Britain's optimum patent laws.

He implies that the nascent patent system in the United States was even better, but only briefly in the epilogue, and (inevitably) quotes lawyer (and unsuccessful inventor) Abraham Lincoln's " ... added the fuel of interest to the fire of genius."

• Lincoln's patent # 6469 issued in 1849 (when he was 40), "Buoying Vessels Over Shoals" was never realized and probably impractical. After a series of other jobs, he received his law license in 1836 (age 27), tried hundreds of cases, and helped draft legislation in Illinois. He was a lawyer and politician, not an inventor.