Clessie Cummins was one of those individuals motivated by patents to invent. His very first patent was #1,194,146, issued on 08 August 1916. There are several interesting things about this invention and the patent.

One of the things noted in the Columbus Republican by visiting motor boat men from New York inspecting Clessie's new invention is that one of the men said, "Why didn't those bone heads over east think of that long ago?" (Reported in "The Diesel Odyssey of Clessie Cummins," page 53)

Gee, why indeed? Anti-patent people seem to think that seeking the magical dollar will drive companies to "innovate" (which can be described as finding a shiny box for an old mechanism), yet, they failed to "innovate" the stuffing box invented by Clessie. Why did they fail to "innovate" the stuffing box? Let us refresh our knowledge. By the time Clessie invented the stuffing box, the ship propeller had existed for about 92 years. In 92 years motor boat manufacturers had not only failed to "innovate" the stuffing box, but they failed to invent the stuffing box. Certainly the technology for the stuffing box existed for all the time the propeller existed, and yet innovation failed to arrive at a solution that invention did.

Anti-patent people also seem to think that patents are used to "block" innovation. The question is how "blocking" can occur when an invention does not exist? The stuffing box could have been "innovated" any time between 1827, when the propeller was invented, and 1919, when Clessie patented the stuffing box. There was no blocking of "innovation." Why? Because there was no invention to "innovate." Now, after Clessie invented the stuffing box, further "innovation" was "blocked" while the patent was in force. However, who cares? Had Clessie not invented the stuffing box, how many more years would it have taken for someone to have the flash of genius or inspiration (the idea occurred to Clessie while dealing with issues during a river trip) to come up with the invention? If you want to talk about "blocking innovation," how about not having an invention to innovate?

Anti-patent people also seem to think inventors are like the proverbial dog in the manger. If they cannot make money from royalties, then no one can. Yet, Clessie seemed quite interested in making and selling his invention, even creating stationery touting his invention. For reasons now lost in history, Clessie was unable to produce his invention, and he sold the rights to his patents to someone who did produce the stuffing box, which became a huge success in the market place. That is invention!

Of course, once Clessie shared his invention with the rest of the world because of the bargain patents make with inventors, after expiration of the patent the rest of the world was able to add further inventions (and those who could not invent could always "innovate") to Clessie's inventions.

Had patents not existed, it is quite possible and perhaps even likely that Clessie would not have been motivated to sell his invention and it would have taken some other flash of inspiration for someone else to invent the stuffing box. Hard to tell how many more decades that would have taken. Fortunately, the value of patent rights gave the world a marvelous invention much faster than it otherwise would have and society benefited.

I heard some great news today. Ford Global announced that their EcoBoost engine is contributing 125 patents and applications to the company. Ford has always had a very solid patent portfolio, focusing on implementation and value and then deciding whether their implementation is worthy of a patent. I guess you can consider Ford's innovation is driving their patenting instead of the other way around, which is perfectly fine.

In any case, Ford continues to produce some of the highest quality vehicles in the world and is one of the few American companies that is not only competitive with foreign manufacturers, but is frequently better than foreign manufacturers.

Kind of a long day today. Had an all-day meeting. Tonight I have a few things I need to get done, including a bit of rest.

I have been kind of lax with my Amazon reviews lately. Partially because I have not been reading/listening/reading as much as I have been. Still, I am keeping to my goal of 20 reviews minimum per month. Right now I am reading a Hardy Boys book, but I also have some new CDs to listen to and review.

I reviewed a CD from Coldplay, "Parachutes." Pretty good. Very mellow. If you like mellow pop or alternative, this CD could do it for you.

I am off to the exciting world of cleaning a hamster cage. I call the hamster the Rat. Same family, and he bites sometimes. Little snot is cute and eats out of my hand, but he also sometimes eats my hand. I guess instead of the exciting world of blogging, I better go do what I need to do.

Later!

I got an e-mail from my brother. He and his family made it to Korea okay. More on that in a later post.

Finished two reviews yesterday. One was for Santana's 1998 "Best of" release. Great album. The other was for a movie called "Prehistoric Women." I think I am getting tired of watching crappy science fiction movies, though that one and the one I watched before, "Wild Women of Wongo," were only marginal science fiction. More like fantasy.

I am continuing to work my way through the last 50 pages of "Fine Dining Madness" by John Galloway.

I am tired today, so I am going to finish for now.

Wow, I had not realized it had been so long since I had written anything in this blog. I kept thinking that I should write something everyday, and now months have gone by.

I have been reviewing very regularly on Amazon.com. How about 109 reviews since 1 January 2006? I have recently received a number of positive comments regarding my reviews, and a couple more books to review. Right now I am reading "Fine Dining Madness" by John Galloway in preparation for a review. Do not let the title deceive you; this book is excellent. It is funny and poignant and contains a lot of wonderful material about working the restaurant business. The entire book is a series of anecdotes about different people, and I must admit this book has sucked me in. I will be giving it five stars, with about another 70 or 80 pages to read.

My brother is headed off to South Korea for a year with his family. That kind of sucks, especially since our father is on oxygen. We keep hoping he will live forever, but I guess that has yet to happen, at least in a physical form. I think turning 50 has been a bit of a reminder of my own mortality. I know I have been thinking about retirement a lot more, though I am unsure if and when I will be able to retire or will want to retire.

My daughter left college (again). She has decided to enter the world of work. The bad news is that I think she has more potential than being a teller in a bank, though the possibilities are huge given that she does have an associate's degree. Also, her benefits are better than mine!!!

Great news! My son overcame an important hurdle to be able to progress in his career as a translator. All he has to do now is finish the last few months of school and he will be during his real job in the Air Force. Good luck to him!

Hopefully I will do better at writing posts than once every three months.

I reviewed Annie Lennox's CD "Medusa" last night. All of the songs are covers. Some of the interpretations are outstanding, many are very good, and a few are a little weak. In general, it is a CD to own if you like good pop or Annie Lennox.

Now I'm listening to Paul McCartney's new CD, "Chaos and Creation in the Backyard." I don't know when I'll have a chance to review it though.

I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving. Now is a good time to forget the woes of the last year and focus only on the positive things that happened. So all you glass half empty kind of people cheer up and remember that there are a lot of good things that happen.

I forgot to mention that the book that I read and reviewed about pedophilia, "To Protect the Innocent" by Mark Locke Mills, was a decent read. If you have ever had strong feelings about pedophilia (I think laws are woefully inadequate when dealing with pedophiles) then you may find this book interesting. Amazon has the book, and the author has a web site (www.toprotecttheinnocent.com). The book is a thriller and I reviewed it as such.

I was thinking it had been a while since I had written a post. I did not realize that it had been nearly a month. A lot has happened and a little has happened. I have been really busy at work.

I have been listening to Annie Lennox's CD "Medusa" over and over. She really hit with that CD. I am up to 785 reviews and more than 5500 positive votes. In spite of those numbers I keep treading water in the 160 range for ranking. I was up to 162 for a little while, but have slowly dropped back to 167. I will just writing reviews and see what happens.

I am currently reading an old issue of "Realms of Fantasy." I am also going to watch Disney's "Blank Check" for an upcoming review. I am also going to review "Medusa" soon, along with Paul McCartney's new CD. There is more going on. Perhaps I will write again more soon.