OxTalks will soon move to the new Halo platform and will become 'Oxford Events.' There will be a need for an OxTalks freeze. This was previously planned for Friday 14th November – a new date will be shared as soon as it is available (full details will be available on the Staff Gateway).
In the meantime, the OxTalks site will remain active and events will continue to be published.
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From 1919 to 1932 in Britain, the Royal Commission on Awards to Inventors compensated private inventors of valuable WWI technologies. This paper asks what characteristics of invention mattered for the Commission’s judgments on merit. I find that they understood invention as a problem-solving process comprising both theoretical and empirical work –describing the ideal solution using known theorems, building a physical imitation by updating known devices, then iterating the prototype based on user feedback. Meritorious inventors presented either a novel solution or means of implementation; they also supervised iteration through to deployment. While partially similar to existing ideas about “inventor-entrepreneurs”, the Commission’s thought displays original insights into the nature of novelty, science versus technology, and the challenge of inventing for militaries. After reviewing the multi-disciplinary literature on invention, I elaborate the Commission’s philosophy and clarify its key features using three example rulings: dazzle camouflage, TNT manufacture, and fire control systems.
