Encouraging Innovation in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries: The Society of Arts and Patents, 1754-1904

The Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce was founded in 1754 with the object of stimulating innovation by offering awards, usually monetary. Patents had, of course, the same objective but at the time were not much favoured. From small beginnings the Society's list of subjects for which awards were offered grew until in its annual "Premium Lists" it ran into many hundreds. In order to fulfill its objectives the Society set up specialist committees, such as those of Chemistry, Manufactures and Mechanics. These committees determined subjects for reward, tested the merits of objects submitted for consideration and had the major say in the amount of each award offered and granted. Though these tasks were voluntary, time-consuming and often tedious, the committees attracted able members and became meeting grounds for people of like minds ready to share information and ideas. The Committee of Mechanics, for example, was dominated during the second half of the eighteenth century by civil engineers and during the first half of the nineteenth century by mechanical engineers. However, by the end of the eighteenth century interest in the Society's scheme was on the wane and patents (though still comparatively few) were becoming more numerous. By the 1830s the Society was near extinction; the patent system, on the other hand, was being used more extensively, although its archaic, slow and expensive procedures desperately needed reform. A new lease of life was injected into the Society, however, in the 1840s, strongly supported by people with patent interests-engineers, chemists, patent agents and patent lawyers. In consequence, the rescusitated Society was able to provide such input to the patent reform movement that the 1852 Patent Law Amendment Act was referred to by some as the "Society of Arts" Act. During the remainder of the nineteenth century, the Society went from strength to strength and remained at the centre of discussions on further improvements (still much needed) in patent law and procedures.

Table of Contents:
9 Chapters, appx 100pp, the headings are quotes that relate to but do not describe the subject matter. Appx 100 pp of notes, references and relevant article reprints.

About the Author :
James Harrison was an Examiner at the U.K. Patent Office for approximately thirty-five years after qualifying as a chartered textile technogist and following ten years' industrial experience. He has been a member of the Royal Society of Arts for more than fifty years, many as a Fellow. He has been an active member of the RSA Historical Studies Groups for many years, and is a founder member for the William Shipley Group for RSA History (to where proceeds from the sale of this book will be donated). James Harrison has also been a member of the Newcomen Society for the Study of History of Engineering for 50 years.