Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1865-09-12
AID TO INVENTORS.

There is probably no country IN the
known world where science is SO much
required to ard in the every day business
of life as in this State of ours. The great
interest of the State, the chief employment
Of the ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS a knowl-
edge Of the laws of nature and of the facts
deduced and determined by scientific re-
search, which no other occuprtion de-
mands. And yet while we see those
States whose chief interest is agriculture,
spending thousands and thousands Of dol
lars in the establishment Of schools and
otherwise for the improvement and nearer
perfection of the manner Of conducting of
that simplest of all occupations, neither
this State nor our neighbor, California,
whose mining interests are nearly or quite
equal to our own, has yet taken action
worthy Of mention in the fostering Of the
mining interest by lending aid to teach
how it may most pro6tably be carried on.
These two States, which are sending forth
into the world annually fifty or sixty
millions Of dollars, and are having a quar-
ter of that amount more running off to
waste into ravines and gulches, because
the known processes of working ore at
present don't save, ON an average, three
fourths Of the value of the ore which is
worked, offer little or TO inducement to
persons to exert themselves to discover
how the lost part can be saved. People
here seem content to demand Of their
Representatives in Congress to protest
against any law imposing taxes on mines,
and apparently have no ambition to give
o premium to enterprise or genius where
by to direct its attention to improving our
system of obtaining gold and silver from
the recesses in which they are hidden and
saving that part which is now lost, which
would enable us to pay double the tax
which the most Jealous advocate of taxa
ton of mines would have imposed, with
greater ease than we can now pay the one
half of one per cent. on the bullion pro-
duced.
The greatest inducement which is now
offered to persons to make Improvements
in mining machinery and discover better
processes for working ore, is the patent
law of the United States. A slight i'm
provement in the one or the other is Of
such great importance in the mining BUSH
ness that it is sure to bring the inventor
position and fortune, providing he can
bring it before the public. But this, many
times, can not be done for want Of means.
All inventors are not so intent on their
purpose as Goodyear was to bring out his
India-rubber discovery, or as willing as
he 10 see their families suffer or be pinched
BY poverty themselves for the purpose Of
disclosing to the world a means by which
money can be made. As it is only by ex-
periments that improvements can be ar
rived at, and as the patent law secures to
the inventor a competence in proportion
as his improvement is good, let this State
give assistance to experimentors. Let ar
engagements be made whereby the me-
chanic, miner, or mill man, when he has
made a discovery of a principle BY which
a greater proportion Of the value OF the
ore can be saved, or the ore reduced at
less than ordinary cost, or extracted with
less expense than by other methods, may
bring the matter to notice and have It
tested by experiment without IN expense
to himself, which would be ruinous or
otherwise wholly unable to be borne.
There are men working in our mills and
mines, every day, who have extensive
scientific requirements and are close OBJ
servers, who, if they had means by which
to experiment on ideas derived from what.
passes under their observation, would not
be long IN discovering systems of desul-
phurizing and reducing ore oy which
ninety.per cent. of its value would be OBJ
tanned with as little cost as sixty per cent.
is at present. 1t is a matter of State in
terest that improvements should be made
in the various branches of mining, and we
can conceive of no manner in which they
can be encouraged with less cost to the
State, and with greater promise Of success,
than by giving assistance to the man who
has an idea worthy of carrying out, by
which he may be enabled to experiment
and determine its merit. 1t is a matter
worthy of serious attention and consider
alton, and if some means by which aid
could be rendered in such cases, when re-
quired, should be adopted, would result
most beneficial TO the State.