Patented Sex

September, 1976

"There once was a man from Racine," according to a well-known limerick, "who invented a fucking machine. Both concave and convex, it would fit either sex, but oh, what a bastard to clean."That limerick is undoubtedly a key to understanding our culture and its artifacts. Unfortunately, it carelessly omits an essential of American economics: Did the man from Racine patient his device? The Patent and Trademark Office has issued more than 3,900,000 patents since 1836--approximate...