The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-10-29
Motion the .Favorito
Subject for Dreamers OF
Dreams Impossible.
Discovery of vulcanixed RUB
ber, the Maine Cane, E~tc.-Pr0fts
Realized From. Inventions.

XAOA00 AAoy VAAbtsA - ~AfO OSAS
and a man may 20 forth among his fellows
n s%usponder security and know not what it
3 to trembls for the safety of his clothes
Or wish . wife and the trouble she causes.
The name Of this benefactor is unknown.
Hs was a humanitarian. and gained nRught
BY his knowledge but the gratitude Of his
fellow man.
Inventors have always been objects OF in
tsrsst. Poets have sung of them, novslists
have dwelled upon them, and the play
wright uses them with great effect when
money is need at the right time to battle the
villain.
The list of curious inventions would
I'll a bookcase, odd and ingenious, useful
and useless, in the past, in the present,
from the Bessemer steel process to the man
who heated a kettle full of water, bored a
hole in the horse pond with an augur and
bcalded the fish to death.
One hundred and forty Thousand per-
petual motion machines have been invented
and $4,000 car couplers. And yet man de-
ponds on motion not perpetual, and 5000
brakemen are killed and MANNED each year
with the still used link and pin hand coup
ling. The most elaborate inventions have
sometimes ruined their promoters, and the
most simple have sometimes made million
hi-es of their promoters.
The elder Goodyear, when but a boy
mixing some soft rubber and sulphur to-
kether on a hot stove, 80 the horrible stencil
would drive the folks from the house and
give him a chance at the cupboard where
The pies were, saw the heated vegetable n
mineral particles mix, then coagulate and
Ln~lz- orl 80 x>1As f0p rNiA nvd IN in
g~enious, though unpleasant way to clear
The house to got ut it, had invented vul-
cunized rubber. the most useful and widest
known Of materials to-day in manufacture
and commerce.
A drunken shotmaker in the good old
days when shot were moulded one at . time
by hand dreamed he was drunk and it
Fained hot lead and he was out in the
shower. There was snow on the ground.
md the lseden rain turned to bullets. He
woke up after the alligators left him, and,
after emptying the wash pitcher, deter
mined to try his dream. He climbed to the
top of a tall, old tower n flung q ladle-
full of hot lead down into the ditch below;
then he ran his hands down through the
water and mud on the bottom and hunted
the lead. He found it. His dream was
true; the lead pellets were of different size,
but perfect in shape.
The hot sieve II shot tower with water
lat the bottom followed. and the dream that
the shoemaker draamt while horribly drunk
was the means of his becoming immensely
wealthy and being able to drink himself to
death like a gentleman in two years.
The photographic pom brought $500. 900 to
its inventor nd trouble ana evaporation
on it's users. The India rubber tips on
pencils were worth 100000; metal plates
for tho sole and heels of boots $1,250,0 600.
A minister invented a toy that Melted him
1900 a week.
The sixteen puzzle sent men to the mad
house and its inventor to congress. The pigs
in clover made 800. 600 for its inventor and
brought palsy to happy homes. The roller
skate inventors made, several of them, from
one to a half million dollars. The little
wooden balls, with a guin string and finger
ring attached, that would. return to the
hand when flung, were sold for one cent
apiece, but the man who made them got q
profit clear of $4,000 a year. Dancing
Jim Grow also made an income for its
originator. This gaudy toy was $45,ON a
year to him.
The common needle threader made $780, 900
for it's inventor. The copper cap for chill
dren's shoes, in style fifteen years ago, made
the children of its inventor worth $2,OO0,00O.
Before the days of stem-windinQ watches,
when keys were used, some bright joweler
put a hole through the key barrel, like the
eye in q needle. so it could be cleaned
easily whom clogged with dust, and
patented the idea. He is worth $50, 900, to-
day, and thek ey-winding watches ara obso-
lets. Before the days of spring blinds, when
curtain cords and catches werc used, Col.
Horace Besley, then county clerk Of ALE
ghany county, Maryland. invented a cord
and oatoh that worked like a charm. A
curtsin-fixture man offered him 100000 for
it. He refused, and kept up negotiations
for a year for $780, 600. The roller blind
was then sprung on the public, and Col.
BesIey's patent wasn't worth a tinsmith's
adjective.
Visitors at Washington last winter will
remember tho old Englishman who e1hib-
tied a safety car of his own invention on
the streets by the model of it running on
an moline plane. His idea was to save
Republic. The engine ran 100 yards ahead
and pulled it by a chain; the minute the
engine stopped and the chain became slack
the car stopped automatically. The old
Englishman was insane over his invention.
He sold . printed explanation Of it that
contained a TRADE against the air-brake as
mn invention Of the devil, and 30 made a liv-
ing. His idea was that in case Of q collision.
the engine going through a draw, or ACCT
dent or the like, the car would stop and the
passengers lives be saved. He had many
years ago invented an oil can. A simple
thing, but it had made him q fortune of
$4,000 All this he had spent in paying
for experiments with his safety car in Eng
land, Franco md America. The utter I'M
praoticsb,lity OF the car on down grades
aud under other circumstances had been
shown timo and again, but he still believes
its worth will be recognized some time and
his namo, through it, will rank with Steph-
enson and Watts.
The nickel-in-the-slot machines have
made and unmade thousands. and yet still
new inventions of tho kline pour into the
patent Office at the rate of three u day. The
new way OF making rain by sending up bal
looms laden with dynamite and exploding
them Mt n high altitude. n new experiment
with un old idea, has been a doubtful suc-
cess In New Mexico and arid Arizona, md
now company has been formed which
pliers to send II lain at any time to drought
diatricts nc the nominal charge of 10 cents
IN acre.
The two modern inventions may be COM
blned, and before many years we may be
able to obtain II sun shower bv dropping n
dime in the slot, which will press tho but
ten and the dynamite will do the rest.
In the wi!ds of West Virginia the dcpred-
atory porkor set the housewife wild with
rage by rnising the gates by their snoutB
and destroying the Qatden aass. A genius
OF SwoDe Conner. kanawha county, whore
everybody owns hogs and expects them to
be fed by his feighlors, Invented u pig
bnfilor in the shape vi u hog latch, and
made II West Virginia fottuEe OF $40 bv
selling them 10 HIS neigiibors.
Thu hog latch is all its me claims for
it,. The harder tho hog husties the tiphte
goes tho gate. but to the man or child the
gate opens Il ehsily to tiotouch az heavens
portals to tho country editor.
The hogs run wild in the woods now. md
II the gate has II hog latch and tho fence ~