This weblog is no longer being maintained. All information here has been ported to EclecticEchoes.com. This site (heupel.com/eclectic) remains only for archival purposes.
I know it’s been floating around for the better part of a month at various sites including Linux.org, and Free PC Tech but re-reading my friend Drew’s Linux Letter at Free PC Tech, I wanted to record it here on this site, as much as anything as a reminder and bookmark.
“I wrote and published a pamphlet, entitled “An Account of the new-invented Pennsylvania Fireplaces; wherein their Construction and Manner of Operation is particularly explained; their Advantages above every other Method of warming Rooms demonstrated; and all Objections that have been raised against the Use of them answered and obviated,” etc. This pamphlet had a good effect. Gov’r. Thomas was so pleas’d with the construction of this stove, as described in it, that he offered to give me a patent for the sole vending of them for a term of years; but I declin’d it from a principle which has ever weighed with me on such occasions, viz., That, as we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others, we should be glad of an opportunity to serve others by any invention of ours; and this we should do freely and generously.”
So at least one of the founding fathers, and arguably one of the most prolific in terms of copywritable and patentable contributions to our national heritage, was an Open Source “nut”!