Collecting plans from all over the world and had hundreds of thousands of people collecting plants and sending them back to fort myers to find a source of plant material that could produce rubber. The laboratory was put here because they could grow the plants on site and do the preliminary research on site. The laboratory was interesting for many reasons. There was no patent process for plants, chemical patenting. This lab caused the United States government to come forward with what was called the u. S. Patent law that said if you invented something with plants, and it was a process that was worthy of patening, it was issued a patent. Looking at the history of fort myers, florida including a stop at edisons research laboratory. Megan mcardle argues that United States is unique in letting its citizens and businesses fail and this is what has made the country successful. This hour long Program Starts now on booktv. Thank you, everybody for coming. I am timothy carney. I am a visiting fe