The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1892-03-21
years, and millionaire Travelled around

years, and q millionaire Travelled around
the weird not long ago who got
his fortune out of a patent shoe
made over a million dollars out of
the idea, and the rubber tip which you use
at the end Of your lead-peneil brought in
10000 to the EDglishman who conceived it.
Tie children of the United States are ready
to pay large amounts to the lucky man who
Is able to think up new toy for them, and
there is department of patent toys in the
Patent Office. The Dancing Jim Crow paid
its inventor $4,000 per annum for long
time. and little, hall with rubber at
tached to 1T brought another man $4,000
per annum for years. Jointed wooden
snake paid its inventor more than $50, 600.
and another wooden figure brought in a
half million. Nearly everything you see in
use has been at one time or another pat
ented. and some of the most insignificant
things have been worth fortunes. 1t is said
that the inventor Of the stylographic pen
made million dollars out of it. Electrical
inventions have brought in millions to
many. Telephone Bell is rich beyond the
dreams OF avarice. Edison is worth his mil
lions, and all other connections OF the
great electrical inventors ride in their own
carriages.
You ask as to the inventions of women.
There are hundreds Of them in the Patent
Office, and women claim that Eli Whitney
got his idea from a woman for the cotton
gin. The making of pillow lace was in
Ntuttu Oy Il NQuldf. anu Tue dlcnl OlIlce
has given out patents to female inventors
for a submarine telescope, sheet-ir0R Shovels,
wedding machines locomotive ana railroad
car appliances, and for everything possible
In connection with women. Many OF the
fine improvements on the sewing machine
have been made by women. The principle
OF the icecream freezer was a woman's
idea, and i could cite you fifty good nven-
ti0ns for children which come from woman.
Que California woman has made over
IN nut of nof mt Ql Ava
there are quite number of women who
have become wealthy through their patents.
On the whole, however. the vast proper
ton OF patents are useless. We have
thousands Of ideas offered at the Patent
Office every year which are of the craZest
possible character. There are numbers of
applications for patents on perpetual mo-
ton. We get RID of these by asking the
applicant 10 give us working model OF his
invention. This, so far, no one has been
able TO give us. and the probability Is no
one will ever do 1t. Among cur cnriOsities
are many medical inventions. One is a
tapeworm trap. II is little gold capsule
about big enough to contain two grains of
Qulnine. Ii has little ring in the end of it,
and to this ring is fastened silk string. 1t
is made so it can be pulled apart and baited.
and ii works with a spring like sawtoOth
rattrap. The man who has a tape
worm starves himself for several DAYS in
order TO make his tapewOrm hungry, then
bats his trap and swallows it, holding
tightly to the string. When the tapeworm
makes for the bait, the trap goes off ana the
man hauls him out hand over hand. The
doctor who patented this trap said the ma
chine was practical. and that he had caught
! numerous tapewOrms with it. One Of the
oldest curioslties is q cannon pillow for use Of
pioneer when attacked by Indians. The
cannon is at the end Of the pigw and is
ready Tor use at all times. Another funny
thing is sheet-irOu cat, which is painted
with phosphorus, shines like fire and scares
all the other cats off the ruOf. There are
hundreds of queer patent gravestOnes and
patent collins, and there are lots of patents
10 prevent grave r0Oberies. There are canes
which you can use as spittoOns, umbrellas
which you can turn into chairs. and chicken
hObbleTS, which will walk rooster right off
the field If he attempts TO scratch the crops
W hen he has them on. There are. in short.
as many impTacticable inventions propOr-
tionately among those of the Patent Office
as you Will find impractical men III our prac-
teal everyday life.
The Patent Office is good school for thu
study OF human nature and human char
acter. In II you hnd represented every de-
ScTlptiOn OF the human mind, and in lis
models and in its drawings are stored up
the mental lives Of hundreds of thousands
OF souls Every patent granted represents
q dozen which have been rejected, and the
haif-milliOn-in round mum brrs-invention
recorded In the Patent Office represents
thousands OF stories stranger than the Wild
est visions Of fiction. Could they speak,
they would tell stories full of pathos They
would give dreams wilder than the stories
Of the Arabian Nights. and you would
find the facts connected with them more
pathetic than the saddest incidents Of the
novels Of Dickens, or the crimes aud in
justice recorded in the works of Charles
Reade The patents represent a few
milliOnalres anu tens of thousands of pau
peTs. They represent some happiness and
much misery. Over some of them men have
worried themselves into the insane asylums
of the country. and over others they have
studied and worked until hone deferred has
made their heart sick, and they have died
without seeing the success which afterward
came out of their great ideas. There Is no
stranger place in the United States than the
Patent Office at Washington, and the great
nOveists might here find plot fer many a
story. DAVID WECHsLEg
Washington, March IA.
Copyright