Summarized -- Has U.S. lost inventive edge?

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/13/business/yourmoney/13invent.html


According to the National Inventors Hall of Fame, an organization in  
Akron, Ohio, that counts Mr. West among its inductees, about 90  
percent of all microphones used today in devices like cellphones,  
acoustic equipment and toys derive from electronic transducers that  
he helped to develop in the early 1960's.

Inventors have always held a special place in American history and  
business lore, embodying innovation and economic progress in a  
country that has long prized individual creativity and the power of  
great ideas.

..."The scientific and technical building blocks of our economic  
leadership are eroding at a time when many other nations are  
gathering strength," the National Academy of Sciences observed in a  
report released last month.  "Although many people assume that the  
United States will always be a world leader in science and  
technology, this may not continue to be the case inasmuch as great  
minds and ideas exist throughout the world.

...To spur American innovation, it recommends enhanced math and  
science education in grade school and high school, a more hospitable  
environment for scientific research and training at the college and  
graduate levels, an increase in federal funds for basic scientific  
research and a mix of tax incentives and other measures to foster  
high-paying jobs in groundbreaking industries.

...Mr. West's personal journey has involved overcoming school  
segregation and racism, a reading disability and the downsizing of  
Bell Labs, the legendary New Jersey research center where he once  
worked, and he fantasizes about a day when children hold inventors  
and scientists in higher esteem than hip-hop stars and professional  
athletes.

...Benjamin Franklin, his kite lofted into the sky to coax  
electricity from the clouds, is the totemic American inventor whose  
financial acumen gave him time to ponder and then spout a series of  
inventions that included a stove, catheter, glass harmonica, bifocals  
and, of course, the lightning rod - which he declined to patent so it  
would be freely available to the public.

...In 1932, a year after Edison died, corporations secured more  
patents than individuals for the first time, and a year later the  
Census Bureau eliminated "inventor" as a job class, according to  
Technology Review, a trade publication.

...While tipping their hats to the scores of breakthroughs that have  
emerged from corporate labs, inventors also say they are concerned  
that bottom-line pressures at many companies may cause pure research  
to be eclipsed by innovation tied to rapid commercialization -  
leading to routine refinements of existing products rather than to  
breathtaking advances.

...Despite those tussles, Mr. Stross says he believes that recent  
technological advancements have helped to move innovation out of the  
corporate sphere and to "give the lone inventor access to inexpensive  
tools and resources to once again be master of one's own lab."

...For Mr. West, whose career has spanned stretches in creative  
havens like Bell Labs, inventing has meant brainstorming sessions  
with fellow tinkerers and long hours walking the corridors of his own  
mind.

...Ilene Busch-Vishniac, a Johns Hopkins professor and inventor who  
has collaborated with Mr. West for more than two decades, most  
recently on acoustical research, called him the quintessential explorer.

...He and Ms. Busch-Vishniac are currently analyzing solutions to  
noise problems in hospitals, and they are mentoring two local high  
school students and a Johns Hopkins graduate student who have joined  
their team as young inventors.

...Nathan Myhrvold, part of Microsoft's early brain trust and the  
former head of its heavily endowed research arm, founded Intellectual  
Ventures, a fund that he says spends "millions of dollars" annually  
to support individual inventors in long-term projects.

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