Hear Colonel Reid, so well entitled to speak:—
“Supposing the law were so modified as to make the acquisition of a Patent easy and simple, and to provide for the publication at the earliest possible period, do not you think there would be more inducement to the disclosure of the secret under such a system than if all privileges of the kind were abolished?—I am inclined to think that the advance in improvement in all our arts would be greater by leaving them entirely unshackled.”
Sir W. Cubitt was asked—
“Have you ever been an inventor yourself?—Yes, of many things; but a patented inventor of but one.
“You have taken out a Patent?—I took out a Patent in the year 1807.
“Has your attention been at all directed to the advantages or disadvantages of the present system?—Yes, it has been drawn to the subject very frequently indeed; but the more it was drawn to it, and the more I saw of it, the less I approved of it; but with that disapproval I could not satisfy myself how to devise anything much better; whether to make alterations, or whether to do away with Patents altogether would be best, I can hardly determine.
“Will you state, generally, your objections to the present system?—The objections to the present system are the very advanced state of scientific and practical knowledge, which renders it difficult to secure anything. The principles of mechanism being very well known and very well understood, inventions involving exactly the same principle and to effect the same object may be practically and apparently so different, that Patents may be taken out for what is only a difference in form, intended to produce the same effect, without there being any difference in principle.”
So Sir W. Armstrong:—
“My firm conviction is, that if there was no artificial reward for invention you would have just as much as at present.”
Mr. Grove perhaps goes at least part of the way:—