The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1890-05-16
INVENTORS PRODUCTS.
MODELS OF INGENUITY THAT TELL
MANY SAD TALES.
hementOs of Brains to Be Seen in Legal
Curiosity Shop-Automatic Machines. Pain
nate Creations

NutAOsiIy SnOp-AuGOmAbEC1 1AScn1ECSs RAIN
Killers and Organ Attachments-Unfortu-
nate Creations.
On one side of the spacious fourth story Of
| the postoftice building are several large rooms
/ set apart for the use Of the clerks of the
/ United States circuit court. A veritable curl
| osity shop it is, and there ths writer recently
| spent an interesting half day examining, in
| company with Deputy Clerk Bradlee, the
numerous collections, for there are stored
nearly all the models and exhibits, the sub
| jects of innumerable patent causes adjudi-
| Gated In the circuit court since its establish
ment, nearly one hundred years ago.
| The law provides that all models and ex-
| hibits shall be kept in the custody of the
clerk, unless they are otherwise disposed of
/ by order of the court, and here, therefore,
| they are, with the exception Of small pro-
portion which have been sent to Washing
ton, whore an appeal has been taken from
the circuit courts decision
Some of the earlier Inventions are ridicu-
lously clumsy, fashioned to do work which in
these days is done bv R8ecbanismso of as greater
subtlety of design as that the modern loco
motive has over the graSsAoPper engine Of
| the early days Of rallreading Yet even
these crude machines reveal in their con-
strUction evidence that they are the parents
of the wonderful mecha1isgnS of our day, and
once in while one is brought into court for
the purpose of defeating a claim by showing
that it anticipated all the claims of the later
invention.
Here are models over which litigation was
hot and fierce for years, and which brought
to the successful ktigant wealth and riches
and honor, and others, like the improvement
in spindles for looms, which, had the plain
tiffs been successful, would have brought to
the latter millions of dollars in royalties.
REJECTED DEVICES.
In a corner is a ponderoas contrivance for
sewing shoes with wire, which only requires
the belt and pulley and the hand of the
skilled workman to set it in motion. and it
can do its work as haudily as in the busy
factory.
Side by side with this are the works Of
three or four parlor organs, which were used
in case which demonstrated that the tremolo
attachment was patentable invention, and
although it is many years since the organs
were placed here they give forth a creaking
music as the foot moves the pedals and the
fingers press the keys.
Near by are several little chairs for chill
dren, intended to be used as high chairs, or,
by the operation of lever, they can be con-
verted into a sort of perambuator.
Standing upon a shelf near the chairs is a
time lock for safes, which is the subject of
suit commenced many years since, and still
pending; the works under the glass covering
are still bright, and as the key was turned
and the springs adjusted the tiny wheels
sprang into motion and licked away as though |
it were but yesterday the work had been fin
ished.
Just over this on shelf, dangling from
bunch of dust covered papers, is a set of false |
teeth, brought into court for the purpose Of !
establishing a claim to a patent on dental |
vulcanite.
huge pile of papers and printed books OF /
dispositions in one corner of the room relate |
to the claims of the plaintiff in the once eel
ebrated Woodbury. patent planer case, which, |
had the plaintiff won, would have been worth |
to him, it is said, about $4,000, 900, but he
lost the case
SOME CURIOUS INVENTIONS.
Modern dress reform is recalled by dusty |
package of womens undergarments, which !
has lain undisturbed for now nearly quar-
ter of a century.
Several large bottles of a greenish liquid |
bring to mind the fact that Isaac Adams es-
tablished his right to the discovery of nickel |
plating and made fortune out of it.
Several of the models evidence that the |
greatest talent possessed by the inventor" /
was cheek. One Of these wanted patented |
an arrangement of dies for cutting leather |
soles, the invention consisting simply in plac !
ing the dies side by side with the heel and toe /
alternating that there was little waste of
material The court dismissed the invention /
for want Of novelty. Another person wished /
patented a somewhat similar arrangement of .
dies for cutting paper collars but he failed.
Still another sought TO patent process for
bronzing iron, which consisted merely in /
coating the material with huseed oil and |
baking it in an oven. 1t was, strangely /
enough, successful in several of the inferior !
courts, but the supreme court of the United |
States decided against him, and he celebrated /
the decision by blowing his brains out.
One ingenious machine is so constructed
that hide thrown upon it is automatically
measured and the number of square feet it
contains is registered upon dial, and the
most singular fact about this invention is
that two minds should have invented two
such machines as they are intended TO do the
same work, and each so closely resembling
the other
1t is a fact that great incomes have been
derived from very simple lnventions-for IN
stance, such as the combination of the spiral
spring and bird cage.
These two articles separately were familiar
to everybody and in general use, but oneday
it entered the mind of a fortunate man to
join the two together; 1T met long felt
want" and the courts decided that while
neither the spring nor the cage alone was
patentable, the combination was, and it is
stated that the inventor received from the in
vention an income Of over 5000 a year for
many years, if not during the entire life OF
the patent.
Another simple article, out Of which much
money was made, was the contrivance made
by attaching piece Of brass or steel, with
thin slot in the centre, to a piece Of elastic,
the combination being used IN holding up
children's stockings. Giobe