2018/07/10 by Richard de Grijs, de Grijs, Richard
Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #History and Philosophy of Physics (physics.hist-ph) #physics.hist-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1807.03489
13 pages, one figure; originally submitted to the HOPOS "invisible technician" competition
arxiv created 2018/07/10 · arxiv updated 2018/07/11
The Scientific Revolution sweeping through seventeenth-century Europe led to unprecedented intellectual and scientific insights and high-profile technological developments. Combined with a significant worldwide increase in naval commerce, solving the intractable "longitude problem" became an ever more urgent requirement for the continent's main sea-faring nations. Christiaan Huygens, one of the brightest contemporary natural philosophers, established a fruitful professional collaboration with the Parisian master clockmaker Isaac Thuret. Their joint efforts eventually led to the construction of the first accurate, spring-driven watches. Despite clear evidence of Thuret's intellectual contributions, but in the absence of a robust intellectual property rights framework, Huygens insisted on claiming the invention's sole ownership. Thuret, the celebrated craftsman who had contributed crucial advice to realize the novel watch design, was thus forever--and wholly undeservedly--marked as the "invisible technician."