The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-11-10
STEALING INVENTIONS.
OTEER MEMS PRODUCTS RUTH
LEsSLY APPROPRIATED.

eTout Are Due are OOOheo 70 sur
Ter Want While the Appropriations
Wax Wealthy.
From the Neg York Press.
The story Of poor Deyhle. the old in
eentur who became so distracted over the
loss Of his profits on his patent reflector
that, on the borderland Of responsibility,
he touched the trigger which sent Gesswein,
ths wealthy manufacturer, to his death,
brings up anew the subject of the mis-
FORTUNES and miseries Of inventors. The
invenbor Is generally poor man, and on
his track is apt 20 be some INSCRIPTIONS
capitalist, who will not only not hesitate 70
seize the benefits Of the poor fellows years
of toll, but will fight him in the courts. and
put obstacles in his way which shrewd at
rorneys, backed by money, can readily
make insur mountable for the under dog IN
the fight
Another phase Of the unequal struggle of
The inventor arises from parallelism IN lines
of discovery where several men are en-
gagged In developing the same general prin-
ciple, all Of them nearing the goal after
years of endeavor, and one of them step
ping 70 the front 70 take the prize.
Ga top Of this comes an element in the
neck and-neck race which is an easy one for
the cuiprit 70 fall back upon, and which in
literature "a termed unconscious cere-
bration,n and which, In the history Of in
vention, is more aptly called unconscious
appropriation
WITH CHRISTIAN FoRTITUDE.
When Charles Goodyear. the great New
Haven inventor, was plunged into what
for most men would have been despair-but
what was not such for him, in view Of his
abiding christian faith-by the attacks OF
fhe benefciaries made rich with his patents,
who begrudged him even the small royalty
which would soon die out with his patent
he wrote as follows:
Inventors are the children of misfortune
and want. Probably no class Of the COM
smunity receive a smaller compensation for
their labors than do inventors. Their hard
fortune often calls forth the expression of
pity and compassion from the public. while,
at the same time, there are too many ever
ready 70 encroach upon their inventions
without their knowledge or consent. How
ever valuable or important an improve
ment may be, 1t seldom happens that the
Tightful owners are benefited by it."
The ''encroachmentn upon the inventions
of others, as Goodyear mildly put it, took
= virulent form in his case. Two years be-
fore the expiration Of his patent be sought
its renewal His inventions had enriched
capitalists who had put novel goods upon
the market and had been enabled to de-
Velop an industry which at the time James
Parton wrote his life of Goodyear had
reached the annual proportions Of $780,
900. Upon bis inventions Goodyear was
getting only q small royalty. AS soon as
his application for q renewal Of his patent
was made, the wealthy cormorants who had
been arnassing fortunes from his brains
began bitter assaults upon him for
the virtual purpose Of stealing, by So
called lawful methods Of procedure, the
lifswork Of the inventor. The air was filed
with tales of the enormous revenue Good
year had received In the way OF royalty.
When his tmpecunious condition was
pointed Out, it was charged against him
that IL was his own fault. because of his
RECKLESS and extravaganza habitat Vitu-
psratfon and insults were heaped on the
man In order to break him. James T.
Brady showed up the nature of these as
saults and their mendacious character before
congress. II was not the fault Of his assail-
ants that they did not get away with all
the fruits Of Goodyear's inventions. When
he died his estate was 500, 900 in debt.
A NOTABLE EXAMPLE.
There are those who do not hesitate to
say that the famous George Stephenson
appropriated" the ideas of Richard Treve-
thick for his 'traveling enginen-Stephen-
sons first term for the locomotive-the
"Blucher." Trevethick was a captain in a
Cornish tin mine, brilliant man, of whom
Samuel Smiles in his life of George
Stephenson" says: "With half the clever
ness and double the application, he might
have successfully worked out the problem
of the railway locomotive and kept ahead
Of all competitors" He got out his patent
for a steam carriageh-a four-wheeled
coach run by steam boiler and furnace-box
attached 10 the rear axle-March "a, 1902.
The bellows TO quicken combustion were
fffF Awln aNkr
This was the first high-pressure
engine conducted on the principle of NOV
ing the piston by the elasticity of steam
against the pressure only of the atmosphere
the great novel feature OF the invention be-
ing that the piston not only was raised but
also depressed. The point to be borne in
mind is that Trevethick in this engine car
ried the steam blast into the chimney. This
engine was the famous 'Black BLY, which
was seen by Clergyman one evening, who
ran rapidly away, exclaiming that he had
seen "a terrible devil on the High Bridge
road" The value OF the steam blast in the
chimney, which Trevethick used only Incl
dentaly to "get rid Of a nuisance was not
properly understood" as Smiles puts it.
"until Stephenson illustrated Its impor-
lance, being, in fact, the very lifeblood Of
the locomotive engine"
The statement of Smiles has an important
bearing on the present subject, for it has
Deem charged that Stephenson studied
Trevethicks engine on the sly and ''appro-
priated" the idea Of carrying the steam
blasts into the chimney" or smokestack.
It seems a matter OF wonder In those
days when Kelley keeps his motor in the
innermost sancrum of secrecy, and "Prof.
Freund throws the air of intense mystery
around his electric sugar swindle-both
having gained strong point over investors
under the pretense that secrecy is necessary
In order to prevent the stealing of their
ideas by others-that Stephenson should
have had every opportunity to inspect the
Trevethick engine at leisure. Yet such was
the case.
Blackett Of Wylam, place near Killing
worth, where Stephenson was at work.
made an improved Trevethick engine, using
smooth wheels instead of those with protu-
berances, deemed necessary by Trevethick
for friction, thus "paving the way for Ste
pbenson," as Smiles puts it. Stephenson
used TO walk over to Wylam nearly every
day TO inspect the Trevethick engine, and
there 1t was, after seeing it, that Stephenson
exclaimed that he could make better en-
CINE than that" His Butcher" on first
trial at Kilhngsworth, July %, 1874, proved
of doubtful value because of the even bal
auce presented by it between the economy
OF horse and steam power. Then he took
up Trevethick's use of the steam blast in the
Smokestack, and. as Smiles saws ttthus