The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1882-05-05
Curious Patents.

CuIAOUS I8tc0tSs
Some investigating person has fur
nished the New York Times with . brief
list of patents on small things-such a.
any man or boy have thought of, but
didn't, and which in many instances
have proved mines of wealth to the
lucky discover. For, inasmuch as so
many minds might have hit upon these
things. they ought properly to be called
discoveries rather than inventions, and
are the outcome of luck or chance, or
whatever one may choose to call that ar
rangement of circumstances which is not
the result of much forethought or logical
process. The steam engine, the steam
ship, the locomotive, the telegraph. the
reaping-machine, the power-loom, the
sewing-machine, the telephone, the cot
ton gin, the telescope and scores of SINH
lar machines or instruments are truly in
ventions. They require a logical and
philosophical combination of laws and
principles. But there are hundreds OF
smaller things, chiefly pretty convent
ences and contrivances for domestic use,
or amusing and entertaining toys, which
are more in the nature of discoveries.
These last have been only found-the
others were found out.
Among those triAes is the favorite toy
the return ball''-a wooden ball with
an elastic string attached, selling for the
sum of ten cents each, but yielding to its
patentee an income equal to fair returns
on a capital of 100000. The rubber tip
ON the end of lead pencils affords the
owner of the royalty an independent
fortune. The inventor of the gummed
newspaper wrapper is also rich man.
The gimlet-pointed screw has evolved
more wealth than most silver mines, and
the man who first thought of putting cop
per tips to children's shoes is as well of
as if his father had left him $4,000, 900
in United States bonds. Although roller
skates are not so much used in countries
where ice is abundant, in South Ameri-
ca, especially in Brazil, they are very
highly esteemed and have yielded over
81, 100000 to their inventor. But he
had to spend 1926, 900 in England alone
fighting infringements. The dancing
Jim Crow" q top, provides an annual
income of $4,000 to its inventor, and
the common needle threader is worth
$40, 900 year to the man who thought of
it. The ssdrive weir' was an idea of
Mr.. Colonel Green, whose troops, during
the war, were in want of water. He
conceived the notion of driving two
inch tube into the ground until water
was reached and then attaching pump.
This simple continuance was patented
after the war, and the tens of thousands
of farmers who have adopted it, have
been obliged to pay him royalty, a
moderate estimate of which is placed at
$2,OOO,OOO. The spring window shade
yields an income equal to an investment
of 81, 200, 900; the stylographic pen, with
which this article is written, also 81, OOO.-
900: the marking pen for shading in diff
ferent colors, 100000; rubber stamps,
the same. A large fortune has been
reaped by Western miner who, ten
years since, invented metal rivet or
eyelet at each end of the mouth of
breeches and coat pockets to resist the
strain caused by the carriage of pieces
of ore and heavy tools. Fortunes have
been made out of the dead as well of
the living. The torpedo grave, which
will explode when bOdy-snatchers med
die with it, is one bonanza; another odd,
but probably not lucrative one, is an
open tube, running from the top of the
ground to the coffin-lid, just over the
face of the corpse. If the person is in q
trance and has been buried alive, he
draws himself up through the whole and
returns to the surface by means of rope
ladder in the tube. If he prefers, how
ever. to send for assistance, he pulls
cord which rings bell near the top of
the tube. After lying there long enough
to assure his friends that he has no in
tention of coming back the tube is pulled
up, drawing as it comes a glass-plate
over the face of the inmate of the coffin.
Every time woman pricks the shell
Of an egg preparatory to boiling it she
violates patent right, this having been
secured by some genius who discovered
that it would prevent their breaking
during the process of boiling. 1t having
been said that chickens Matched by arti-
fetal heat do not thrive as well as Others
because they miss the maternal affection
expressed in the ''cluck, cluck' of the
natural hen, an inventor has taken out
patent which initiates that sound, sOoth-
ng and charming the tender-hearted
put bereaved offspring with its artificial
,roon and consoling the young orphan
With its mechanical solicitude. This is
passed evidently upon another patent for
,abies of a machine. operated by clock
work and producing low and melan-
,holy murmur which no child, however
can successfully resist, but to
which it succumbs in profound slumber.
There is also the false bottomed nest
which deludes the hen into the belief
hat she has not laid an egg, and COM
,ined with her conscientious devotion to
luty, persuades her to continuance of
Ter work until she is exhausted or unde-
'eived. A patent hen roost, by the ac-
ion of the hens, closesthe doors of q
'ee-hive at night and opens them in the
protecting the hive against the
avages of the bee-moth. A wire frame
trung above horses head is also pat
nted. 1t is meant to persuade the
'nimal that it is the top Of fence too
Ugh for him to overleap. This, of
curse, presumes that the horse is an
Free Press.