Ben Franklin’s Greatest Invention

Special to FreeRepublic ^ | 9 Nov., 2005 | John Armor (Congressman Billybob)

[Congressman Billybob]

Even today, sources on inventions list six by Franklin that are still in active use today. One of those sits in my back hall, cheerfully and economically heating the back of my home – the Franklin stove. Another sits on the bridge of my nose as I write this – a pair of bifocals. But this is about Franklin’s greatest invention, one that the lists never mention because it is mere words, not a physical object.

Franklin made seven trips to Europe, as a diplomat and scholar. He was welcomed into all the learned societies that existed in Europe then. One of the things he learned on those trips was that creative people were being cheated out of the financial benefits of their creations. When the novels of Charles Dickens became popular, printers other than his own simply reset the type and republished the books, without a cent in royalties to the author. When Thomas Paine’s design for a cast iron bridge became known (and remained the standard until the advent of the use of steel in the 20th century), others copied the design without a cent in royalties being paid.

Thomas Jefferson was undoubtedly the nation’s greatest political philosopher, in a group where the competition for that accolade was very high. But Franklin was the nation’s greatest practical philosopher. He recognized that the building of a nation required the creation of a form of fastest possible communication among its parts. So he created the first Post Office, and also served as the first Postmaster. Were Franklin to return, he would recognize in a trice how the Internet works and why it is important. On his second day back, he would have a blog entitled “Poor Richard’s Almanack.”

But even the Post Office, which led inexorably to the Internet, was not Franklin’s greatest invention. He thought about the problem of creative people being encouraged to develop new creations. He understood the importance of good, old-fashioned financial incentives. He suggested to James Madison the following 27-word clause to be added to the powers of Congress in Article I, Section 8. With little debate and no objection, since it came from the respected scientist, it was added to the Constitution:

“To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries;....”

What is the importance of that clause? The US is only a small fraction of the world’s population. There are other, highly developed nations, with their own great universities. Still, more than three-fourths of all the world’s patents, copyrights, and trademarks are issued annually to Americans.

Is it because Americans are a special breed of human beings, better able to understand complexities and see the shape of the future? Comparisons of American students with their counterparts at all ages in other developed nations should quickly dispel that notion.

No, it is Franklin’s invention of this clause that has caused the explosion of American creativity, which began with the founding of the nation, and has shown no signs of slowing down in the two and a quarter centuries since. By giving a temporary monopoly to inventors like Thomas Edison and Bill Gates, it unleashed their abilities to redirect economic history. It unleashed the abilities of writers and creators like Mark Twain and Steven Spielberg to redirect literary and cinematic history.

(And one of the great diplomatic challenges of our times is to get certain nations to stop stealing the results of that creativity, by stealing the developments and reproducing them – exactly the way everyone was stealing all inventors’ works, when Franklin toured the learned societies of Europe, three centuries ago.)

Where did Franklin get the idea for this powerful clause, the one that is the engine behind the economic miracle of the United States of America? Every other clause in the Constitution has its progenitors in the works of Baron Montesquieu, John Locke, and other political and historical writers known to the Framers of the Constitution. This clause, and this one alone, has no ancestor.

Franklin saw the problem as it existed in the rest of the world. Franklin recognized that providing an economic incentive would encourage inventors and creators. And he also recognized that it must be temporary, “for limited times,” since he was aware of permanent monopolies such as the salt monopoly in the Ottoman empire, which were benefits for preferred supporters of the ruler.

In short, Franklin’s invention of this clause led to the current status of the American economy as the most powerful economic engine in history. And that is no small achievement.

About the Author: John Armor is a First Amendment attorney and author who lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. John_Armor@aya.yale.edu

[BenLurkin]

[RobFromGa]

Great historical post!

[null and void]

I hope y'all will find it interesting.

You bet! (I have several patents, myself)

[Atlas Sneezed]

Good article. Note that Article I, Section 8 is the only place in the pre-Bill-of-Rights Constitution where the word "right" or "rights" is used.

