Inventions and Official Secrecy: A History of Secret Patents in the United Kingdom

Secrets will always be a factor in the political life of any society, and it could be argued that none enjoy secrets, particularly Official Secrets, quite so much as the English. Inventions and Official Secrecy traces the little known history of UK legislation which permits the British Government to make Official Secrets of certain technical ideas submitted as patent applications, and thereby prohibit their publication. The story begins in the mid-nineteenth century, and introduces a number of interesting inventors, politicians, and civil servants. Including the latest information to be disclosed under the thirty-year rule, it takes the narrative up to the early 1960s.