Re: Charles H. Duell's quote -Reply

Roy Zimmermann (roy.zimmermann@medtronic.com)
Thu, 29 Jul 1999 16:23:40 -0500

The quote is not inconsistent with several events that played large in
America at the time & since in the cultural history of that period. In
1892, the Census Bureau declared the American frontier gone, that is, an
average population density of more than 1 person/square mile throughout
the United States, had been reached. This became the basis in American
historiography for the "Frontier Thesis" by Frederick Jackson Turner.
Many contemporaries opined the loss of potential, the loss of greatness.
One can then imagine someone surmising that "everything had been
invented," albeit one cannot imagine a Patent Commissioner expressing
such a sentiment but as a straw man.

Roy Zimmermann
Patent Information Specialist
612-514-3304
roy.zimmermann@medtronic.com

>>> "Leland Ness" <lness@dgsys.com> 07/29/99 03:32pm >>>

I have wondered about this quote for several years, since first hearing
it.
It didn't sound right. The Victorians were great believers in
scientific
progress and I simply cannot imagine a US patent commissioner making
such a
statement.

A simple AltaVista search turned up no fewer than 980 references to that
quote. The few (10-20) I checked out did not contain any citation -- in
fact most of them appeared to be cut-and-paste collections of the same
set
of quotes recycled endlessly.

I strongly suspect the quote is apocryphal. Designed to produce a "Gee,
aren't we wonderful now" warm-and-fuzzy.

Just my 1.5 cents worth.

Lee Ness