Elihu Thomson quotes
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“If the question were, "What ought to be the next objective in science?" my answer would be the teaching of science to the young, so that when the whole population grew up there would be a far more general background of common sense, based on a knowledge of the real meaning of the scientific method of discovering truth.”
-- Elihu Thomson -
“Shall an invention be patented or donated to the public freely? I have known some well-meaning scientific men to look askance at the patenting of inventions, as if it were a rather selfish and ungracious act, essentially unworthy. The answer is very simple. Publish an invention freely, and it will almost surely die from lack of interest in its development. It will not be developed and the world will not be benefited. Patent it, and if valuable, it will be taken up and developed into a business.”
-- Elihu ThomsonSource : "Elihu Thomas lays down principles for inventors" by Thomas, E., Electrical World 75, (p. 1505), 1920.
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“The so-called ‘crank’ may be quite original in his ideas. … Invention, however, in the engineering sense involves originality; but not that alone, if the results are to be of value. There is imagination more or less fertile, but with it a knowledge of what has been done before, carried perhaps by the memory, together with a sense of the present or prospective needs in art or industry. Necessity is not always the mother of invention. It may be prevision.”
-- Elihu Thomson
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“There's something to be said in favor of working in isolation in the real world.”
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“When I was young, I admired clever people. Now that I am old, I admire kind people.”
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Source : A. A. Gill (2008). “Paper view: the best of the Sunday Times television reviews”, Orion Pub Co
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