Let's examine Gatling Gun:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Jordan_Gatling
Gatling was inventor that made money with his inventions. He was not scientist that worked for the nation / government.
I think the Imperialism 1 style makes more sense than Imp2 or Civilization style science and scientists. According to my understanding in ww2 at least Hitler had army of scientists working for the nation, and other major powers ofcourse did the same. Before that, I see that it has been more like individual inventors that have pushed the technology level forward. And today it still is individual inventors and big companies that patent and buy new inventions.
Only fix I would add to the Imp1 system is to make the price of techs go down slowly. Army of scientists working on a spinning jenny? No, I prefer the Imp1 style.
About spinning jenny from wikipedia. Good and funny read:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spinning_jenny
Hargreaves kept the machine secret for some time, but produced a number for his own growing industry. The price of yarn fell, angering the large spinning community in Blackburn. Eventually they broke into his house and smashed his machines, forcing him to flee to Nottingham in 1768. This was a centre for the hosiery industry, and knitted silks, cottons and wool. There he set up shop producing jennies in secret for one Mr Shipley, with the assistance of a joiner named Thomas James. He and James set up a textile business in Mill Street. On 12 July 1770, he took out a patent (no. 962) on his invention, the Spinning Jenny—a machine for spinning, drawing and twisting cotton.[11][12] By this time a number of spinners in Lancashire were using copies of the machine, and Hargreaves sent notice that he was taking legal action against them. The manufacturers met, and offered Hargreaves £3000. He at first demanded £7000, and stood out for £4000, but the case eventually fell apart when it was learned he had sold several in the past.