John Steinbeck on patents
09-September-2006
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Tonia emails: "Hi Graham
That John Steinbeck that you read on your podcast, Brilliant. Do you have the text for that in a digital form?"
Here you go, Tonia. Its on pages 52-53 of the Penguin edition of East of Eden.
"Meanwhile Samuel got no richer. He developed a very bad patent habit, a disease many men suffer from. He invented a part of a threshing machine, better, cheaper, and more efficient than any in existence. The patent attorney ate up his little profit for the year. Samuel sent his models to a manufacturer, who promptly rejected the pans and used the method. The next few years were kept lean by the suing, and the drain stopped only when he lost the suit. It was his first sharp experience with the rule that without money you cannot fight money. But he had caught the patent fever, and year after year the money made by threshing and by smithing was drained off in patents. The Hamilton children went barefoot, and their overalls were patched and food was sometimes scarce, to pay for the crisp blueprints with cogs and planes and elevations."
Tonia also points me to the brilliant Cast on - podcast for knitters site. Its very cool - check it out.
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