The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-09-03

instances to be justified. One could count
OH her fingers the women who can claim
anything that deserves to be called success
as engrevers. do not know personally of
more than one who can cut a face in style
that would be thoroughly acceptable to a
good workman. There are said to be three
or four who rank well as compared with
good men. The work Of women in engrav
ing shows the fault from which the work of
women etchers is comparatively free. There
are numbers of women who etch plate in
strong, vigorous style. but the wood en-
craving of women is apt to be petty, weak,
broad effect sacrificed to effeminate
detail. They drift often into fashion plate
engraving, which blocks the further ad
vance of an artist. The main difficulty, no
doubt with many of the women who try en-
craving is that they learn it as mechanical
work, while no success is possible to an en-
graver who is not more than little of an
artist, capable Of translating'a picture into
another art language, not simply copying it
with his tools. Photogravure work requires
art originality. More than this, art is u
jealous mistress, who requires a long APP
premiership which women seldom give to
any bread-earning pursuit
II want you to tell me something about
women inventors" said the other day to
W. R. Baird of New York, who knows all
about patents
''There are none," was the prompt re-
Spouse. l began to think that my chapter
on Women Inventors" would be as short as
the famous one on "Snakes in Ireland"
when Mr.. Baird somewhat qualified his
sweeping statement.
81 don't mean that there are absolutely
none, for of course that is not the case, but
as far as know, no important invention, no
improvement in mechanism which has af
fected industry and altered the conditions of
production, has been devised by a woman.
There is queer story connected with one of
the best paying things ever got up by
woman. 1t was corset, and she made
money out of it for awhile, until imitators
sprang up, and she was,scompelled to bring an
infringement suit, when the defendants
broke her patent by putting her own hus
band upon the stand and compelling him to
testify that he had seen his wife wearing
her invention four years before the patent
was taken out. This the court construed to
be public use within the meaning of the
statute which prescribes that a patent upon
an article in public use more than two
years is invalid The defendants won,
the patent became common property
and the bottom of that gold mine was
reached.
'Of course, a good many patents are
taken out by women for household cOntriv-
ances of one sort and another as their in
ventive genius naturally runs i'll that direc-
ton; but do not know of anything i'll that
line that has amounted to much Perhaps
the pillow sham holder is one of the best
paying of these. There is one trouble about
inventions which is calcl ated to veX and
harrow the sou S of women AID men, too.
They usually when they think the have an
idea, look for similar machines, and find
ing none, take it at once for granted that
the way is clear. Then they bring their
ideas to a specialist and he has to tell them,
if he is honest, that the distinctive feature
of the supposed invention has already been
patented in another entirely different
class of machine upon which hers though
usedfor different purpose, would be an
infringement.
"There is one class of invention" con-
tinued Mr.. Baird, (which is largely done
by women, though this does not appear in
the patent Office reports. Women make
many of the exclusive designs for carpets,
prints, oilcloths and other fabrics, but tie
designs are almost always filed by the big
factory firms who buy them, dozens or nun
dreds of them in year, ana the women get
no credit for them. have seen some talks
lately in the papers about q woman taking
out a patent for shaping barrels, which
may turn out something good, but also may
not"
Mrs Livermore in one Of her witty lect-
ures used to wonder why some smart woman
did not invent stove which would cook
the meat without at the same time cooking
the cook. Perhaps that is an impossibility,
but it certainly seems as if there was room
in the household for the inventive genius OF
women. if they have any, to igaten their
own and others burdens. E. P. II.