provided a link to www.JeffersonLeadership.com is included.
Category Archives: Intellectual pursuits
Thomas Jefferson on a new patent law
Be it enacted [by Congress] … that when any person shall have invented any new and useful art, machine or composition of matter or any new or useful improvement … and shall desire to have an exclusive property in the same, he shall pay … the sum of __ dollars … shall deposit a description of the said inventions in writing … shall accompany it with drawings and written references and also with exact models … After which it shall not be lawful for any person without the permission of the owner … to make or sell the thing so invented … for a term of 14 years.
… it shall be lawful for the said inventor to assign his title …
… after the expiration of any exclusive right to an invention, the public shall have … access to the descriptions, drawings, models and specimens … to be enabled to copy them …
A Bill to Promote the Progress of the Useful Arts, February 7, 1791
Padover’s The Complete Jefferson, P. 995-997
Patrick Lee’s Explanation
Jefferson originally opposed all patents, but administering an existing patent law fell to him as President Washington’s Secretary of State. He found it a difficult, hands-on, time-consuming obligation.
He drafted this bill to make patenting more of an administrative function and less of an examining one. An amended version wasn’t adopted until two years later, and it made the granting of patents almost automatic.
Jefferson thought inventions were primarily for the public good, not for the amassing of private gain: “Inventions then cannot, in nature, be a subject of property.” Still, he recognized the necessary incentive granted by a patent: “Society may give an exclusive right to the profits arising from them, as an encouragement to men to pursue ideas which may produce utility, but this may or may not be done according to the will and convenience of society … ”
(TJ to Isaac McPherson, Aug. 13, 1813, Padover’s The Complete Jefferson, P. 1011-1017)
Monticello’s web site features more information on the subject.
Jefferson was a noted inventor but never patented any of his creations. He might have fared better financially had he done so.
Bring Thomas Jefferson’s inventiveness to your audience!
Call Patrick Lee, 573-657-2739, to schedule a presentation.
Thomas Jefferson on establishing a public library
… every year there shall be paid out of the treasury the sum of two thousand pounds, to be laid out in such books and maps as may be proper to be preserved in a public library … at the town of Richmond.
The two houses of Assembly shall appoint three persons of learning and of attention to literary matters, to be visiters [Webster’s 7th Collegiate: “one that makes formal visits of inspection”] … to receive the annual sums before mentioned, and therewith to Procure such books and maps as aforesaid, and shall superintend the preservation thereof … Whensoever a keeper shall be found necessary they shall appoint such keeper, from time to time, at their will, on such annual salary (not exceeding one hundred pounds) as they shall think reasonable.
If during the time of war the importation of books and maps shall be hazardous … the visiters shall place the annual sums … in the treasury until fit occasions shall occur of employing them.
It shall not be lawful for the said keeper, or the visiters themselves, or any other person to remove any book or map out of the said library …but the same shall be made useful … within the said library, without fee or reward …
The visiters shall annually settle their accounts with the Auditors and leave with them the vouchers for the expenditure of the monies put into their hands.
From the Report of the Revisors, 1779
Taken from Padover’s The Complete Jefferson, P. 1054 – 1055
Patrick Lee’s Explanation
Jefferson spent the Revolutionary War years helping revise Virginia’s statutes. Promoting an educated citizenry was one of his passions. The entire statute was less than 400 words and fit on one page of paper. Its key provisions:
1. The Legislature shall fund a public library with 2,000 pounds per year. (A search of multiple web sites gave me no clear idea how many dollars that was in 1779 or an equivalent value in 2012.)
2. A board of three visiters (Jefferson’s spelling), learned and literary men, shall govern all aspects of the library.
3. A librarian may be appointed, whose maximum salary shall be no more than 5% of the annual budget.
4. During wartime, the annual appropriation may be escrowed until the money could be safely spent.
5. This was not a lending library. All books and maps were to be used on-site only, without expense to the user.
6. The visiters were responsible for an annual accounting of library funds.
Jefferson’s proposal was not adopted.
What other ideas does Thomas Jefferson have
for the benefit of your audience?
Invite him to speak and find out!
Call Patrick Lee, 573-657-2739
Thomas Jefferson on reading novels
Read any good books lately?
A great obstacle to good education is the ordinate passion prevalent for novels, and the time lost in that reading which should be instructively employed. When this poison infects the mind, it destroys its tone and revolts it against wholesome reading. Reason and fact, plain and unadorned, are rejected. Nothing can engage attention unless dressed in all the figments of fancy, and nothing so bedecked comes amiss. The result is a bloated imagination, sickly judgment, and disgust towards all the real businesses of life.
Thomas Jefferson to N. Burwell, 1818, 2390
Patrick Lee’s Explanation
On the surface, this one is bound to rankle readers of fiction. This is undoubtedly what Jefferson meant by “novels,” fiction rather than fact. He was all about facts, and had no room for fiction that did not inspire the reader to something greater. These novels would have been ones for entertainment only, with no redeeming characteristics.
