Document Type

Article

Date

2018

Keywords

history of cartography; map projection; patents; invention; achievement motivation theory; John Parr Snyder

Language

English

Funder(s)

National Science Foundation

Funding ID

1,461,552

Disciplines

Geography | Other Geography | Physical and Environmental Geography

Description/Abstract

John Parr Snyder claimed that patenting a map projection was largely pointless because essentially similar transformations are readily available in the public domain. Map projection patents are rare, many patentees did not attempt to develop their patents, and none who did seems to have made much money. An explanation for their decision to patent lies in recognition that the patent system and peer-reviewed scientific journals are parallel literatures, either of which can satisfy an innovator’s need for attention, as suggested by achievement motivation theory. Moreover, no single factor can account for the invention of a map projection that was patented: not mathematical expertise; not work experience as a draftsman, map publisher, or professional geographer; and not prior experience with the patents system. But for all but one of the seventeen inventors for whom microdata research tools yielded basic details about their lives, at least one of these factors was present.

ISSN

1743-2774

Additional Information

Cartographic Journal is affiliated with the British Cartographic Society.

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Source

submission

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Rights

CCBYSA 4.0 International

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