[R. Scott]

Where did Franklin get the idea for this powerful clause, the one that is the engine behind the economic miracle of the United States of America? Every other clause in the Constitution has its progenitors in the works of Baron Montesquieu, John Locke, and other political and historical writers known to the Framers of the Constitution. This clause, and this one alone, has no ancestor.

Not quite.
Besides the Statute of Monopolies (1623), there was also The Statute of Anne; April 10, 1710

[Atlas Sneezed]

Odds are, just like today, if the work is worth reprinting, then you should be able to find a "rights chasing" agency that can track down the owner based on the title and name.

But you raise a good point for simple registration. Just as a domain owner must keep a valid address on file for the public to be able to contact him, maybe there should be some obligation of the rights owner, and failure to be contactable causes the rights to lapse.

The real problem is not determining if something is in the public domain, but finding the rights owner when it is not.

[Glenn]

Most socialists suffer from the same Mistake.

Do you think an uneducated mother in a third world country with a dying child has a political ideology?

[Wonder Warthog]

"Greatest single invention was the lightning rod."

Not. It might have been FRANKLIN's greatest invention (althoug h I would argue that bifocals have had more long-term impact). The greatest SINGLE invention was the generation and tranmission of AC current (Tesla). That is the thing that makes our current (no pun intended) civilization possible.

[Congressman Billybob]

Google the author. Anyone of any note will have his obituary up on the Net, somewhere.

John / Billybob

[Congressman Billybob]

Here is Franklin's letter which is sometimes entitled, "In Praise of Older Women:"

June 25. 1745
My dear Friend,
I know of no Medicine fit to diminish the violent natural Inclinations you mention; and if I did, I think I should not communicate it to you. Marriage is the proper Remedy. It is the most natural State of Man, and therefore the State in which you are most likely to find solid Happiness. Your Reasons against entering into it at present, appear to me not well-founded. The circumstantial Advantages you have in View by postponing it, are not only uncertain, but they are small in comparison with that of the Thing itself, the being married and settled. It is the Man and Woman united that make the compleat human Being. Separate, she wants his Force of Body and Strength of Reason; he, her Softness, Sensibility and acute Discernment. Together they are more likely to succeed in the World. A single Man has not nearly the Value he would have in that State of Union. He is an incomplete Animal. He resembles the odd Half of a Pair of Scissars. If you get a prudent healthy Wife, your Industry in your Profession, with her good Economy, will be a Fortune sufficient.
But if you will not take this Counsel, and persist in thinking a Commerce with the Sex inevitable, then I repeat my former Advice, that in all your Amours you should prefer old Women to young ones. You call this a Paradox, and demand my Reasons. They are these:
1. Because as they have more Knowledge of the World and their Minds are better stor'd with Observations, their Conversation is more improving and more lastingly agreeable.
2. Because when Women cease to be handsome, they study to be good. To maintain their Influence over Men, they supply the Diminution of Beauty by an Augmentation of Utility. They learn to do a 1000 Services small and great, and are the most tender and useful of all Friends when you are sick. Thus they continue amiable. And hence there is hardly such a thing to be found as an old Woman who is not a good Woman.
3. Because there is no hazard of Children, which irregularly produc'd may be attended with much Inconvenience.
4. Because thro' more Experience, they are more prudent and discreet in conducting an Intrigue to prevent Suspicion. The Commerce with them is therefore safer with regard to your Reputation. And with regard to theirs, if the Affair should happen to be known, considerate People might be rather inclin'd to excuse an old Woman who would kindly take care of a young Man, form his Manners by her good Counsels, and prevent his ruining his Health and Fortune among mercenary Prostitutes.
5. Because in every Animal that walks upright, the Deficiency of the Fluids that fill the Muscles appears first in the highest Part: The Face first grows lank and wrinkled; then the Neck; then the Breast and Arms; the lower Parts continuing to the last as plump as ever: So that covering all above with a Basket, and regarding only what is below the Girdle, it is impossible of two Women to know an old from a young one. And as in the dark all Cats are grey, the Pleasure of corporal Enjoyment with an old Woman is at least equal, and frequently superior, every Knack being by Practice capable of Improvement.
6. Because the Sin is less. The debauching a Virgin may be her Ruin, and make her for Life unhappy.
7. Because the Compunction is less. The having made a young Girl miserable may give you frequent bitter Reflections; none of which can attend the making an old Woman happy.
8thly and Lastly They are so grateful!!
Thus much for my Paradox. But still I advise you to marry directly; being sincerely Your affectionate Friend.

