The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1890-08-07
MANY BURIED IDEAS.
ROBERT GRAVES WRITES OF THE
UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.
1t Contains Thousands and Thousands of
Models of Inventions, the Majority of
Which Have Never Yielded Their Origi-
majors AnythinS-Some Are Very Funny.
Especial Correspondence

| w
a government official the Other day, sis in
one of the public buildings. It is the GENE
terry of mems hopes, and the headstones
are funny contrfvances and machines
He referred to the museum of the patent
office, where are displayed the results of
almost generation OF inventive thought.
| To call it a cemetery was not far wrong,
for although many of the original ideas
represented there fructifed and brought
forth rich returns 60 their inventors, by far
! the greater part are monuments to disap-
pointed ambitions, dead and buried long
ago. Each of the thousands of models ar
ranged row upon row around the walls of
the museum has it's story to tell of hours
| of patient labor expended upon it, mo-
ments of exultation and times of deep de-
spair. Some, too, could tell of minds break
! ing under the strain, of broken health and
! final desperate plunge into eternity. In
! truth it is a cemetery in part, but not all
of it. One section is as humorous as Mark
! Twain, and some of the things for which
men have tried to get patents are as good
! Jokes as can be found in any photographers
| column.
Among the latter class is one which was
| devised for the production Of rain in dry
]
was accompanied by drawings and specif-
/ cations prepared in due form. The draw
| ings represent huge balloon, upon each
| side of which was attached an immense re-
! fiector. According to the statements Of
| the inventor, the balloon was to be raised
! to a convenient height above the earth, so
| that the rays of the sun should be caught
! by the refectors. These reflectors would
| then act as email sun and would attract
to the neighborhood of the balloon moist
IRE from the earth's surface just as the sun
does. So long as the balloon remained
| suspended there would be accommodating
t around it veporous cloud, and the only
thing necessary to produce a copious
! shower would be to haul down the balloon.
The cause of attraction being removed, the
cloud would condense and fall as water
upon the grateful earth.
It is not surprising that so much time
and labor should be expended in the effort
to discover some new thing or new ap-
plication of an old thing when it is con-
sidered what rewards are awaiting the sue
| cessful inventor. There are thousands of
| trifiing but useful articles from which
handsome incomes are derived, or for
which large sums have been paid. Thus
the rubber tip at the end of lead pencils
has yielded 800, 900 to the holders of the
patent rights. The evidence in a recent
legal action showed that the inventor of
metal plates used to protect soles and heels
of boots from wear sold upward of IL, OOO,-
600 plates in 1879, and in 1887 the number
reached 143,o00,000 producing realized
profits of quarter of a million of money.
A scarcely less lucrative patent was that
for simply putting emery powder on cloth.
The inventor of the roller skate made over
a million dollars from its use notwith-
standing the fact that his patent had
nearly expired before it's value had been
aScertained. The gimlet pointed screw has
produced more wealth than most silver
mines, and the American who first thought
of putting copper tips to children's shoes is
as well off as if his father had left him two
million dollars worth of United States
! bonds. Upward of $40, 900 year was made
by the inventor of the common needle
threader. Many other similar instances
might be recorded to show the prizes in
store for the successful inventor, but one
other viii suffice Every American boy
and almost every girl has at one time
or other been amused with the antics
of the return ball, a wooden ball with
an elastic attached. That simple toy yield
ed the patentee an income of 900 a year.
When such ren1unerations are paid to
the inventors of such small trifleS it is not
easy to con- lecture the enormous wealth
which must be awaiting the discoverer Of
that ''will-o'- the-wisp" perpetual motion.
Is it therefore wonderful that there should
be so many seekers after that which has so
persistently refused TO be foundf One man
IN Georgia was so sure that be had at last
discovered it that he walked all the way
from bis home to Washington in order to
secure his patent. His contrivance was a
peculiar one. It consisted OF tall frame
work, with four uprights, in which was to
be swung backward and forward the entire
trunk of large tree When the butt end
OF the tree in swinging struck a spring on
one side the spring was SGT loose and threw
the tree back toward the other size, where
it struck another spring, which in turn
swung it back TO the first spring, snd so
on. The only trouble with the thing, the
inventor said, was that it would go so fast
and WIS so difficult to stop when once
started. Ofcourse, the perpetual motion
ones obtained in this way, it was an easy
matter to transform it into power for run
ming mills or for any other purpose. The
model made according TO his Instructions
the model makers fault. One spring that
winds another up while it runs down it
self, and vice versa. without ceasing is
another kind of perpetual motion con-
trivance offered 10 many different forms.
One of the faEorite lines of investigation
for inventors is that OF aerial navigation.
There are almost as many flying machine
models in the nluSeu5n as there are for the
perpetual motion theory. Most of these
trY to initiate the machinery Of a bird as
nearly as possible, although some depend
upon balloon attachment to support the
weight OF the navigator, and use enor-
nous feathers made OF tin and silk
as a tail to Steer by. Others still !
believe that tho cid way of using in
clined fans or revolving sails may be
made 10 work. But they don't, some |
how. One TuRn has pinned his faith TO an
enormous kite with revolving sails and a
basket tied to the tail Another supports
by means of tEo balloons boat fitted with |
two paddle wheels and a steam propeller, |
like s. ship. And stin another has invent |
ed 81 ae<ia2 tricycle., supported 6y bal |
worked by the faet.
A very queer looking model for nsviga- |
ting the TateriS that OF a-shi2, one-sixth /
Of the fore part Of vAich<s made 20 reTolve |
by the mare progress of the boat, snd its |
revolution turns the propeller at the stern. |
A slight oSersighk sSout ElIis is, however, 4
that the Inventor mss made DO provision /
fer Stz1~tAHg tine vessel Another peculiar |
lookingSh thing shows aa Improvement on the |
ordinary method Of hosting sails by raising |