This letter was written when Jefferson was 75. A more complete view comes from a letter he wrote in 1771, at age 28, to Robert Skipworth (2994): “…the entertainments of fiction are useful as well as pleasant … But wherein is its utility? … I answer everything is useful which contributes to fix in the principles and practices of virtue.”
Later in this excerpt, Jefferson praises a certain kind of fiction over nonfiction: “We are, therefore, wisely framed to be as warmly interested for a fictitious as for a real personage. The field of imagination is thus laid open to our use and lessons may be formed to illustrate and carry home to the heart every moral rule of life. Thus a lively and lasting sense of filial duty is more effectually impressed on the mind of a son or daughter by reading King Lear, than by all the dry volumes of ethics and divinity that ever were written. This is my idea of well written Romance, of Tragedy, Comedy and Epic poetry.”
Perhaps as an old man, Jefferson was dismayed with a preoccupation with fiction that only entertained and served no greater purpose.
Invite Thomas Jefferson to share his wisdom with your audience.
Call Patrick Lee, 573-657-2739
Thomas Jefferson on new words … & ideas
Do you speak with an American accent?
I am no friend therefore to what is called Purism, but a zealous one to the Neology which has introduced these two words without the authority of any dictionary. I consider the one as destroying the nerve and beauty of language, while the other improves both, and adds to its copiousness … the Edinburgh Reviewers, the ablest critics of the age, set their faces against the introduction of new words into the English language; they are particularly apprehensive that the writers of the United States will adulterate it. Certainly so great growing a population, spread over such an extent of country, with such a variety of climates, of productions, of arts, must enlarge their language, to make it answer its purpose of expressing all ideas, the new as well as the old. The new circumstances under which we are placed, call for new words, new phrases, and for the transfer of old words to new objects. An American dialect will, therefore, be formed; so will a West-Indian and Asiatic, as a Scotch and an Irish are already formed. But whether will these adulterate, or enrich the English language? Has the beautiful poetry of Burns, or his Scottish dialect, disfigured it?
Thomas Jefferson to John Waldo, 1813, 5828
Patrick Lee’s Explanation
Purism in this instance meant words had fixed meanings only. Neology is the use of new words and expressions or the use of current ones in new ways or with new meanings. Jefferson encouraged new ideas, knowledge, inventions, interpretations … and words … as healthy for a growing and enlightened people. Failure to adapt and grow were signs of a stagnant society.
He goes on in this passage to ask whether noted classical Greek writers disfigured or beautified their language with their dialects. He answered firmly for beauty and its enriching influence.
In architecture, Jefferson was partial to standards established over centuries of use and acceptance. Even so, the classic style had to be adapted to modern usage. Monticello is a good example … the best from the past, he might have thought, made even better by rational improvements dictated by the present. Language was no different.
I don’t know what “two words” Jefferson meant. If you’d like to figure it out for yourself, here’s the full text. Good luck, especially with the Latin preceding this excerpt.
Thomas Jefferson on mathematics in old age
Quick! What’s the square root of 169, divided by 52, times 4, minus 1, plus 34?*
Having to conduct my grandson through his course of mathematics, I have resumed that study with great avidity. It was ever my favorite one. We have no theories there, no uncertainties remain on the mind; all is demonstration and satisfaction. I have forgotten much, and recover it with more difficulty than when in the vigor of my mind I originally acquired it.
Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Rush, 1811, 5141
Patrick Lee’s Explanation
Jefferson liked facts, things he could see, hear, prove, comprehend. He had little interest in what couldn’t be proved; it would be a waste of time to study it. He had even less interest in the fanciful, since it was beyond the realm of the rational mind.
Whether you love mathematics or hate it, the field in Jefferson’s time was based solely on facts and certainties. That’s why he enjoyed it so, because the conclusions weren’t left to someone’s opinion or imagination. Everyone had to come to the same conclusion.
As noted in a previous post on math skills, Jefferson found math a much more challenging field at age 68 than when he was a teenager.
This letter’s recipient was a long-time friend, Philadelphia physician, and fellow signer of the Declaration of Independence. It was Rush who engineered the reconciliation of Jefferson and John Adams, whose personal friendship of the 1770s and 80s was destroyed because of their political differences.
The grandson would be 19-year-old Thomas Jefferson Randolph, his eldest daughter’s first son.
*33, the age Jefferson was when he wrote the Declaration of Independence,
Thomas Jefferson on Jefferson’s mind, Part 1
Need a chronometer, do-it-yourself style?
