James Watt Did Not Want Information to Be Free By Clifford D. Conner What was that most powerful idea that gave rise to the Industrial Revolution? The idea of latent heat? Thermodynamics? Steam power? No, it was the idea that an inventor’s innovations could be considered property deserving the protection of law that provided the incentive—the “fuel of interest”—for inventors to invent, and which thereby set into motion the “miracle of sustainable innovation” that began with the Industrial Revolution and […]

Categories: Review • Tags: England, Industrial Revolution, intellectual property, invention