The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1883-09-07
INVENTORS AND INVENTIONS.
Some of tho Queer Happenings In tho
World of Discovery.


World of Discovery.
| The number of successful inventors
/ is always large, but the number of un-
successful ones is very much larger.
There is always somebody working at
the unsolyable problem of perpetual
motion or making flying machine. 1t
not infrequently happens that, after
patent has been refused to an inventor,
subsequent application is granted by
different examiner.
1t sometimes happens that a patent
is granted to one man after somebody
else has failed to receive patent for
the same invention. This is q fruitful
source of litigation. Indeed, litigation
about patent rights is 80 common that
in the introduction of any valuable
patent the legal expenses of defending
it are q large part of the capital re-
CURED. Immense sums were spent in
defending Morses patents for tele-
graphing, and the various patents for
sewing machines, India-rubber manu-
facture, and of the inventions that have
revolutonized 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 5arbed
fence wire more than ~ 600, 900 year
were paid.
Inventors are now chiefly busy with
electricity, and the Patent Office is
deluged with devices for making new
uses of the modern marvel, or for using
it with new appliances. Many of these
inventions run in the direction OF
motors. 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 barrery 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 used at any time to drive q
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 a
reservoir at high tide, and used to turn
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 another
at Charleston, s. G. The large amount
of land required to get the requisite
area of water surface is considered an
insuperable objection to tidal mills.
A good deal of money has been ex-
pended on solar engines, in the 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 solar engine on the top of
the Cooper Union building, and
managed to get up steam in boiler.
The trouble Is, however, that the sun
does not always shine, and the solar
engine, to be of any practical use, must
be accompanied with n storage reservoir
of power that can be kept for rainy
day. After all, coal is nothing but the
heat of the sun stored in past ages for
present use.
There is no telling of what great
value the discovery of the simplest fact
may be. When bromine was discovered
by Ballard in 1924, nothing of inn
portance was expected from it, Now
it is valuable factor in photography,
and useful remedy for nervous
affections.
Capital is never wanted to try even
the most foolish inventions. Not long
ago an inventor had an idea that he
could, by the use of naked wire, pro-
duce return current and avoid
electrical disturbances inlcables He
could have got the capital TO lay long
cable under ground to try his expert
ment. He was with difficulty dis
suaded from doing this by practical
man, who saved him lots of money by
wrapping several miles of cable about q
barrel and arranging the naked wire as
proposed by the inventor. The result
was complete failure, but the cost of
the experiment was comparatively
trihing. This is an illustration of the
large amount of money that can be
wasted through ignorance. Men will
work away at an idea with no knowl-
edge of what has been done or what
can be done, only to discover at the
end what they should have known at
the beginning.
A good deal of money has been spent
in the effort to introduce ice-machines.
There is, however, a strong competition
to be encountered, since ice may al
ways be had for the gathering and
transportation is cheap.
Fire-escapes are numbered by the
thousand. Hardly a day passes that
the Fire Commissioners are not COM
PEELED to test some new plan. a good
deal of room is taken up in the Patent
Office with the models of these con-
trivances.
Accidental discoveries have supplied
some of the most valuable processes of
the industrial arts. 1t is said that the
rolling of cold iron was suggested by
the fact that workman who was
placing piece of hot iron in the rolls
carelessly permitted his tongs to be