Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1873-01-09
ABOUT PATENTS.
BY VIM, r. HOOPER.

no remarkable invention; they merely
make some slight progress upon existing
facts Not in one great tide Of invention
does improvement come, but rather in
small, gentle waves, each advancing al
most imperceptibiy further than its pre-
decessOr And it is that slight difference
that gives success to patents. The in
ventive mind is so constantly On the
stretch that similar claims are constantly
made by rival inventors. When petro-
leum first began to enlighten our dark
ness, there were twenty-five claimants at
one time before the Office, all asking for
substantially the same mode of raising oil
out of the solid earth. And when VelOc-
ipedes SO suddenly leaped into fashion a
few years ago 432 applications for veloc
ipede patents were filed within four
months, and of these thirty three were CO.
temporary claims for the same idea.
Every spring brings forth a crop of stove
patents, each manufacturer preparing for
the coming winter by striving to surpass
his rivals in the prettiest pattern, and the
greatest warmth giving power. Few per-
sons think much of the form Of the lamp
they buy; yet lamp patents are renewed
every year. At one time the student
lamp, with its argand burner, yields its
manufacturer small fortune; the next
,
TWO wicl1s give an imperceptibly larger
light than the argand; and the patent he OBJ
tains brings him prominence in all the
lamp markets of the country. One of the
most essential clements in patents is
novelty: yet applications are continually
made for patents based on ideas as old as
the Christian era. Pliny, writing in the
first century, describes harvesters for
heading grain as then in existence on the
plains OF Gaul; and Paladius mentions
them again in the fourth century; but
both Of these lacked some idea that would
adapt them to general use. Tailors' ma
chimes were in smooth running order in
Paris long before Hunt and Howe per-
fected the present invention. 1t re-
manned for the Americans to tighten the
domestic cares of the female sex through
out the world.
Most patent-rights are limited ri their
application; and never attain TO general
circulation. But e patent of wide use,
however small the royalty it pays, bene-
fits the happy inventor with a large profit
Inventions for sewing machines, Of which
sand week, inventions for the use of
India-rubber, for agricultural nipple
ments, firearms, and notifications of
Gather and paper, have accumulated for
tunes. Nor is it possible to tell the ex-
tent of the qualifications of a patent A
few years since all the dentists of the
country combined to break an India-rub-
Der patent; every one of them had to pay
q royalty whenever he inserted a set of
teeth on vulCanized rubber. Their coMb-
nation failed, and the royalty still is paid
One oftle most profitable patents ever is
sued in this country was for the manufac
ture of hOrse-shoes. In England one Of
the most lucrative has been the Bessemer
manufacture of steel. Most patents con-
Germ themselves with agricultural or
domestic labor. In one year two hundred
and twenty patents were granted for
cultivators, two hundred and ten for
plows, one hundred and eighty for
churns, one hundred and seventy-tive for
washing machines, one hundred and fifty
one for sewing machines, one hundred and
forty for stoves, and another hundred and
forty for gates. Nearly eighteen hundred
patents have been issued for sew
ing-machines and their attachments;
and the applications for newer inventions
come III daily.
For these applications for patent rights
increase much faster than the population
In 1851 there were two thousand of them;
IN 1870 nineteen thousand one hundred
and seventy-one, of which thirteen thou
sand three hundred and twenty-one were
granted. Inventive skill does not depend
upon education. Prussia is as we'll edu
Gated as this country; but in 1867 only
one hundred and three patents were is
sued IN Prussia, as against thirteen thou
sand III this country. Vermont has as
good schools as Massachusetts,; but the
Bay State secures ten per cent of all the
patents granted to the nation, while the
Green Mountain State has less than one
per cent To quicken the inventive mind
demands large amount of capital en-
gagged N manufacture, a skilled body of
workmen, and profit in the improvement
of manufactures. Where these coeyist
patents are IN demand
AS general rule, valuable inventions
are the result Of long years of close
thought and much expenditure of time
and money. Capital never offers itself to
the inventor without the promise of an
enlarged and speedy return. Nor do
valuable IDEAS often enter the mind of
the outsider on any subject. Abraham
Lincoln was very able LAWYER of Hi
nois when, in May, 18i9 he obtained a
patent for lifting steamboats, over river
bars; but it may be doubted if that patent
has ever been used, or would have been
applied tor by marine engineer.
The amount of misapplied talent en-
gagged Oh inventions that can never be
used is as wonderful as it is prolific.
There is aludicrous element in many of
the patents, and more of the applications,
which is well worth investigation; and
we extract, from the records of the
Patent Office, an account of some of
these, that show more genius than COM
mon sense, and have produced more
laughter than profit:
In 1870, the owner of certain bee-hives,
irritated by the loss of his honey by the
bee-moth, asked 70: patent for a COM
bined hen-roost and beehive. He had
noticed that the bee moth travels at night,
while-the busy bee works by day. His
desire, therefore, was for device that
should admit the worker by day, and
keep out the thief by night. This his IN
genuity effected by the erection of hen
roost pivoted upon beehive provided
with gates. The bees were expected to
be in their cells just before dusk; the
hens, lighting On their roosts, were then
to close the gates of the hive, and keep