In what is at times both a dry and a fascinating investigation into the transformative effect steam power had upon the industrial revolution and the future of the Western world, Mr. Rosen ambitiously amalgamates the mechanics of the steam engine with the economics of invention to create a coherent explanation for the rise of Western power and the making of the modern world.
What began with Thomas Newcomen culminated in James Watt who, when he finally perfected his prototype steam engine, could not have imagined how his invention would ignite a revolution and change a world forever. While Mr. Rosen explores the various versions of Watt's design, he argues that the fact that Watt profited off the steam engine was a critical catalyst for the industrial revolution. It convinced other inventors that there was money to be made in invention, that it wasn't simply a playground for the independently wealthy as it had been for centuries prior. To make this case, Mr. Rosen draws into his tale Matthew Boulton, a wealthy businessman who capitalized Watt's experiments after Watt's partner defaulted on a debt to Boulton and turned over his share in the invention to the magnate. Boulton, a believer in the engine's transformative powers, lobbied hard for the British parliament to update its patent laws to protect the financial rights of inventors. Parliament agreed and, in doing so, took the final step into the industrial revolution for, now, with steam to power everything from naval ships to coal extraction, anything was possible.
Though it's clear that Mr. Rosen set out to write a biography of the steam engine, his contention that patents were a key factor in the rise of the modern world ends up philosophically dominating his book. This is to the good. Otherwise, this work would be little more than a series of tedious and lengthy descriptions of the engine's evolution which, nonetheless, burden it with fatiguing detail. If the argument for patents is its greatest virtue and the steam engine its most annoying sin, then Mr. Rosen's portraits of the lives and aims of the inventors and their investors elevates the subject from the purely academic to the powerfully universal. I side with those like Michael Heller who argue that patents now harm as much as help invention, but Mr. Rosen's case leaves little doubt that, without such financial protections to set fuse to the industrial revolution, we may still be living in a pre-electronic world. In this way, patents may be like unions, necessities for establishing a fair balance between the rights of interested parties, but burdens when those balances are established. In other words, their usefulness may diminish with the advancement of society.
Overly technical, but thoroughly argued. And I loved the scale of the work which stops just short of being overly ambitious. (3/5 Stars)
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