Citation

Rossman J. Am. J. Sociol. 1931; 36(4): 625-633.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1931, University of Chicago Press)

DOI

10.1086/215481

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The patent records of the United States, England, and Germany indicate that war is a powerful stimulus to invention of war implements. Although there was a sharp drop in the total number of patent applications filed or patents granted during the World War, as well as during the Civil War in the United States, the total number of patent applications and patents for war inventions rose considerably above the pre-war level. This means that the civilian inventors were inventive to an extraordinary and unusual degree during the war in order to increase the number of war inventions, in spite of the total drop in the number of inventions and the depletion of the inventive population due to the military draft. Basic war inventions have been made chiefly by civilians. A military environment is not conducive to invention.