The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1878-10-10
Some Fggstraordinary Inventions.

Unlike the Patent Offices of all other
countries, the American Patent-office is
in spirit and action essentially demo-
cratic. Its clientage includes nothing
less than the whole people. The rich
est inventor seeks its certificates, and
the poorest is not refused hearing; no
man SO learned that his brightest |
thoughts may not fall within the scope
of Patent office routine; none so igno-
rant that, if he. thinks he has novel
idea, the office will fail to give it due
attention. Whether grand or simple,
each new idea is courteously entertained,
the ruling principle bling that it is bet
ter that ninety and nine profitless ideas
be patented than that one genuine and
fruitful novelty should be refused its
proper recognition. Some of the most
important inventions have been exceed
ingly minute in size and Insignificant in
appearance; accordingly the rule very
properly is to err, if at all, on the side
of liberality to inventors. If an invent
or's idea be good, he ought to have the 4
benefit of it; if worthless, it certainly
harms no one to let him have the ex-
elusive control of it. And whether
useful or useless must be determined in
the great majority of cases by actual
trial in competition with other ideas,
not by any examiners priori judg-
ment, however intelligent he may be.
In view of the broad streak of fool
ishness that runs through humanity as
a whole, it is not at all surprising that
out of the hundreds of applications for
patents received by the Patent-office
every week there should be a sprinkling
of those open to criticism on the score
of practical uselessness. Nor is it
strange that among the applications
granted few should strike the uninter-
ested observer as-funny, to say the
least. The wonder is, rather, that they
are SO few. Possibly they seem all the
| more ridiculous by contrast with the
| high average worth and gravity of the
general work of the Patent-office.
| Be that as it may, it never fails to
strike one as consumedly funny to be ad-
vised, under official seal and signature,
that the United States have granted let
tiers patent to A, B, or c, for-well, say
for pinhole in the big end of picked
egg! ~
/ Seriously, that is just the point of the
| specification upon which patent No.
| 205,313 was granted. The patentee
calls it IS a new and useful improvement
in process of treating eggs" the object
of the Improvement being to provide
means for preventing the bursting Of
picked eggs when boiled; said means
consisting in the piercing of small
hole in the egg shell over the air blister.
The hole is too small to be observable,
yet ''sufficient to allow of the expansion
that ensues when the egg is immersed in
boiling water, and thus the liability of
such eggs to burst their shells in boiling
is obviated.'' By this ingenious pro-
cess old eggs, the patentee AYERS, are
made as good as new-laid eggs, and
they are much cheaper. What he wants
to do with his old eggs after they are
! boiled, he does not say. Possibly that,
| like the suitable instrument for piercing
the shells, may constitute 6 the subject
matter of another application now be-
] fore the Patent-office. If so, we trust
the application will be promptly grant
ed; it would be such blessed relief to
travellers to have some one man monpo-
lie the use of stale eggs, and so keep
them from the breakfast-tables of hotels
and boarding houses. SO
No fear that the normal, or abnor-
NAL, food supply would he seriously di-
mished by this diversion Of picked eggs
4 to other than breakfast-table uses. The
ubiquitous inventor has provided
] against that in patent No. 170,670; Mr..
4 Joseph A. Griffin is his name. His in
/ vention relates to st that class of COM
pounds used to facilitate and improve
the processes carried on in the prepar-
alton of food and also to improve the
quality ofcakes, pies, puddings, bread,
biscuit, and other articles of food." in
which his compound, ga substitute for
eggs" is used as an ingredient. This
compound, the patentee declares, is a
perfect substitute for eggs in all culinary
and other uses to which eggs have been
commonly applied, is cheaper, and will
produce better results than eggs them
!. selves. We have inquired in the mar
kets for chickens Matched from this su.
perior egg compound, but failing to find
any we can not furnish the reader with
!. any particulars with regard to their ap'
! pearance or quality. The substitute
: the specification further states, will
} keep longer without decomposition
than fowls eggs, and contains in
equal amounts more of the essentia
qualities for which eggs are valuable
than eggs themselves.
This is most remarkable; and it must
be true, or else Mr.. Griffin would no
have spent his money on it in paten
fees. Still we must confess that w,
| have our doubts of the availability of tn
substitute for all egg uses, say for polit
cal purposes or personal expostulatiol