Gerald
07-21-11, 12:22 PM
http://img842.imageshack.us/img842/2830/54170929knightmachine2.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/842/54170929knightmachine2.jpg/)
Margaret Knight's Patent Model of Machine for Making Paper Bags, 1879
A record number of new inventions are expected to be processed by the US Patent and Trademark Office this year - in spite of concerns that funding for scientific research has slowed because of the recession.
More than half a million filings are anticipated in fields ranging from life sciences and personalised medicine to solar energy and mobile phone applications.
The surge of ideas coincides with a major exhibition in Washington DC that examines America's history of innovation and the belief that Americans themselves have a special genius for scientific discovery.
"The heritage we owe to the 19th Century is this inherent belief, this optimism in the ability of innovation to solve our problems," said David Kappos, director of the US Patent and Trademark Office, which helped produce the show.
"That spirit is alive - every bit as much as it was 200 years ago."
Labour-saving machines
The Great American Hall of Wonders at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington DC features objects, paintings and drawings that explore how the study of nature and advances in technology and engineering helped shape the fledgling democracy.
"The US in its early years just didn't have many people," said Claire Perry, an independent curator who organised the exhibition.
"They knew that to have a thriving economy for an independent nation they needed to create labour-saving, efficient machines that would help to relieve the problem of not enough workers."
The 19th Century in America was a period of social upheaval and crisis.
On 4 July 1826, on the 50th anniversary of American independence, former Presidents Thomas Jefferson and John Adams died, and Americans feared that the nation would not survive the loss of those Founding Fathers.
But Americans realised that the great democratic experiment needed more than revolutionary zeal to ensure its success, deciding that innovation was the key.
'What hath God wrought?'
"These were people who felt a tremendous sense of responsibility for democracy and that it was their responsibility to have a wide range of knowledge," Ms Perry said.
"They attended botany lectures, read books about geology and mechanical improvements, and each person felt there was a niche for them to make a contribution."
The inventions that emerged were largely the work of individuals.
Many people had experimented with the electromagnetic telegraph, but the artist Samuel Morse was the first to come up with a device that was both economical and easy to use.
He built his prototype receiver from materials he found in his studio - a canvas stretcher, bits of wire and a ruler.
Congress was so impressed it funded a line between Washington DC and Baltimore. The first message broadcast on the new communications system: "What hath God wrought?"
But because of the enormous depth and breadth of knowledge that exists today, some believe the era of great inventors such as Morse may have ended.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-14191249
Note: 21 July 2011 Last updated at 04:28 GMT
Margaret Knight's Patent Model of Machine for Making Paper Bags, 1879
A record number of new inventions are expected to be processed by the US Patent and Trademark Office this year - in spite of concerns that funding for scientific research has slowed because of the recession.
More than half a million filings are anticipated in fields ranging from life sciences and personalised medicine to solar energy and mobile phone applications.
The surge of ideas coincides with a major exhibition in Washington DC that examines America's history of innovation and the belief that Americans themselves have a special genius for scientific discovery.
"The heritage we owe to the 19th Century is this inherent belief, this optimism in the ability of innovation to solve our problems," said David Kappos, director of the US Patent and Trademark Office, which helped produce the show.
"That spirit is alive - every bit as much as it was 200 years ago."
Labour-saving machines
The Great American Hall of Wonders at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington DC features objects, paintings and drawings that explore how the study of nature and advances in technology and engineering helped shape the fledgling democracy.
"The US in its early years just didn't have many people," said Claire Perry, an independent curator who organised the exhibition.
"They knew that to have a thriving economy for an independent nation they needed to create labour-saving, efficient machines that would help to relieve the problem of not enough workers."
The 19th Century in America was a period of social upheaval and crisis.
On 4 July 1826, on the 50th anniversary of American independence, former Presidents Thomas Jefferson and John Adams died, and Americans feared that the nation would not survive the loss of those Founding Fathers.
But Americans realised that the great democratic experiment needed more than revolutionary zeal to ensure its success, deciding that innovation was the key.
'What hath God wrought?'
"These were people who felt a tremendous sense of responsibility for democracy and that it was their responsibility to have a wide range of knowledge," Ms Perry said.
"They attended botany lectures, read books about geology and mechanical improvements, and each person felt there was a niche for them to make a contribution."
The inventions that emerged were largely the work of individuals.
Many people had experimented with the electromagnetic telegraph, but the artist Samuel Morse was the first to come up with a device that was both economical and easy to use.
He built his prototype receiver from materials he found in his studio - a canvas stretcher, bits of wire and a ruler.
Congress was so impressed it funded a line between Washington DC and Baltimore. The first message broadcast on the new communications system: "What hath God wrought?"
But because of the enormous depth and breadth of knowledge that exists today, some believe the era of great inventors such as Morse may have ended.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-14191249
Note: 21 July 2011 Last updated at 04:28 GMT