The Rise of the Engineer: Inventing the Professional Inventor During the Industrial Revolution
用专利、传记等数据，量化证明了工业革命期间创新系统的根本变化：专业工程师作为新发明家类型出现，并说明其与旧发明家的关键差异，有助于理解工业革命及评估近期创新系统变化。
Abstract How did the Industrial Revolution generate sustained economic growth? One hypothesis is that the innovation system changed. This paper provides direct quantitative evidence documenting this fundamental change in the innovation system: the emergence of a new type of inventor, the professional engineer. Using rich patent, biographical and other data, I document the emergence of the engineering profession starting in the late eighteenth century and show that engineers differed from older types of inventors in important ways. These findings improve our understanding of the Industrial Revolution and provide perspective for evaluating more recent changes in the innovation system.