What Do The Model-T And The Tesla Have In Common?

Henry Ford did a lot for the automobile in America. What everyone knows is that he figured out how to improve manufacturing efficiency so much that the auto was transformed from a toy for the rich into an item that ordinary people could afford.

But very few people know that Ford had to fight against a cartel to be allowed to sell his vehicles. In this 2001 article published in The Freeman, “How Henry Ford Zapped a Licensing Monopoly,” Melvin Barger goes into the fascinating history of Ford’s legal battle against the Association of Licensed Automobile Manufacturers (ALAM).

In 1895, an inventor named George Selden had received a patent for a gasoline powered automobile. That patent was later acquired by ALAM, which then said to everyone who wanted to sell a gasoline powered car, “You must pay us royalties for the privilege of selling such vehicles and if you sell without our license, we’ll take you to court for patent infringement.”

Ford had developed his auto without any knowledge of Selden’s patent and saw no reason why he shouldn’t be free to make and sell cars without paying ALAM for the right to do so.

Substitute Elon Musk for Henry Ford and Tesla for Model-T and state dealer regulation for an extortionate patent scheme, but the stories are largely the same. ALAM didn’t want competition that might break up its cartel and neither does the established auto dealer system want innovative marketing upsetting its business.

“oil and gas are not derived from fossils... we have entire planets surfaces covered with seas of hydrocarbons ...”

Not really, we have found seas of methane, yes, but not seas of oil, and we do not know how much of the NG on earth is derived from fossils and how much might be abiotic in origin. The fact that natural gas is often found in close proximity to oil and coal deposits is certainly strong evidence that it can’t all be abiotic.

It is axiomatic that people who file patents want them applied as broadly as possible, but it is the duty of the government to restrict patents to the scope that it is actually new and innovative. It is not in the interest of the nation to give away unearned monopolies.

I knew you were a big government weenie liberal. You just proved it.

Glenn Curtis... vs the Wright Brothers... very similar situation. Innovator vs a patent holder willing to sue rather than developing an industry. . . the wright’s were wrong and died bitter.

I saw a C-Span presentation by the author of a book about pioneering aviators.
Birdmen: The Wright Brothers, Glenn Curtiss, and the Battle to Control the Skies Paperback – April 21, 2015 by Lawrence Goldstone
is probably the book. Interesting point was, that the Wright brothers were after bigger game than “just” a 17 year patent. At the time, there was a “super patent” (not the term used at the time) concept which had arisen in the courts, not the Congress - and the Wright brothers wanted to really control powered flight, forever. It was for that reason that they actually were secretive about their successful first flight. To the point that when Europeans started to get in the game, the Wright brothers adduced only the evidence of an article by a reporter who had found out about the flight after the fact. It was, by our modern standards, weird.
As you say, Curtis was in the right - in the sense that nothing of the Wright’s techniques remain in modern practice. Altho I do believe they invented the coefficient of lift and the coefficient of drag . . .
But Curtis developed what became the standard aircraft layout and control system.

The Wrights tried and actually held up aviation development for several years... if it were not for the Atlantic ocean and WWI it would have gone on for decades. The Wrights felt they owned all of aviation via courts and patents..

The true irony was the court settlement in 1918.. Curtis-Wright Corp.. not Wright-Curtiss... because by 1917 the Wrights had far been eclipsed in technological advances by Curtis and his crew...Orville got over it.. eventually.. Wilbur died bitter. Sad given they really did invent basic aeronautical engineering and propeller engineering. Telling of the wrights was how Charles Taylor was treated by the Brothers.. read up on that.. tells a lot about the black heart the Wrights had.. Taylor laid out on his own the basics of the modern aircraft engine.. the wrights did zero to help or credit Mr. Taylor.

Must have been something for Orville to see jets flying in 1948, let alone Constellations and DC-4’s...

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