Ancient forms of Open Innovation

A refreshing article was posted on July 1st on the World Industrial Reporter website in relation with an earlier article by Innovation Excellence.

It mentions Open Innovations from… the 19th century !

And it is true that the Marine Chronometer was invented by John Harrison in answer to a UK parliament prize in the 18th century.

He simply won a contest as others do today on crowdsourcing and open innovation sites…

The article also mentions Margarine that was invented in the 19th century following to a public contest by Napoleon III as the country was lacking butter.

Maybe this wasn’t the best invention of the century :)