Omaha daily bee., 1888-02-24
Sheafe loans money on real estate.
s. B. Wadsworth & Co. loan money
THE TRIALS OF INVENTORS.
Difficulties the Genius Meets in Secuy.
ing Appreciation Of His Efforts.

b'C nIAIS VI ItNVGNIOnSs
Difficulties the Genius Meets in secuy-
ing Appreciation Of His Efforts.
The Washington Correspondent of
the st. Louis Globe Democrat writes:
1t is the little thing that brings the
inventor money!" says veteran official
of the patent Office. The man who pat
ented the idea of the return ball
nothing but sphere with an elastic
string, which brought it back to the
hand when thrown-made more money
out Of it than Morse made out of his
telegraph sender and receiver. There
was a fortune to the man who applied
the idea of ratchet lacing on shoes to
ladies' kid gloves. The bell punch was
another tremendously lucky hit. In
one city alone the rents to the inventor
for the use of his punches ran as high
as $500 a day.
Most people have an idea that pat
ent carries the Endorsement of value. II
doesn't do anything of the kind, as the
enormous collection Of utterly worth
less contrivances in the model room
goes to show. When the application for
the patent is laid before the examiner
he asks himself the question is this
something new. Having after consulta-
tion with the records answered himself
in the affirmative, he reports favorably
on the application. The question Of
utility never enters into consideration.
If it did would the inventor of the tape
worm trap have been able to obtain a
patent?
1t is hardly probable. The trap is
silver case, rounded at the top and bot
tom so as to present no rough edges.
top is ring, to which a strong silken
cord is tied. The idea is to have the
patient starve himself and his tape
worm as long as he can stand the
misery. Then the silver tube, with q
little food in the bottom of it, is lowered
down the throat and into the stomach,
where the tape worm is by this time in
mood to forgive. The tape worm
speedily scents the food in the tube,
pushes mis- head into the hole near the
top Of the cylinder, gets part of his body
fast in the jagged points within and is
hauled out.
roads seem ridiculous in this advanced
~
plan to save the time of stopping at
stations. His idea was curious
arrangement of circulor platforms. The
lower and outer platforms moved slowly;
the next one a little more rapidly, and
SO on. The passenger intending to take
the train stepped from one moving plat
form to another, s.rd when he reached
the last he was in motion at such rate
that he could step on a train gong at
pretty good speed,
Another inventor OF transportation
had an idea of making gravity do the
work of steam. He had a cable stretched
above the earth. At each station was
balloon which was anchored. This
balloon was allowed to rise and lift the
cable. Then the car attached would
run down hill to the next station.
A plan to increase speed was to have
several tracks, ,One above another. The
lower track was stationary. The second
track moved on the first at a rate OF
ten miles an hour. The third track
moved on the second at rate of ten
miles which made its total rate twenty
miles. In this way speed was increased
to the limit desired, but none OF the
wheels moved at a greater rate than ten
miles an hour. OF course these ideas
never got beyond the antiquated models
now indulge in mirth.
The prohibition movement has
prompted some queer inventions which
the patentees doubtless thought would
60 like hot cakes in Maine, Iowa, Kan
sas and the local counties in other
states. One OF these contrivances is the
anti-prOhibition cane. 1t is hollow and
has tube extending out just back of
the handle. 1t holds pint of whisky.
Then there is the whisl broom designed
for travellers n prohibition states. 1t
is pint flask cleverly surrounded by
what appears to be broom, but the top
of the handle unscrews and there is the
neck Of the bottle.
| throat?" is the invitation which goes
with this device.
Some inventor, who realizes how dis
agreeable is the custom of going out be-
tween acts, has patented a peculiar pair
| of opera glasses. His contrlvance has a
large cylinder between the two glasses.
| This tube has a neck which projects
| Just below the handles. The tube is
large enough to contain four or five
good ''nips." The glasses can be eleva-
| ted and the drink taken without excit-
ing any suspicion from those not in the
| secret.
The anti-prohibition literature is ex-
tensive. One sacrilegiOus inventor has
patented what appears to be a bible, but
what is really nothing but case for a
bottle, and another has chosen an imita-
tion outside OF one Of Dickens novels
for the same purpose.
| Any subject that engrosses public at
| tention is sure to set genius to work in
that particular direction. A year age
this winter there was series OF railway
horrors. Collisions and broken rails
caused wrecks, which speedily caught
fire from the stoves, and passengers
fastened in the debris were burned tC
death. Immediately the applications
for patents on heating devices for car:
began to pour in--forty, fifty and sixty
month. But it seems that none Of
them have met the long-felt want. The
trouble with patentees, who start out tG
meet one of these popular. demands, II
that they have one object in view ant
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