Abstract
The late John Snyder once observed that patenting a map projection was pointless because a similar projection can almost certainly be found, royalty free, in the public domain. Of the 2551 projections in Snyder’s comprehensive Bibliography of Map Projections (1988), only 14 were patented. These 14 and 7 others identified through visual analysis and the US Patent Classification System largely confirm Snyder’s observation insofar as few of them were developed commercially and none produced significant income. Although several inventors obviously hoped to profit from their inventions, a more likely motive is the need for achievement: one of three basic needs (along with affiliation and power) that social psychologist David McClelland invoked to explain human behavior, in his 1961 classic The Achieving Society.
Keywords
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Mark Monmonier
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Monmonier, M. (2017). World Views. In: Patents and Cartographic Inventions. Palgrave Studies in the History of Science and Technology. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51040-8_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51040-8_5
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-51039-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-51040-8
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)