The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1886-08-16

uCM lutu. HC SUI uiNulV i'SSihbiN'
n large frog on wheels, with the piss
ton attached to the hind legs. These
latter were arranged to straddle the
track and rapidly kicked the ground,
thus supplanting the power of old
fashioned traction as motive force
in the moving of railway trains.
This man was in the insane asylum
befroe the examiners of the Patent
Office had determined whether his
was an interference" with George
Stephenson or not.
Another man in Delaware had
served in the artillery during the
war, and he conceived the idea of
scattering gun. His purpose was to
dispose of whole army at single
discharge of the wonderful weapon.
The gun was pivoted to swing hori-
zontally, and was intended to be
loaded with few bushels of grape
or canister, and held in opposition
to a strong spring resistance. His
plan was that the gun should be re-
leased from this spring resistance
and fired ut the same instant, thus
scattering its contents from right to
left or vice versa, covering an arc
and commanding right and left
TANKS Of 10000 infantry.
The examiners of the Patent
Office regarded this rs wonderful
novelty and most remarkable dis
covery, and under the law which re-
quires that any militars discoveries
by private citizens shall be first
submitted to the War Department,
before patent can be issued, the
Patent Office submitted this to Mr..
Belknap, who was then Secretary.
Mr.. Belknap wrote n neat little per-
sonal reply of thanks but inclosed to
the Patent Commissioners as his
only official answer copy Of the
famous "John Phoenix drawings
on the same subject. 1t will be re-
membered that "PhpniX" (Lieute-
nant Derby) invented wonderful
mountain howitzer that was to be
used only on narrow trails The
howitzer was to be strapped on
back of mule. The fun of the
thing was in the accompanying
drawings. One of these represent
ed the mule climbing over the rocks
with the gun on his back; another
showed the mules head and the
howitzer both pointed to the enemy
and the man ready to fire; the third
revealed the mule as he appeared
under consciousness, as he saw the
torch, that something was about to
happen, the force demonstrated the
centrifugal and scattering power of
the howitzer. The man had touched
off the gun and the mule was dane
ing in that circular way that mules
have when in doubt-he was boxing
the compass at mile minute.
Friend and enemy alike were scatter
ing behind trees and rocks. Even
then the Patent Commissioners and
the examiners did not see the joke.
They saw, however, that prior in
ventor had been in the field, so they
threw out the claim of the Delaware
artillerist on the usual ground of
''inteferences."
Once when Grant was President,
there came to the White House a
letter addressed to the President.
1t was from woman in Kansas,
who said she had read in the papers
that Mr.. Grant, before he went into
the army was poor, an that, though
he had won great fame, and was
then President, size did not doub,
that he was poor yet. She had Q
scheme to make him rich. She had
invented rn-sheller-a machine
that not only shelled the corn and sep.
Grated it from the cob but by the re-
versal of wheel at will it would
grind cob and corn together, and SC
furnish fine food for stock. The
lady inclosed some roughly drawn
plans, and asked, if Mr.. Grant"
would not get her Il patent and ac-
cept half interest in the invention
to compensate him for his trouble.
| But she added: "Mr Grant.
must ask you not to say anything
about this to my husband, for he is
jealous, and il might get us both in
trouble" ''Mr. Grant did not
"say anything to the husband, but
he did good naturedly send the
letter and its Enclosures over to the
Patent office to see if the innocent
woman might not in some way be
benefited. 1t turned out that the
idea of corn-sheller was original
and, with some notifications, and
after further correspondence through
the Patent Ollicc-this time with
the lady's husband, who did not
prove to be bit ''jealous"-a pa.
tent was granted. ''Rufe" ingalls,
got hold of this story, and whenever
he and Grant were together in a
suitable crowd Rufus would get off
this with great gusto. Rufus would
add (when he dared), "The Presi.
dent and j used TO shell corn to.
gether up in Oregon and Washing
ton Territory, but we didn't use any
such invention. Our cylinder was
made of glass, and we got away
with many bushels. "-[Chicagt
Herald.
Harriet Beecher Stowe, it is said