Monsieur Renaudin’s invention for determining the true time of the musical movements, Largo, Adagio, &c. … has been examined by the [Paris] Academy of Music, who are so well satisfied of its utility, that they have ordered all music which shall be printed here, in future, to have the movements numbered in correspondence with this plexi-chronometer. … The instrument is useful, but still it may be greatly simplified. I got him to make me one, and having fixed a pendulum vibrating seconds, I tried by that the vibrations of his pendulum, according to the several movements. I find the pendulum regulated to
Largo vibrates 52 times in a minute
Adagio vibrates 60 times in a minute
Andante vibrates 70 times in a minute
Allegro vibrates 95 times in a minute
Presto vibrates 135 times in a minute
Every one, therefore, may make a chronometer adapted to his instrument. For a harpsichord, the following occurs to me: In the wall of your chamber, over the instrument, drive five little brads, as 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, in the following manner. Take a string with a bob to it, of such length, as that hung on No. 1, it shall vibrate fifty-two times in a minute. Then proceed by trial to drive number No. 2, at such a distance, that drawing the loop of the string to that, the part remaining between 1 and the bob, shall vibrate sixty times in a minute. Fix the third for seventy vibrations, &c.; the chord always hanging over No. 1, as the centre of vibration. A person, playing on the violin, may fix this on his music stand. A pendulum, thrown into vibration, will continue in motion long enough to give you the time of your piece.
To Francis Hopkinson, 1786, 5593
Patrick Lee’s Explanation
I have none. I can’t explain it to you if I don’t understand it myself. Unless you are a musician, chances are you don’t understand it, either. So, why is it here?
To date, all the posts have been to illuminate various aspects of Jefferson’s thinking and to bring those to you in some relevant and understandable form.
This post is completely different. Jefferson could write or converse knowledgeably on practically any subject. This post is to illustrate that point. He is giving minute directions on how to modify and simplify a musical chronometer. Although the original design was adopted by the prestigious Paris Academy of Music, Jefferson had a better idea.
Did his revision work? I have no idea.
If you have a “Reader’s Digest” explanation, I invite you to share it with me and my readers!
Invite Thomas Jefferson to speak to your audience, and you’ll hear nothing like this.
Promise!
Call Patrick Lee, 573-657-2739
Thomas Jefferson on using a secret code
Got secrets?
I send you a cipher [a coding device] to be used between us, which will give you some trouble to understand, but, once understood, is the easiest to use, the most undecipherable, and varied by a new key with the greatest facility of any I have ever known … But why a cipher between us…? … there may be matters merely personal to ourselves, and which require the cover of a cipher more than those of any other character. This last purpose and others, which we cannot foresee, may render it convenient and advantageous to have at hand a mask for whatever may need it.
Thomas Jefferson to Robert R. Livingston, 1802, 1275
Patrick Lee’s Explanation
In a portion of this letter not included here, Jefferson explains how the coding device worked. That explanation might not be obscure to some readers, but it is to me! No doubt, Jefferson loved creating things like this, not only for their practical application but for the intellectual challenge.
Jefferson did not trust the postal carriers to safeguard the confidentiality of his written correspondence. He would not send sensitive material through the post. He often chose to have his correspondence hand delivered by a trusted friend. A cipher would have protected him in these instances.
To what degree Jefferson actually used coded messages I cannot say. He did send these instructions with Meriwether Lewis, should he need to send a secret message while on his exploration of Louisiana. Lewis did not use it.
How “crackable” Jefferson’s code was is also debatable. He thought it secure.
For an delightful article about a Jefferson-era cipher (and practical joke!) that eluded him and everyone else until 2009, read this article from the Wall Street Journal, by Rachel Emma Silverman, “Two Centuries On, a Cryptologist Cracks a Presidential Code,”http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124648494429082661.html
Thomas Jefferson on banning books
How do you regard “blasphemy”?
I am mortified to be told that, in the United States of America, the sale of a book can become a subject of inquiry, and of criminal inquiry too, as an offence against religion; that a question like this can be carried before the civil magistrate. Is this then our freedom of religion? And are we to have a censor whose imprimatur shall say what books may be sold, and what we may buy? And who is thus to dogmatize religious opinions for our citizens? Whose foot is to be the measure to which ours are all to be cut or stretched? It is an insult to our citizens to question whether they are rational beings or not, and blasphemy against religion to suppose it cannot stand the test of truth and reason. If M. de Becourt’s book be false in its facts, disprove them; if false in its reasoning, refute it. But, for God’s sake, let us freely hear both sides, if we choose.
Thomas Jefferson to M. Dufief, 1814. 908
Patrick Lee’s Explanation
This book riled certain theological feathers, and some thought it should be banned. Obviously, Jefferson thought otherwise. Not only was he opposed to banning the book, he was opposed to prohibiting the views expressed therein.A full account of this episode and the text of Jefferson’s entire letter can be found at http://www.monticello.org/site/blog-and-community/posts/really-mortified.
Thomas Jefferson on math skills
Are you now as sharp mentally as you were years ago?
When I was young, mathematics was the passion of my life. The same passion has returned upon me [at age 70], but with unequal powers. Processes which I then read off with the facility of common discourse, now cost me labor, time, and slow investigation.
Thomas Jefferson to William Duane, 1812, 193
Patrick Lee’s Explanation
Three years retired from the Presidency, Jefferson now had time for both scholarly and leisurely pursuits. He was able to take up interests that he had to lay aside decades before. But he found his brain didn’t work nearly so well at 70 as it did when he was 20!
