Landships II

Centurion · Legend

Macfie - US patent and nationality

Roger Todd · Legend

1. The US Patent is the same machine as in his British Patent 126,075, for which he had made an application on 1 December 1916, by which time the British tanks had gone into action and were known about. Additionally, there is a dossier Macfie submitted to Lord Addison, Minister of Munitions, in late December 1916 or early 1917, which makes wild claims as to the projected performance of his designs, and in which he�goes out of his way to claim that they would be vastly superior to the�British tanks then in use. Thus, there is no surprise that he should submit this design to the USPO in 1917 as he clearly still�believed his designs to be superior to the current British ones. Remember, he was a complete egomaniac who at every stage of his activities believed that he was right and everyone else was wrong, and he pursued an extremely embittered vendetta against all those he perceived to be his enemies (i.e. everyone else�involved in tank development) until finally running out of steam after the Commission on Inventions in 1919.

2. His nationality has been variously described as 'Scots-Canadian' (Glanfield) and 'American born British subject' (the 1901 Census). Frankly, in those less bureaucratic times, I suspect he claimed whatever was most convenient for him at any given time.

Centurion · Legend

Roger Todd wrote:

1. The US Patent is the same machine as in his British Patent 126,075, for which he had made an application on 1 December 1916, by which time the British tanks had gone into action and were known about. Additionally, there is a dossier Macfie submitted to Lord Addison, Minister of Munitions, in late December 1916 or early 1917, which makes wild claims as to the projected performance of his designs, and in which he�goes out of his way to claim that they would be vastly superior to the�British tanks then in use. Thus, there is no surprise that he should submit this design to the USPO in 1917 as he clearly still�believed his designs to be superior to the current British ones. Remember, he was a complete egomaniac who at every stage of his activities believed that he was right and everyone else was wrong, and he pursued an extremely embittered vendetta against all those he perceived to be his enemies (i.e. everyone else�involved in tank development) until finally running out of steam after the Commission on Inventions in 1919.

2. His nationality has been variously described as 'Scots-Canadian' (Glanfield) and 'American born British subject' (the 1901 Census). Frankly, in those less bureaucratic times, I suspect he claimed whatever was most convenient for him at any given time.

Thanks
I once worked with someone like Macfie during the days when micro computers were becoming PCs and Macs He had his own ideas as to how such things were going to develop ie his way. I think he's still waiting for Bill Gates and Steve Jobs to come croppers