The Mason County journal. [volume] (Shelton, W.T.) 1886-1927, 1890-07-04
BENT OF MANS INVENTIVE GENIUS.
II Runs Toward Storage Batteries and
Car Couplings at Present.

It Runs Toward Storage batteries anu
Car Couplings at Present.
(Which way does mans inventive ge-
MUS seem to tend at presents" asked a
reporter of well known patent lawyer.
"Tow I'd cheap inventions" answered
he. "This 5 essentially an age of utility,
and the cheaper any practical invented
device can be made all the better.
Electric motors are probably claim
ing the attention of as many inventors
as any other one thing. Storage batteries
are the desideratum. They are placed on
cars, under the seat, and furnish motive
power enough to propel car the course
of an ordinary round trip, when one bat
terry is taken out and another substituted,
and so on, thus avoiding the use Of all
the machinery now necessary. Many OF
these storage batteries are good, too.
Electric lights have a good following,
too, among electrical inventors. The
tendency is to produce something good
and cheap.
"Fire escapes and smoke consumers
claim the attention of many practical
inventors. Some excellent devices have
been recently patented. One invention
is a kind of ladder which can be placed
instantaneously outside of building.
It is q decided novelty and beats any
thing yet out. It will probably be placed
on one of the new structures which are
in course of construction in this city
now.
Gear brakes of all kinds are always
being invented. In fact, the attempts to
secure cheap and rapid transit by means
of some mechanical device are perhaps
as numerous as anything else. Every
thing pertaining to cars, engines, rail-
road tracks or motor power in any way
has thousands of devotees who are labor
ing to invent something more practical
than anything in present use. Take car
couplings, for instance. There have al
ready been granted $4,000 patents on in
ventions of that class. Many other things
pertaining to the safety of men who are
employed on railroad trains are patented
nearly as often. But Car couplings prob
ably lead.
"Cash machines, cash registers, penny
slot machines, and such contrivances are
popular, too, with many inventors. An
other practical device which claims the
attention of inventors is the ice machine.
Some wonderful improvements have
been made with those machines during
the past year. The telephone formerly
had it's followers, but of late years they
have decreased The invention seems to
have reached its perfection, at least for
a while. The same is true of the graphic
phone. These devices once created a
craze among a certain class of inventors
who, seeking to follow Edison, thought
that they could easily immortalize them
selves by inventing something in this
line 1t takes man with brains to at
tempt anything in which sound or the
science of acoustics plays such an i'm
portant part.
"Steam boilers, railway signals, fire.
arms, especially heavy artillery, and
other such things, are also popular just
now. Car heaters are being greatly i'm
proved, too"
''DO women invent many things?"
GA great many household devices and
domestic labor saving machines are in
vented by women. For instance, churns,
cradles, sewing machine devices, and the
like. Corsets and all such improvements
are generally the inventions of ladies'
Many other practical things are the re-
suit of woman's genius. An inventive
woman has great deal of persistency,
and will hold on as long as there is a
ghost of a show in securing patent"
sis it generally difficult to secure a
patent?'
"That depends very much. In devices
of the same class it requires complete
change of combination in order to secure
a patent. A slight change of some part
or parts is not sufficient. A great many
things must be borne in mind when seek
ing patent There are always thou
sands of applications being considered,
and the time of the patent commission
ers is pretty well taken up most of the
time. "-Cincinnati Times-Star.