The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1876-11-09
Curiosities Of the British Patent Sys-
~@-r tenn.

A writer in Chambers Journal has
been examining into the history of the
British Patent Office; and he describes
many curious grants in the early history
of the office. Among other facts, the
writer states that there are 1000 applica-
tions for patents every year; and that the
office receives the snug sum of $3.50, 900
year in fees and stamps.
The first patents. issued in the time of
James l., were more in the nature of mo-
nopolies or privileges, for which con-
sideration was paid to shrewd Jamie him
self. The first patent of all was an ex-
elusive privilege for drawing, engraving,
and publishing maps OF London, West
minister, Windsor, Bristol, Norwich, Can
tcrbury, Bath, Oxfold, and Cambridge.
The next was for the privilege of pub
fishing portraits Of His Sacred Majesty.
The third was for an unexplained group
of wonderful inventions, for plowing
land without horses or oxen, making bar
rem land fertile, raising water, and con-
structing boats for swift movement on
water.
Many of the patents relating to cloth
ing are singular either for their immedi-
ate objects or for the language in
which they are couched. One patent
for breeches, at a date when trousers
had not yet come much into use, de-
scribed mode of cutting out and making
"to do away with all the inconvenience
hitherto complained of''-by the aid Of
elastic springs, morocco elastic supporters,
straps, buckles, etc. Another 'protects
trousers from mud" by means of a
shield attached to the hinder part of the
| boot heel, which shield receives the
splashed mud. George Holland patented
a mode Of "making false or dummy
calves in stockings" A famous modiste
has an improvement in ladies' dresses,
rendering the same body capable of
adapting itself to fit different figures
For those "who cannot bear ligature
round the Leg" patentee has garter
made of steel springs, connected with a
silver plate placed in the waistband of
the dress. One patent tells Of machine
for brushing trousers; framework sup
ports spindle which carries set of
concave brushes; cylinder of wicker OF
cane is placed inside the trousers to keep
them distended; and the spindle is set TO-
tating by an endless band acting on a
beveled pulley.
The ,searchers after a machine for pro-
ducing perpetual motion-that dreamy
fallacy of the middle ages-have not
failed to make their appearance in the
patent world. In 1859 two Germans,
Krause and Rotman, residing at Milwau-
kee, in the United States, sent letter to
Her Majesty the Queen Victoria, Patent
| Office, London" Her Majesty most
likely did not read it, but the Patent Of
flee folks did. 1t ran thus: ''Your
Majesty, we humbly advertise that we
find out the perpetual motion, machine
very singular in its construction, but the
same time very important by the power it
gives. We intend to secure for ourselves
and, as we are informed your Majesty has
secured reward for the invention, we
respectfully ask your Majesty if we may
come to show our invention? To prevent
mistake, we humbly beg not to believe
any person without having the original
patent Of the United States. and the copy
of this letter." .4 49,
| From the cradle to the grave, says the
writer, patentees take care of US in some
way or other. Even Dolly is attended to.
One patent among many tells us that
dolls hitherto made have never been so
constructed as to allow of their being
placed in sitting posture, with the legs
bending at and hanging down from the
knees" and announces that this impor-
tant desideratLm has now at length been
secured. Another inventor 'gives rock
| ing melton to dolls cradles" by an elabo-
rate array Of clock-work, eccentric wheel,
winch and connecting rod. One of the
early patentees had "a hydraulike,
which, being placed by q bedside, causeth
sweete sleepe to those which either by hott
feavers or otherwise cannot take rest" A
patent medicinal powder, compounded OF
tobacco and herbs, was so meritorious
that if one teaspoonful be struck for a
dose up the nose as snuff, will cure va.
rious disorders of the hypocondriac and
melancholy kind" Eighty years ago
many persons believed in a patented mode
| of curing numberless aches and pains "by
drawing over the parts affected various
pointed metals, which from the affinity
they have with the offending matters, or
from some other cause, extract or draw
out the same, and thus cure the patient: :"
One patentee has q thief proof coffin, In
which the corpse is secured by claiming
or hopping it to false bottom; and anoth-
er coffin, made impregnable by some
special application Of tapped and case
hardened screws.
II, we cut short our budget Of curious
patents, it is only because space fails us:
Two of the Lilywhites, the celebrated
cricketers, have at different times patent
ed bowling machines; in one instance for
the, adoption of machine bowling u &C.
taaI plays lin the other only for practice
at batting, when trained bowler is not
at hand.s If the, reader will imagine
something Of the catapult or cross bow
kind, he may form some idea OF these
cricketing oddities. One patentee has a
balloon for catching fish; . balloon in
fated with air and ballated with water,