John / Billybob

[Congressman Billybob]

Thank you for the correction. As I was writing this article at 2 a.m. this morning, I didn't come up with an easy way to get that statistic. I remembered from decades ago that the American share was at 90%. But I knew it was dropping.

So, I WAGGED the number (wild-*ssed guess) and tried to go low so my "more than" qualification would be accurate. Still, even 50% American patents at the US Patent Office is still remarkable, since we are only about 5% of the world's population.

I've just been asked to go on with G. Gordon Liddy this afternoon, about this article. I appreciate and will incorporate your factual correction this afternoon.

Cordially,

John / Billybob

[Congressman Billybob]

It is an unusual royalty in imported Scotch that the Kennedys receive. It is paid in bottles, and must be drunk by the oldest living male Kennedy. It's a filthy job, but somebody has to do it.

John / Billybob

[Congressman Billybob]

Freepers are an incredibly knowledgeable bunch. You are the second poster to mention the Statute of Anne, 1709. I've been asked to go on with G. Gordon Liddy this afternoon to discuss this article. I will make that correction as well, on the air.

Thank you.

John / Billybob

[Lancey Howard]

Copyright

The instructions are pretty clear - - not much to it. I usually submit sound recordings on CD, but some people prefer tape - - they say it's got a longer durability. When you register a sound recording, you are also registering everything that went into the song(s) including authorship.

[Liberal Classic]

Sorry, that's what I meant. Franklin's greatest invention. I would be hard-pressed to disagree with you about the transmission of alternating current being, if not the greatest, certainly one of the greatest inventions of all time. The domestication of electricity ranks right up there with the domestication of fire. I believe what really makes our civilization possible is electricity. Franklin played an important role in the domestication of electricity by demonstrating that lightning was electricity. Also, terms like positive charge and negative charge were coined by Franklin. Franklin was wrong about some stuff, of course, such as his description of electricity as fluid flow. Also, when he arbitrarily chose to assign current flow to the movement of positive charges. We now know today that it is negative charges that move, but that doesn't lessen Franklin's accomplishments. By long standing convention, current is still defined as the movement of positive charges.

[Graymatter]

Every now and then I see something on the net that's especially good---I can tell in a couple of paragraphs---and I read it aloud to the kid, joyfully and gratefully.

So I come to the end of my recitation and there's the author's name. John Armor---of course!

Who leaves more pearls on my cyberbeach than Congressman Billybob? Nobody! :)

[RightWhale]

Franklin's investment in the Ohio Company, and the subsequent creation of the modern property-owning corporation was vastly more important. This is the true basis of modern capital. Intellectual property contributes marginally to the main game.

[Congressman Billybob]

What a delightful comment. It only takes one post like yours, to get me going for another two weeks. Thank you very much.

John / Billybob

[Congressman Billybob]

I stand corrected. The idea of limited patents for a set period of time appears in the Statute of Anne, 1709. And Franklin would have been aware of this law, since it was litigated in the House of Lords, and upheld, just before Franklin made his first visit to London.

Still, the form of the actual clause that worked far better in the US than the Statute of Anne did in England, was devised by Franklin.

John / Billybob

[GVnana]

he would have a blog entitled “Poor Richard’s Almanack”

Come back!