The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1886-07-07
PATENTS.
ENTERTAINING TALK WITH A
PATENT OFFICE EMPLOYE.
How Money is Made and Lost by
Patents-Some Patent Law
yers-Railroads and Inyen-
tions-Queer Patents.


course of a conversation with the Cleve-
land Leader correspondent:
"The extent of Ehe work of the Pat
ent Office is wonderful, and it increases
every year. There were 5000 more pat
ents granted last year than there were
ten years ago, and the applications filed
for patents last year numbered $4,000.
The Patent Office is the only Office of the
government, I think, that more than
pays its expenses. 1t has surplus of
over 30, 0O0, 900 in the Treasury Depart
ment, and 1t made clear $40, 900 above
all of its expenses last year."
"Do inventors generally make money
out of patents?"
'No, as rule the money is made by
people who buy or swindle the inventors
out of their rights. Inventors are nearly
always poor men. They work their
brains for their bread and butter. They
are visionary set of fellows, and have
not the money making sense. They get
in with business men in order to develop
their patents, and these euchre them out
of the profits. The man who invented
the elevated railroad in New York died
a door man, and while he was alive the
people laughed at his idea. 1t is so with
hundreds of other patents, and if you
will look over the history of the Patent
Office you will find it is the business men
who make the money, while the inven-
tors do the work. Some patent
lawyers make great deal Of
money, and there are number
in Washington who have grown
wealthy in the practice. There is man
here named Pollock who has made
fortune in the patent law. He had some-
thing to do with the Goodyear rubber
patent, and he has been prospecting ever
since. He owns a fine mansion on the
corner of Seventeenth and I streets,
and tried the experiment one time of
making q stable for his horses in the
basement. All the modern improve
ments, however, in the shape of water
would not do away with the smell, and
he finally gave it up as bad job. Many
patent lawyers, when they see that q
man has good thing, contract with him
to get out his patent for certain amount
of money and some shares in the stock
of the patent. They get paid for their
work with the money and have fair
chance of making fortune out of the
profits of the patent if it turns out well.
There are hundreds of patent lawyers
in Washington. Many of them are smart
fellows and all of them are making
money"
~ see they talk about having cable
street railroads here. Is there much ad-
vancement in this line of patents2"
eyes, indeed; there is great deal.
The cable road is comparatively recent
invention, and there are hundreds of
patents filed for grips and other things
connected with it. You would be sur
prised to know how many patents ore ap-
piled for for railroad inventions. New
ideas for rails, switches, and ties are be-
ing put forward every day. The railroad
tie of the future is yet to be patented. 1t
requires very good hard wood to make
tie, and this class of wood is being fast
cut out of the country. Railroad building
has reached such point that there is not
enough wood to supply the ties, and a
new Invention has got to be made. There
are now something under 300. 600 miles
of railroad in the world, and about 12O,-
900 miles of these are in the United
States. Ties wear out, and the time
will come wilsn there will he no wood to
replace them. We have already patents
given on glass ties, Lies of iron, and ties
made of paper and wood pulp. Another
set of articles that has been patented
largely of late years is fences and fence
posts. The old wooden fence has
seen its best days, and the wire
fence is rapidly taking its place. A.
great many inventors devote them
selves solely to making patents for kitch-
en- utensils, and others work upon ma.
chimes relating entirely to water. A
great many of the railroads and machine
shops and factories of various kinds keep
inventors who do nothing else but work
upon the specialties of the factories in
which they are employed. Women make
a great many patents, but these deal
chiefly with household matters, or with
their own work. There has been great
deal of electrical invention during the
past few years. and it is perfectly won
derful how rapidly the patents come in
after any success in any particular branch
of invention. A great accident always
brings in patents to prevent its occur
renee in the future, and when big fire
occurs at any of the big hotels with a
great loss of life the fire escapes roll in
BY the hundreds"
"Have you many patents for perpetual
motion2"
eyes, hundreds are applied for, but
they are not granted. l remember once
man walked from Kentucky to Wash
ington to patent perpetual motion, and
one of your Ohio newspaper men, not
long ago, telegraphed to the Associated
Press that the invention Of perpetual mo-
ton had at last been conceived some
where in Ohio. 1 should think that
Washington would be a good place for
an inventor to work. By going to the
Patent Office he could see all that had
been done in the line upon which he was
working, and he might see where cog
here or q wheel there would perfect some
patent which would be worth tens Of
thousands of dollars where it is now
worth nothing"
The Lion Throne.
Few of our contemporaries made any
special reference to the throne upon