The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1893-03-29
THE PATENT OFFICE.
Curious Things to Be Seen in Its
Precious Galleries.
Abraham Lincoln as an Inventor-Flyine
Machines by the Score-Devices for
Harvesting Storms and Waves
The Hen Persuader.
Especial Washington letter.

There is wit and wisdom, fun and
pathos, everywhere in the model room
of the patent Office. Every visit re-
veals some wonderful thought made
visible, but heretofore unseen. The
best models do not adequately express
the intricacies of the reasoning which
they are intended to convey; and sell
dom do they perfectly make manifest
the conclusions reached by their au-
thors. The solid thoughts of solid
men, wrought into valuable machinery
for trade and commerce or terrible en-
ginery for war, are not more interest
ing than the freaks of ingenuity dis
played on every hand The patent
Office museum is a place of interest for
the philosopher as well as the careless
sightseer. The amusement and enter
tainment of this wonderful place has
long since passed for me; and it was
with the Flooding thoughtfulness of
philosopher that l. went through the
patent Office with some friends this aft
ernoon. While they chatted and chat
tered about the peculiar things before
them, my mind was dwelling upon the
fact that this place was chamber of
horrors.
These devices for flying machines,
for perpetual motion, for aerial naviga-
ton upon many plans, and for other
schemes impractical for the present, are
interesting, it is true, SO long as one
does not look away beyond them and
see, in dark and dingy room, the in
ventor himself. But, when we remem-
Der that these curious devices emanated
not from unframed. uneducated brains,
but from strong and ambitious intel
lects, we can family imagine the disap-
pointments and sorrows Of the unsuc-
cessful inventors. Some of them lived in
attics, in crowded cities, with little raj
ment, and sometimes without food.
They could see before them nothing but
success and consequent wealth. Their
mirages faded away, alas, and in the
scar and yellow leaf of life they either
went over the hills to the poorhouse or
found final rest, after life's ftful fever,
in the potter's field, unloved, unnoted,
far from home and the loves of early
life, with unknown marked upon a
pine slab headstone.
One poor inventor, however, found am
pie success in after life; but not from his
invention. Had he depended upon that
one thing, and founded his hopes of life
solely upon that creation of his brain.
as SO many inventors do, his life would
have been failure. But, after placing
his model on file, he turned his mind to
the continuance Of his profession and
became great lawyer. The model is
in glass case along with other devices
which represent life's failure for many
poor people. It is like an accordion,
and was intended to be attached to the
bulls of river craft. to enable their nav
igators to float them over shoal places,
or release them when stranded. These
accordions were intended to be i'm
mense air bags, to be inflated in case of
necessity, and used as buoys. Their in
ventor signed his name abraham Lin
colin" and he afterward became presi-
dent of the United States. His name
is household word in this land and
will always be familiar to the school
children of America. But, as an in
ventor, he is wholly unknown.
One of the peculiar devices for navi-
eating the waters is boat to be pro-
PEELED by a gigantic windmill, but little
smaller than the boat itself It never
probably occurred to the inventor that
calm at sea would render his wind
mill device delusion and fatal snare
to the vessel using it, and to the passen-
gers travelling by that method of pro-
pulsion. Another inventor, however,
believing in the windmill theory, made
an improvement ~ upon it, by provid-
ing treadnill on deck, to be worked
by horse power to make the windmill
revolve. This invention with its i'm
provement probably represents the
wasted efforts of two ambitious lives,
and suggests again the chamber of hor-
rors. It is rivaled by another model
which provided in the hold of a vessel
a great engine which is intended to
pump water into the bow Of the boat,
and pour it upon water wheel
fixed at the stern of the vessel, the OBJ
iect being to force the boat along by