Over at mises.org, Michele Boldrin and David K. Levine challenge
the standard story of James Watt and the steam engine. Their
conclusion: In most histories, James Watt is a heroic inventor,
responsible for the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. The
facts suggest an alternative interpretation. Watt is one of many
clever inventors working to improve steam power in the second
half of the eighteenth century. After getting one step ahead of
the pack, he remained ahead not by superior innovation, but by
superior exploitation of the legal system.... [T]he granting of
the 1769 and especially of the 1775 patents likely delayed the
mass adoption of the steam engine: innovation was stifled until
his patents expired; and few steam engines were built during the
period of Watt's legal monopoly. From the number of innovations
that occurred immediately after the expiration of the patent, it
appears that Watt's competitors simply waited until then before
releasing their own innovations. This should not surprise us:
new s