The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1879-10-25
THE PACIFIC
GOmmsrtlalA
SATURDAY. OCTOBER 25.
Freaks Of Invention
cuEIOsr1IEs OF DEVICE AT TuE rA1EsT OFFICE.

" ~ ~ AAG EALENL 0rfAIE-
The experience Of the last Elk years shows that
hard times stimulate rather than Obstruct Ameri-
can inventive genius. This remark is verified by
the record Of invention, and - not speculative.
More Implications Tor patent rights have been
fled in the United States Patent Office at Wash
ington since the great financial panic OF 1873,
than were received by the Office during any
twenty years Of It's previous existence. Since
the reorganization Of the Patent Once, brought
about by the great fire Of 1886, more than 2lS,-
900 patents have been Issued to domestic and
foreign inventors. There are but a little over
O.OOO English patents, $4,000 French, and 49,
OOO Belgian and German patents upon inventions.
In lS4S there we're over 1000 more English than
American patents, there being at that time TO-
900 English and something less than 5000
American These figures show how inventors Of
this country are progressing as compared with
other countries in which the patent system pre-
walls The regular routine work OF the United
States Patent Office requires in the examining
corps alone from lbs To 40 men, who, as is well
KNOWN, must be experts in the classes in which
they labor.
Let a specific class Of inventions be considered
that Of car couplings. There are now OF the
records Of the Patent Office and in the hands of
aspiring inventors throughout the country more
than two thousand patents for devices for the
coupling together Of railroad cars, the sole object
OF a very great majority OF which IS to provide
for the automatic connection OF the cars, and
thus Obviate The necessity OF the brakesman's go
ing between abuttIng cars IN the coupling pro-
cess and the consequent danger of being mashed
through the failure To meet OF the giving away Of
DIR twheads as the vehicles mutually exhaust their
momentum upon each other. And yet OF these
two thousand and odd inventions only two are in
use in the United States, and certainly not more
than four have proved TO be worth the sheepskin
and paper they are written and printed on Yet
scarcely a week passes which does not bring to
the Patent Office two or three applications for
protection for similar devices.
Upon seed planters there are 10 date more than
$500 patents.
A case which is not in the fire escape line, but
which may, like the cases in that lire, be con-
sidered Of the spasmOdIc order, was recently dis
posed Of by the granting OF a patent. 1t was to
a Boston lady, and was for a novel mechanism
and was for holding back the ears Of children
and preventing them from standing out obstru-
siVely TO the prejudice OF good appearance. This
device Is peculiarly applicable to children with
abuormaIly large OF flap ears The inventress
does not specify whether or not the demand tor
her invention is peculiar to Boston.
1t sometimes becomes necessary for the patent
officials to assist the inventors IN judging as to
the utility of the inventions. A case IN which
this assistance was kindly afforded is found in
the late application Of a Philadelphia man for @
patent upon a device for separating the spirit or
soul from the body without material injury to
either. The inventor calls his apparatus :" The
Virgin Mary" The Office grayely communicated
to him a statement that before a patent could
issue il would be necessary for him to furnish a
working model which would demonstrate to the
satisfaction Of the examiner the feasibility OF the
device.
This invasion Of the domain of religion by an
inventor is not by any means an isolated case.
Within the last month a Steubenyille (Ohio) man
has been awarded a patent for a new and i'm
proved pyx for carrying to the dying of the
Roman Catholic faith the Host or holy communi-
on wafer. This new pyx is claimed to be a great
Improvement upon the ones now generally in use,
a. it enables the clergyman who administers the
rite to remove the Host without the Ineonveni-
ence and resultant abrasions to the sacramental
embodiment, as the inventor alleges, common TO
the use Of the old pyx.
Among the remarkable inventions that have
been patented within the last month are a pocket
umbrella devised by a New Highlander and 50
constructed that il can be folded and placed into
an ordinary pocket without serious inconvenience;
an automatic music machine invented by two
Boston men, which is designed to wholly sup
plant the orchestra at balls, and automatically
call of the square dances, such as quadrilles and
the laneeEs a device for binding a runaway
horse, with spring curtains and thus bringing
him to a stand, planned by a New York man; an
exceedingly elaborate meteorological instrument
conceived and perfected by General Albert j.
Myer, the chief of the government signal service,
which 1t is thought, will materially expedite the
work of fOrecasting the weather a process OF
making buttons principally from
DlOOu anu puAseIl1cu uOfu1 ubiicu W SutedOiC
adhesive substance, the result Of the experiment
OF a Jersey City genius an electric-light ap-
paratus designed To solve the great problem of
the practical subdivision ut the electric current,
by a New YOrker-Mr. \. MILFORD Hall an
educational appliance for use by classes in rhe-
tOric and grammar, by which sentences are
mechanically separated and analysed. the differ
ent parts of speech being illuminated in varying
coiOTs-as nouns in black, verbs orange, adJec-
tIves yellow, adyerbs blue, etc. and a steam
operated machine for steering sheep and clipping
horses, by a Bay City (Mich.) inventor. Other
inventions OF a comparatively recent date are a
wire fence barb, by a man who came or sent all
the way from far off New Zealand to have it
patented in the United States a coffee butler
and rooster, by a citizen OF the Argentine Con-
federation. South America, and a novel, but
rather clumsy, embarrassing machine, by a
resident of Switzerland. while Fir. Hedge Palm
crantz comes from Stockholm, Sweden, to obtain
letters of protection Tor a piece of machinery of
his imprOvising-N. Y Herald