I commented last month about misconceptions surrounding the heroic lone inventor and about the need for well equipped, well staffed laboratories. Now, Derek Thompson writing in the Atlantic offers more perspective on the topic, discussing the invention of the cotton gin, telegraph, telephone, light bulb, movie projector, automobile, airplane, and television.
In my earlier post, I cited Eric D. Isaacs, director of Argonne National Laboratory, taking issue with the romantic notion that “inventor-heroes” are “single-combat warriors working feverishly in a basement or some other threadbare den of solitude.” Thompson's post in the Atlantic draws on an earlier paper by Mark A. Lemley of Stanford Law School, providing “…a super-quick summary of his wonderful distillation of the last 200 years in collaborative innovation.”
Lemley and Thompson point out that cotton gins had been around for thousands of y ears; Whitney's innovation was to add wire teeth to help separate cotton fibers from seeds. Further, Whitney wasn't the only one to perceive this innovation, but he was the first to the patent office.
Thompson goes on to point out, “The telegraph was invented by not only Morse, but also Charles Wheatstone, Sir William Fothergill Cooke, Edward Davy, and Carl August von Steinhiel so near to each other that the British Supreme Court refused to issue one patent.” Alexander Graham Bell did receive his patent, despite a similar one being filed the same day by Elisha Gray, leading Lemley to conclude, “Bell's iconic status owes as much to his victories in court and in the marketplace as at the lab bench.”
Lemley and Thompson relate similar stories about the light bulb, movie projector, automobile, television, airplane, and television. I might take exception to the airplane discussion—the Wright brothers were the first to get a self-powered heavier-than-air vehicle off the ground, and there is no indication someone else at some other field was near to accomplishing the same feat at about the same time.
Nevertheless, all the stories make for interesting reads. If you have some time, download Lemley's 108-page paper. Otherwise, scan Thompson's post.