The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1859-08-13

Among the thousands of marvellous i'll
ventions which American genius has pro-
duced, within the last few years, are the
following, complied in an abstract from the
Patent Office Report. Read them over,
and then say if you can, that there is no
thing new under the sun:
The report explains the principle of the
celebrated Hobb lock. Its "unpickabili-
ty' depends upon a secondary or false set
Of tumblers, which prevents instruments
used III picking from reaching the real
oncs. Moreover the lock is powder proof
aud may be loaded through the key-hole
and fired of till the burglar is tired of his
fruitless work. OF fears that the explosions
will bring to view his experiments more
witnesses than he desires.
Doors and shutters have been patented
that cannot be broken through with either
pick or slcdse-hammcr The burglar
occurations' gone
haIpoon is described which makes the
whale Kill himself Tie more he pulls the
line, the deeper goes the Earpoon.
An ice-making machine has been patent
ed, which is worked by a steam-cngine In
an experimental trial, it iroze several bot
ties of sherry, and produced blocks of ice
the size Of n cubic foot when the therlno-
meter was up to eighty degrees 1t j. cal
culatcd that for every ton OF coal put into
thc furnace, it Will make a ton OF ice
From DR.. Dalc's examiners report. we
gather some idea Of the value Of patcits.
\ man who had made slight improve
meut in -traw-cutters, took a model OF his
machine through the Western States and
after tour Of eight months, returned with
forty thousand dollars. Another man had
Il machine to thrash and clean grain, which
in fifteen months he sold for sixty thou
sand dollars. These are ordinary cases
while such inventions as the telegraph, the
planning machine. and India rubber pa
tents, are worth millions each.
Examiner Lanes report describes new
electrical inventions Among these Is an
electrical whaling apparatus, bywhich the
whale IS literally shocked TO death -
Another i an electromagnetic alarm,
which rings bells and displays signals in
case of fire and burglars. Another is An
electric clock. which wakes you up, tells
YOU what time 1t IS, and lights lamp for
you at any hour You please.
There i sound gathcrcr,' a sort Of
huge ear-trWnpet to be placed in front of
q locomotive, bringing to the engineers
ears all the noise ahead: perfectly distinct
Notwithstanding the noise Of the train.
There ! an invention that picks up pins
from confused heap. turns then, around
with their head, up, and sticks them in
papers III regular rows
Another goes through the whole process
of cigar making. taking III leaves and turn
ing out finished cigars
one machine cuts cheese: another
scours knives and forks; another rocks
the cradle; and seven or eight take in
washing and ironing.
There * psrlcr chair patented that
cannot be tipped back ou two legs, and Il
railway char that can be tipped back in
any position without any legs at all
Another patent Is for machine that
counts passengers iu an omnibus and takes
their fares When a very fat gentleman
gets in, 1t counts two, and charges double
There are variety Of guns patented
that load themselves; a fishing line that
"iiu-r> its own haiJ, and Il rat trap that
throws away the rat, and then bats itself
and stands III the corner for another
There i machine also, by which a man
prints instead OF writes, iis thoughts 1t
i played like q piano forte. And speaking
Of pianos. it is estimated that nine thou
sand are made every year in the United
States, giving constant employment to one
thousand nine hundred persons, and cost
ing over two millions of dollar=