Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1883-08-15
AND INVENTIONS
Some of the Queer Happenings in
the world of Discovery.


The number of successful inventors
is always large, but the number of IN.
successful ones is very much larger.
Only the other day 900 models OF
rejected inventions were sold for old
junk. There is always somebody work
ing at the unstable problem of per-
petual motion or making flying ma
chine. 1t not infrequently happens
that after a patent has been refused to
an inventor, subsequent application
is granted by different examiner.
1t sometimes happens that patent
is granted to one man after somebody
else has failed to receive patent for
the same invention. This is fruitful
source of litigation Indeed, litigation
about patent rights is so common that
in the introduction of any valuable
patent the legal expenses of defending
it are a large part of the capital re-
quired. Immense sums were spent in
defending Morse's patents for telegraph
ing, and the various patents for sew
ing machines, India rubber manufac-
ture, and of the inventions that have
;evolutionized industrial processes. But
when rights are once established by
law, the profits are enormous. 1t was
shown in recent case before the
United States Court that for royalties
alone on the manufacture of barbed
fence wire more than $l.000,000 q
year were paid.
Inventors are now chiefly busy with
electricity, and the Patent Office is de-
luged with devices for making new
uses of the modern marvel, or for using
it with new appliances. Many these
inventions run in the direction of mo-
tors. The opinion has gained some
ground lately that storage batteries of
electricity are not as successful as was
at first expected. 1t is asserted by
some that no storage battery ever gives
out as much electricity as it receives,
and that every moment decreases the
amount yielded. Edison says the best
storage battery is ton of coal, which
can be ustd at any time to drive a
dynamo machine Others, however,
still think that the storage battery will
produce wonderful results.
Inventors have always sought to
utilize the forces of nature for the con-
servation of power. A good deal of
time and money has been spent on
efforts to utilize the force Of the rise
and fall of the tide. According to
some plans the water is to be stored in
RESERVOIR at high tide, and used to
turn a water wheel when the tide falls.
Another plan is to get the power from
the rise and fall of float. There used
to be tidal mill at Astoria and an
other at Charleston, S. G. The large
amount of land required to get the
requisite area of water surface is con-
sidered an insuperable objection to tidal
mills.
A good deal of money has been ex-
pended On solar engines, in hope of
getting power out of the suns rays.
John Ericsson, the inventor of the
Monitor and thousand other things,
has made some beautiful solar engines,
and not long ago an inventor had a
model of a solar engine on the top of
the Cooper Union building, and man
| aged to get up steam in a boiler. The
trouble is, however, that the sun does
not always shine, and the solar en-
CINE, to be of any practical use, must
be accompanied with storing reser-
voir of power that can be kept for q
rainy day. After all coal is nothing
but the heat of the sun stored in the
past ages for present use.
There is no telling of what great val
| ne the discovery of the simplest fact
may be. When bromine was discov
cred by Ballard in 1924, nothing ofim
portance was expected from it. Now
| it is valuable factor in photography
and useful remedy for nervous affec
tions.
| Capital is never wanted to try ever
the most inventions. Not long ago in
ventor had an idea that he could, by
the use of naked wire, produce a re
turn current and avoid electrical dis
turbances in cables. He could have
| got the capital to lay long cable un
der ground to try his experiment. HI
was with difficulty dissuaded from do
ing this by practical man, who say
ed him lots of money by wrapping sew
eral miles of cable about barrel an(
arranging the naked wire as proposed
by the inventor. The result was {
complete failure, but the cost of the ex
pertinent was comparatively triaing.-
This is an illustration of the larg'
amount of money that can be wasted
through ignorance. Men will worl
away at an idea with no knowledge o
what has been done or what can b.
done, only to discover at the end wha
they should have known at the begin
ming.
| A good deal of money has been spen
in the effort to introduce ice machines
There is, however, a strong competi
tion to be encountered, since ice may
always be had for the gathering, ant
transportation is cheap.
Fire escapes are numbered by tn
thousand. Hardly day pass that tn
Fire Commissioners are not compelled