The American innovation that made millions of others possible
From the lightbulb to the airplane, to medical breakthroughs and the internet age, the past 250 years have been defined by America's intrepid intellect.
The American innovations that catapulted the U.S. into a world superpower touch almost every facet of modern life.
But beyond the inventions themselves, there is one innovation that gave way to all the others: The United States patent process, said Eric S. Hintz, a historian at the Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History.
"It creates a system that's good for the individual and good for the country," Hintz said.
The U.S. Constitution established an intellectual property clause in 1788 and George Washington signed the first patent statute in 1790, establishing a system that would embody Democratic ideals.
"One of the things that's really interesting about the first patent law is that it says the patent shall go to the first and true inventor," Hintz says. "So long before women can vote, long before we've gotten rid of Jim Crow, women could get a patent, free Blacks could get a patent."