The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-04-13
MANS INVENTIVE GENIUS
IT FREQUENTLY RUNS IN WE'LL
WORN CHANNELS.

Cheap Inventions the Desideratum.
Electric Motors, Fire Escapes and
Cash Registers Popular, but Car
Couplings Lead - Women as In
! ventors.
From the Cincinnati. Enquirer.
The inventive genius Of man was never
more active than it is now. The wonderful
development Of science has led to the inven-
| ton OF millions Of devices. There have
been granted already 424, 94S patents in this
country, and thousands of applications are
being examined every day. Patent
agencies have sprung up in almost every
town and city in tine land. 1t seems really
true that the age of literature has given
way to the age of scientific inventions.
(Which way does mans inventive genius
seem to tend at present. asked reporter
Of a we'll known patent lawyer.
Toward cheap Inventions answered he.
This is essentially an age of utility, aud the
cheaper any practical invented device can
be made all the better.
Electric motors are probably claiming
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 furnished motive power
enough to propel a car the course of an or
binary round trip, when one battery 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 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 kind of ladder
which can be placed instantaneously outside
of building. 1t is decided novelty, and
beats anything yet out. 1t will prOba oily
be placed on Que of the new structures
| which are in course of construction in this
city now.
Gar 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. Everything pertaining to
cars, engines, railroad tracks or motor
power in any way has thousands of devotees
who are laboring TO invent something more
practical than anything in present Use.
Take car couplings, for instance. There
| have already been granted $4,000 patents on
| inventions 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 at
tention Of inventors is the ice machine.
| Some wonderful improvements have been
| made with those machines during the past
year The telephone formerly had its fol-
| lowers, but of late years they have de-
creased. The invention seems to have
| reached its perfection, at least for awhile.
The same is true with the graphophone.
These devices once created craze among a
| certain class Of inventors who, seeking to
follow Edison, thought that they could
| easily lmmortalize themselves by inventing
| something In this line. 1t takes man with
brains to attempt anything in which sound
or the science of acoustics plays such an i'm
portant part.
"Steam boilers, railway signals, firearms,
especially heavy artillery, and other such
| things are also popular just now. Car
heaters are being greatly improved. too"
"Do women invent many things"
"a 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 invention of ladies. Many
other practical things are the result of
woman's genius. An inventive woman has
| a great deal of persistency. and will hold on
as long as there is ghost of show in Sc
curing patent"
SIS it generally difficult to secure a
| patent"
That depends very much. In devices
of the same class it requires a 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
l norma a
patent. There are always thousands of
| applications being considered, and the time
of the patent commissioners is pretty we'll
| taken up most of the time