Bear in mind that this is a brief analysis of patents published. It does not include ideas and inventions or otherwise that were never patented, of which there must be many. The data provided here shows how human invention reveals itself in cricket bats, and I make a connection to their countries of origin. Not being a historian or social scientist I will leave more detailed interpretations and analysis to those with the knowledge to do so, but hope that any who do will share it and improve my own historical knowledge around cricket and creativity.
In total there has been (at least) 107 cricket bat related patents published since 1884. On-line records show 100 patents going back as far as 1894. An additional 7 have been found through research that date from 1884 to 1891. There may be a few more published patents hidden in the archives, although this is unlikely to be more than a handful.
The first graph below illustrates the frequency of patents applied or published by decades, and split between ideas for improvements in handles and blades.
