The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1893-08-03
THE PATENT OFFICE.
The Small Contriyances Make The Fort
unes.

Small ideas are sometimes worth Tor
tunes The patent office records are full
of tri1ing suggestions that have won
riches for lucky thinkers. More than
half of them have been hit upon by accl-
dent. Most thoughts are blanks in the
lottery of the human mind, but now and
then out pops prize. Catch it on the
fly and you needn' do any more work.
For example, take little metal paper
fastener, used to keep the pages OF docu-
ments OF manuscript together. Though
but a trife, it made wealth for J. w. Nc
Gill,who invented it in 1867. The rubber
pencil-tip was devised by a Philadelphia
man, Hymen L. Lipman, in 1858. 1t
earned 500, 900 for him. 1t was in the
same year that George A. Mitchell got
patent for the metallic shoe-tip. His
application for exclusive rights covered
shoe-tips of silver and all other metals,
but copper was preferred. From that
time on every bootmaker who sold shoes
with copper toes had to pay royalty,
which enriched the originator of the
idea. An immense amount of money was
made by William D. Ewart out of an i'm
proved attachment for machine harvest
ers called "drive chainn
An improved pattern of the thumb
latch was produced by Philos, Eli and
John A. Blake, of New Haven. Thirty
thousand were sold during the first year,
and the brothers reaped a small fortune
1t is reckoned that 81, 500, 5000 has been
made out of the simple device of metal
plates for protecting the heels and soles
of shoes and boots. No less than lab, 600, :
600 of them were manufactured In 1885,
The notion of utilizing the feathers OF
chickens, turkeys, geese and other do
nestle fowls as a substitute Tor Whale-
bone in women's corsets has been worth
more than fairly productive silver mine
to it's inventor. The quilts are woven into
strips of what is called "featherbone.
A man named Garfield first conceived the
notion of making arm-pit dress shields
seamless, with a sheet of cloth-covered
rubber. 1t brought him an income OF
many thousands year.
Heaton, who hit upon the notion OF a
metal fastening for buttons, doing away
with sewing, got fortune by 1T. A
wooden screw proved mint for Thomas
j. Sloan in 1886 The man who invented
wooden pegs for shoes was BIZ. Sturve-
want. The idea brought him millions of
dollars. He lived near Boston, and went
crazy later on. The barbed wire fence
was worth more than 81, 600, 600 in royal
ties to it's originator. Formerly many
eggs got broken on their way to market
BY rail- A countryman conceived the
plan of hacking them in trays of paste
board, with separate compartment in
which each egg might stand upright
The happy thought was worth fortune,
and such trays are now universally used.
An ingenious Chinaman of San Francis
CO, named Cheang- Quan-Wo, made quite
a pile of money out of a gusset for rein
forcing the pockets of overalls; miner
was equally lucky with an eyelet, to be
sewn at the mouth Of the coat or trouser
pocket, so as to resist the strain caused
by carrying heavy tools or pieces of ore.
There was fortune in the inverted
glass bell, hung over gas jet, to prevent
the ceiling from being blackened. Big
money has been made out OF a pen for
shading in different colors, and darn
ing weaver" for repairing stockings has
likewise been immensely profitable. The
ball-and-socket glove fastener was pat
named Raymond, whose idea has proved
golden Rogers got an independence for
life out of his screw wire nail. A COM
mon needle threader has brought an in
come of 900 year to it's inventor.
Patents for gold, silver and copper tin
sci yarns, IOr upQOlSU6Fy, nave lebCucl d
profit of 1915, 600. Paul E. Wirts' foun-
tain pen has made him rich. A peculiar
crook in the wire of recently patented
hook and eye is producing hundreds of
dollars day. The roller skate earned a
cool million for the person who caught
the idea as it foated in his brain and
put it into tangible shape.
A self-made millionaire was quoted
awhile ago as saying that one of the best
ways for young man to make money
quickly was to rack his brains until he
found something the public wanted, and
to supply it. Common sense may be
more useful to the inventor than me-
chanical education. In using bath bricks
for cleaning knives, housewives formerly
found that the most troublesome part
of the job was scraping the powder
from the brick. One day it occurred to
somebody to sell the brick ready pow
dered in neat packages, and he got a
fortune by it. Everybody knows how
ublesome it is to pick coins off a
smooth counter. A way to get over this
difficulty suggested itself to thoughtful
person, who promptly devised a rubber
mat, with rubber bristles standing up
all over it. From this coins can be picked
up as easily as if they stood on edge.
Henceforth this thoughtful person will
not be compelled to toll for his liveli-
hood.
Few inventions pays better than
PATENTED TOYS.
The "return ball." with rubber
STRING. earned an income of $50. 600 a year