The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1878-09-28
EggstraOrdinary Inventions.


is in spirit and action essentially demo-
cratic. Its clientage includes nothing
less than the whole people. The
richest inventor seeks its certificates,
and the poorest is not refused a hearing;
no man so learned that his brightest
thoughts may not fall within the scope of
Patent Office routine; none so ignorant
that. if he thinks he has a novel idea,
the office will fail to give it due atten-
ton. Whether grand or simple, each
new idea is courteously entertained,
the ruling principle being that it is
better that ninety and nine profitless
ideas be patented than that one GEN
uine and fruitful novelty should
be refused its proper recogni-
ton. Some of the most important in
ventiOns have been exceedingly minute
in size and insignificant in appearances;
accordingly the rule very properly is to
err, if at all, on the side of liberality to
inventors If an inventors idea be
good, he ought to have the benefit of it;
if worthless, it certainly harms no one
to let him have the exclusive control of
it. And whether useful or useless
must be determined in the great
majority of cases by actual trial in COM
petition with other ideas, not by an ex-
aminers a prjori Judgment, however
intelligent he may be.
In view of the broad streak of foolish
ness that runs through humanity as a
whole, it is not ut all surprising that
out of the hundreds of applications for
patents received by the Patent Office
every week there should be II 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 unin-
terested 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 adj
vised, under official seal and signature,
that the United States have granted
letters patent to A, b, or c for-well,
say pinhole in the big end of pick
led egg!
Seriously, that is just the point of the
specification upon which patent No.
205,31 was granted. The patentee
calls it ga new and useful improve
ment in processes 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 al
low 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 obvi-
ated." BY this ingenious process 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 "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 a blessed relief to
| travellers to have some one man mo-
nOpolize the use of stale eggs, and SO
| keep them from the breakfast tables of
hotels and boarding houses.
No fear that the normal, or abnor-
NAL, food supply would be seriously di-
minished by this diversion of picked
eggs to other than breakfast table uses.
The ubiquitous inventor has provided
against that in patent No. 170,670; Mr..
Joseph A. Griffin is his name. His in
vention related to "that class of COM
pounds used to facilitate and improve
the processes carried on in the prepare
ton of food, and also to improve the
quality of cakes, pies, puddilgs, 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 cul-
mary and other uses to which eggs
have been commonly applied, is
cheaper, and will produce better re-
suits than eggs themselves. We have
diligently inquired in the markets for
chickens Matched from this superior
egg compound. but failing to find any
we cannot furnish the reader with any
particulars with regard to their appear
ance or quality. The substitute, the
specification further states, will keep
longer without decomposition than
fowls eggs, and contains in equal
amounts more of the essential qualities
for which eggs are valuable than eggs
themselves"
This is most remarkable; and it must
be true, or else Mr.. Griffin would not
have spent his money on it in patent
fees. Still we must confess we have our
doubts of the availability of the substi-
tute for all egg uses, say for political
purposes or for personal expostulation
with an offensive public speaker. 1t is
not clear how it could ever be made as
| fragrant and explosive as Mr.. Stem
pers eggs, for instance (Mr. Omar A.
Stempel is the gentleman who pat
ented the pinhole), or make SO handy 4
missile to throw. Still you cannot ex-
pect everything from an invention.
As matter of purely scientific in
terest we will add that Mr.. Griffins
egg compound, which is so much bet
ter and cheaper than real eggs, is COM
posed of cream tartar, tartaric acid, alum,
soda bicarbonate, sugar, curcuma, gum
arabic, sulphur, and starch, in proper
tons specified. Seeing that real eggs
contain only albumen, mucus, water,
Il II