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Physics Patents & Politics A Biography of Charles Grafton Page by R Post w/DJ
Physics Patents & Politics A Biography of Charles Grafton Page by Robert Charles Post
Hard Cover w/ dust jacket
227 pages
Copyright 1976
CONTENTS
Prologue
Franklin, Henry, and Page1
Chapter One
Career of Science7
Chapter Two
Washington37
Chapter Three
America's Parthenon48
Chapter Four
Statesmen, Promoters, Professors, and Scientific Gentlemen60
Chapter Five
To Harness the Forces of Nature84
Chapter Six
What Then is This Scientific America108
Chapter Seven
Dignity of Patents133
Chapter Eight
Liberalization142
Chapter Nine
An Outrage on the Public 162
Epilogue
From the Era of Good Feelings to the Tragic Era184
References188
Bibliography 206
Platesfollowing page 214
Index215
DUST JACKET INTRODUCTION
This is the first full biography of a remarkable 19th-century American, famous in his own time but later forgotten. Born in Salem in 1812, Charles Grafton Page attended Harvard College and Medical School, and then in 1838 he moved to Fairfax County, Virginia, across the Potomac from Washington City. He spent the rest of his life either in the capital or close by, becoming an intimate of such diverse celebrities as Daniel Webster, Joseph Henry, and Samuel F.B. Morse.
In the course of those 30 years, Page's aspirations changed materially, as did his public image. What tended to stand out were politically-tinged controversies from midcentury and after in which he appeared either injudicious or avaricious. Yet, during the late 1830s and 1840s, Page devoted himself largely to unraveling the mysteries of electromagnetism, and there is an abundance of evidence suggesting that as an experimentalist he was considered on a par with Joseph Henry.
Unlike Henry, however, as he grew older his pursuits tended to tarnish his reputation: He invested an extravagant sum of public money in a foredoomed effort to develop an electric locomotive powered by batteries. He persuaded Congress to pass a special act permitting him to patent the induction coil, which, though ostensibly honorific, was later exploited for a substantial cash gain. And, most detrimental to his standing among professional scientists, he became centrally involved in the agitation to "liberalize" patent examinations, a movement whose rhetoric often carried strong overtones of anti-intellectualism. Here, the irony is heavy, for Page had been the first eminent scientist hired as a patent examiner, and altogether he served in that capacity for seventeen years, longer than any contemporary.
Dr. Post suggests that in and of himself Page was significant as a prolific and versatile experimentalist, as an effective reformer and adept promoter, and as an exemplar of the fate that awaited even a one-time insider who failed to heed the rules of etiquette set forth by the scientific establishment. Beyond that, he treats Page as a focal-point for studying the philosophy and administration of the American patent system, the related issue of democracy versus privilege in federal involvement with science and technology, and the complex interplay between scientists, inventors, politicians, and bureaucrats in mid-19th-century Washington. Finally, Post sees in Page's shifting perspective a vivid confirmation of Jaspers observation that "Man is not what he is simply once and for all, but is a process."
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