The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1891-04-28
NO PERPETUAL poIIoN PATENT.
Why the Government Stopped Taxing
the Fees of the Crenks.

the Fees of the Crsnks.
From the ST. Louis Globe De nocrat.
The patent Office has recently ceased to
be a purity to the fraud OF perpetual motion.
Until three years ago it was customary TO
take FIRST fees' 1919 from the perpetual
motion cranKs as well as from all other
wOuld-be inventors. Then, in course Of
time, letter was sent to the perpetual mo-
ton applicant telling him that his claim
was based upon an irrational principle, and
that he must furnish a working model. OF
course, that was the end Of the application.
The model never came and the fee remained
in the treasury.
About three years ago Principal Ex-
amlner William l. Augninbaugh went to
the commissioner and suggested that, as
rejection Of the perpetual motion claim was
inevitable, it would be 1alrer to refuse the
FIST fees OF such claimants and TO send
them a circular Immediately upon the
fling of their applications telling them that
no consideration would be gwen their
papers until a working model was filed.
IhIs course has been pursued ever since.
But repeatedly the discoyerer OF perpetual
motion has been very indignant at the
rejection of his rendered fee. One way that
has been adopted by the crenks TO get
around the new rule Intended for their
benefit is to drop the claim of perpetual
motion aud put in the drawings for a
motor" Notwithstanding the policy OF
the patent Office to discourage the perpetual
motion craze, and to save time and money
for people, at least two or three claims of
this character are put in every month.
Not long ago Kansas man claimed to
have set up the perpetual motion machine
and TO have it in operation at his home. He
wrote to the patent Office to know if the al
fidavit of Senator Plnmb would be accepted
instead of the working model as the basis
for patent. The examiner felt obliged t.
refuse. Sometimes the perpetual motion
inventor appears with pocket full of bear
ings and connections which he asks the
examiner to accept as evidence that he has
solved the problem. But the exa miner in
sists that he must see the perpetual motion
before he grants the patent.
Last summer New York lawyer named
Todd came all OF the way to Washington
with parts OF machine, and had quite
controversy with the office because the
patent was refused. He insisted that he
had seen the machine in operation, that it
was running day after day, and keeping a
cider press going TO boot. There was no
deviating from the rule. The lawyer went
back to New York, saying that he would
produce the machine. He was not seen again
until the centennial celebration this week,
when he reminded the examiner of the case
and told how he had been fooled. At
the time of making application the lawyer
really believed that his client had discov-
cred the long-soughs principle. But when
he got back to New York and told that the
patent had Teen refused the client con-
fessed. The perpetual motion was no mo-
ton at all. Power was concealed In the
cider press, 1t ran the press and the press
made the perpetual motion mac line go, too.
The inventor had been charging 10 cents
admission to see perpetual motion He had
fooled the public aud his lawyer, and he
hoped to pull through a claim.