Daily globe., 1883-05-24
CURIOUS PATENTS.
Products of Our Icm&ee T,,rention.

lucky discoTerer.
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 a capital of $500, ,0G3.
The rubber tip on the end of lead pen
ellis affords the owner of the royalty -,
! independent fortune. The inventor %.
the gummed newspaper wrapper is a,S,i
rich man. The gimlet-pointed screw
| mas evolved more wealth than most gI.-
| yer mines, and the man who first thought
Of putting copper tips to children's shoes
IS as well off rs if his father had left him
s.. 0Q0,000 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 81, coo, COO to their inventor
But he had to spend 1925, 600 in En-
gland alone fighting infrjngemcnts. The
dancing Jim Crow" a toy. provides IN
annual income of $50, GOO to its invent
or, and the common needle threa,ler
is worth $4,000 year to the nun
who thought of it. The "driv4 we'll 3"
was an idea OF Col. Green, whose
troops, during the war, were in want Of
water. He conceived the notion olvr-Y-
ing two-inch tube into the ground an
til water was reached and then attach
ing a pump. This simple contrivauce
was patented after the war, and the tens
OF thousands of farmers who have adopt,
ed 1t have been obliged to pay him a
royalty, moderate estimate of which
is placed at 100000. The Spin:
window shade yields an income equal IL,
an investment Of $1,000, GOO; the stylu-
graphic pen, with which this article is
written, also s1,0O0,OO0; the marking z
pen for shading in different color3,
$100, 600; rubber stamps, the same. i
large fortune has been reaped bya West
ern 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 car
riage of pieces Of ore and heavy tools.
Fortunes have been made out of the
dead as we'll 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 coflin-lid, Just
over the face of the corpse. If 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 2 rope-ladder in the tube. II he pre-
fers, however, 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 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 woman pricks the shell
OF en 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 beat
do not thrive as well as others because
they miss the maternal affection ex-
pressed in the "cluck, cluck" Of the
natural hen, an inventor has taken ont
patent which initiates that sound,
soothing and charming the tender-beart-
ed but bereaved offspring with its artifi-
cial Groom and consoling the young
orphan with its mechanical solicitude.
This is based evidently upon another
patent for babies of a machine operated
by clock-work and producing low and
melancholy 1nurmur which 20 child,
however walzeful, 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 all egg,
and, combined with her own consc:en-
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 a beehive at night &n3
opens them in the morning, protectiu5
tie hive against the ravages of the bee
moth. 4 wire frame strung above a
horses head IS also patented. It IS
meant to persuade the animal that !. is
the top of fence too high for bill. t.
overleap. This, of course, presumes
that the horse is an ass.