Daily globe., 1883-05-24
CURIOUS PATENTS.
Products of Our Yamaee I,,yention.


| nished the New York Times with brief
list of patents on small things-such as
any man or boy might have thought of,
but didn't, and which in many instances
have proved mines of wealth to the
lucky discoverer.
Among these trifes is the favorite toy
the "return ball "a wooden ball
with an elastic string attached, selling
for the sum of 10 cents each, but yield
ing to its patentee an income equal to
fair returns On capital of $500,GC0.
The rubber tip on the end of lead pen
cils affords the owner of the royalty ~
independent fortune. The inventor q
the Gummed newspaper wrapper is also
| a rich man. The gimlet-pointed screw
has evolved more wealth than most 81
| yer mines, and the man who first thought
OF putting copper tips to children's shoes
Is as we'll off as if his father had left him
So, GOO, 900 in United States bonds. Al
though roller-skates are not so much
used in countries where ice is abundant,
in South America, especially in Brazil,
they are very highly esteemed and have
yielded over g, 600, 900 to their inventor.
But he had to spend $l25, GOO in En-
gland alone fighting infrjngements. The
dancing Jim Crow toy. provides an
annual income of $4,000 to its invent
or, and the common needle threal1er
is worth $4,000 year to the man
who thought of it. The "driva Well
was an idea of Col. Green, whose
troops, during the war, were in want Of
water. He conceived the notion "a ,.Iiv-
ing two-inch tube into the ground IN
til water was reached and then attach
ing pump. This simple continuance
was patented after the war, and the tens
of thousands of farmers who have adopt
ed it have been obliged to pay him
! royalty, moderate estimate of whi-A
; is placed at 100000. The spr;n5
. window shade yields an income equal f.
an investment OF 81, ZOO, 600; the styl,-
graphic pen, with which this article IS
written, also 81, 100000; the marking
. pen for shading in different colors
800, 1000; rubber stamps, the same. 4
large fortune has been reaped bya West
ern miner who, ten years since, invented
a metal rivet or eyelet at each end Of
! the mouth of breeches and coat pockets
! to resist the strain caused by the car
riage Of pieces of ore and heavy tools.
Fortunes have been made out of the
dead as well as the living. The torpedo
grave, which will explode when body
snatchers meddle 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 cof1in-lid, Just
over the face of the corpse. Ii the per
| son is in trance and has been buried
alive, he draws himself up through the
| hole and returns to the surface by means
of rope-ladder in the tube. If he pre-
fers, however, to send for assistance. lie
pulls cord which rings bell near The
| top of the tube. After lying there long
enough to assure his friends that he has
no intention 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 q 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 boiling. It having been said
| that chickens Matched By artificial heat
| do not thrive as well as others because
| they miss the maternal affection cx-
pressed in the "cluck, cluck" of the
natural hen, an inventor has taken out g
patent which initiates that sound,
soothing and charming the tender-heart-
ed but bereaved offspring with It's artih-
cial Groom and consoling the young
! orphan with its mechanical solicitude.
This is based evidently upon another
patent for babies of machine operated
| by clock-work and producing a low and
melancholy murmur which no child.
however wakeful, can successfully resist
| but to which it succumbs in profound
| slumber. There is also the false bot
toned nest which deludes the hen into
| the belief that she has not laid an egg,
and, combined with her own conscien-
tious devotion to duty, persuades her to
continuance of her work until she is ex-
/ hausted or undeceived. A patent hen
roost, by the action of the hens, closes
the doors of q beehive at night and
opens them in the morning, protecting
the hive against the ravages of the bee
moth. A wire frame strung above
| horses head is also patented. 1t is
meant to persuade the animal that it is
the top of fence too high for him to
overleap. This, Of course, presumes
that the horse is an ass.