Welcome to my weekly newsletter, Age of Invention, on the causes of the British Industrial Revolution and the history of innovation. You can subscribe here: Last week I mentioned some of the prizes offered by the Society of the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce — it rewarded methods to save people from drowning in shipwrecks, and to save workers from inhaling metal dust while grinding needles. I highlighted the scandiscope: a chimney-cleaning brush designed to
Hi, other consequences of awarding a prize was that an innovative idea did not need to be disclosed and a cash prize would encourage inventors to commercialise their idea ( e.g. by building a prototype and licensing. We know all this now from Economic theory but interesting that the basic ideas were grasped so much earlier
Hi, other consequences of awarding a prize was that an innovative idea did not need to be disclosed and a cash prize would encourage inventors to commercialise their idea ( e.g. by building a prototype and licensing. We know all this now from Economic theory but interesting that the basic ideas were grasped so much earlier