ACICIRIEl!ll!I AU.. CORRIESPONCllENCE TO THE .cTOR REF ID:AlOSli 

WAR DEPARTMENT 

AIRCRAFT RADIO LABORATORY 

Wrl&"ht Field 8-24-86-51\l 

JOM:ee 

WRIGHT FIELD, DAYTON, OHIO 

Mr. w. F. Friedman. 

Offioe of the Chief Signal Officer, 

Washington. D. c. 

Dear Billy: 

September 16. 1936 

I have your letter or September 9. 1936. and want to 

reassure you about the matter of the patent applioation. I wrote 

Col. Bender about the matter stating that it wasn't quite olear to 

me. after our talk at your house about the patent, why you were 

proposing to file an applioation in the names of both of us. and I 

indioated that I believed I should drop out of the pioture, but that 

I realized that what probably happened was that you tound that due 

to the taot that we had jointly set down in writing our ideas on the 

radio application of your invention. you found yourself in the 

position where you couldn't go ahead on your own hook since this 

paper showed that legally some otper person was involved. I rather 

felt that you might have taken the matter up with me before proceeding. 

but I left the matter up to the Chief Signal Officer as to whether or 

not I should prooeed as oo-inventor in view of all of the hullabaloo 

that has been raised about the patent situation. and because of my 

oonneotion here. Col. Bender's reaotion was that, after all. he 

believed we should let matters take their course as you had started 

them since the particular device covered by the patent applioation had 

no connection with any work I am doing at this laboratory. and he 

telt that he need not take the matter up at all with the Chief Signal 

Officer. I understand that the action of the Signal Corps Board was 

to defer action on the application until a patent search determined 

whether or not the devioe was patentable. so I feel that the 

difficulty I had about the matter has been surmounted. and we will 

just let nature take its course from now on with reference to this 

patent application so you may be sure that I have no feeling of 

resentment as to your action. and thoroughly understand what moved you 

in the matter. 

It is interesting to note that it is not too late to file 

on the joint invention. 

Mrs. Mauborgne and I were both very muoh disturbed to hear 

about the trouble you had with your teeth. but I am quite sure that after 

@'pp roved for Release by NSA on 09-11-2013 pursuantto E .0. 1352a 
• REF ID:A1051-

the new permanent teeth have been in use for a little while you are 

going to feel much beti;er in spirits and decidedly less nervous. 

Unquestionably, the doctors knew best in this case and I think it 

will give you a great deal of comfort in the future as I have seen 

many cases of this sort produce wonderful results within six months 

or a year. 

. I am sorry to hear that you are through inventing for I 

am still unconvinced that the Chief Signal Officer has in mind the 

stifling of inventions, and that so far as he is ~oncerned the system. 

set up simply causes .the inventor a little delay in the filing ot an 

application. The disturbing feature of this invention question rather 

lies in the fact that Congress seems to have something in mind with 

reterenoe to changing the legislation covering inventions made by 

govermnent employees, as evidended by the fact that Col. Gullion, of 

the J.A.G.D., is still conducting active inve~tigations with a view 

to presenting to Congress arguments bearing on both sides of the 

question as to how the Govermnent 1 s interests could be best served by 

making a change in the existing law. I feel there is a tendency to 

revert to the Act of 1883 under which any invention made by a government 

employee automatically was turned over to the entire .American public 

for use. In my opinion, it would be a step backward if this law were 

reenacted. 

Now that I am beginning to feel my shoulders in the harness, 

I am beginning to like this job very much although the climate is about 

as bad as can be imagined. That seems to be about the only objection 

to service at Wright Field. 

Mrs. Mauborgne joins me in warmest regards to you and 

Elizabeth. 

Sincerely, ,