Yes. And Edison was far richer at the time.
We have these fights today as well. The typical pattern is that there
are multiple valid patents, none being sufficient to build the item in
question, so the patent owners are in a quandary. The usual solution
is merger or a patent pool or the like.
Swann also recognised that in America the patent system is such that the
winner is usually the local guy with the deepest pockets. He was saved
the trouble of fighting there by a local getting Edisons patent
disallowed. Later after they were collaborating they needed to get
Edisons 1880 patent reinstated and so played up his contribution.
Avoiding litigation is a very good idea. I don't know if Swann's
patent was stronger, or simply strong enough, but the effect was the
same.
They didn't avoid litigation Edison sued Swann for infringement of his
patent in the UK and Swann crushed him. Then they decided to join forces
to exploit the technology whilst they still had a lead. Swann at the
time had the key valid patent and Edison had been defeated in patent
battles in both the UK (where he fought Swann and lost) and US (the
latter ruled invalid and struck down for prior art by Wallace).
Edison was forced to collaborate with Swann after his patent defeats.
He was good at that, and famous for it. Aided and abetted by the media
of the day.
Even more egregious was Newton's persecution of the fellow that
discovered the achromat lens. Newton had declared chromatic aberration
to be impossible to remedy (which is why he invented the Newtonian
Telescope), only to be refuted by this upstart, whom he destroyed.
Are you sure about that? I am a former astronomer and AFAIK the
mathematics to design achromats dates from long after Newtons death.
Dolland is usually credited with inventing the achromat and patenting it
- he won the Copley medal for it too in 1758 although Bass had made
similar things 20 years earlier to a design by Charles Moore Hall. The
earliest date quoted for Bass having made the first achromat is 1727 -
the same year that Newton died. Seems unlikely he did much persecuting.
There might have been some other guy who put together a serendipitous
crown and flint doublet or glass and water design before Newton died but
it seems a bit unlikely. Do you any names or dates for this?
The point here is that in science experiment always trumps theory so if
the guy did construct such an achromat all he had to do was show it to
the Royal Society which despite being Newton's plaything was still very
independent minded and would quickly see that it worked.
Eulers mathematics for predicting dispersion in optics wasn't done until
1747 and Newton had died twenty years earlier. It was testing Eulers
ideas that clearly conflicted with Newtons claims in Opticks that led
Dollond to the first achromatic lens design (as opposed to trial and
error combos of different optical components).
