The Opelousas courier., 1893-07-15
PRIZES ON PATENTS.
How to Get Twenty-Five Hun
dred Dollars for Nothing.
The Winner has a Clear Gift of {
Small Fortune, and the Losers
Have Patents that may.
Bring them in Still
More.

Would you like to max twenty-five hun
dollars? If you would, read carefully what
follows and you may see a way to do it.
Tho Press Claims Company deyOtes much
attention to patents. 1t has handled th0us-
ands Of applications for inventions, but 1t
would like to handle thousands moro. There
is plenty of inventive talent at large i'll this
country, needing nothing but encouragement
Ito produce practical results. That encourage
ment the Press Claims Company proposes to
give.
NOT so HARD AS 1T aEEMS.
A patent strikes most people as an APP
pallingly formidable thing. The idea is that
an inventor must be q natural genius, like
Edison or Bell that no must devote years to
delving in complicated mechanical problems
and that he must spend q fortune on delicate
experiments before he can get a new device
to d patentable degree OF perfection. This
delusiOn the company desires to dispel. 1t
desires to get into the head of the public a
clear comprehension of the fact that it is not
the great, complex, and expensive inventions
that bring the best returns to their authors,
but the little, simple and cheap ones-the
things that seem so absurdly trivial that the
average citizen would feel somewhat ashamed
of bringing them to the attention of the
Patent Office.
Edison says that the profits he has received
from the patents on all his marvellous inven-
tions have not been sufficient to pay the cost
of his experiments, But the man who con
ceiyed the idea of fastening a bit of rnbber
cord to a child's ball, so that it would come
back to the hand when thrown, made IA for
tune out of his scheme. The modern sewing
machine is q miracle of in9enuity-the pro
duct of the toll of hundreds of busy brains
through a hundred and fifty years, but the
whole brilliant result rest upon the simple
device of putting the eye of the needle at the
point instead of at the other'end.
THE LITTLE Things THE MOST VALU-
ABLE.
Comparatively few people regard them
| selves as inventors, but almost everybody has
been struck, at one time or another, with
ideas that seemed calculated to reduce some
of the little %frictions of life. Usually such
ideas are dismissed without further thought.
"Why don't the railroad company make its
car windows so thatYwhey can be slid up and
down without brf King the passengers
backs 2" exclaims the traveller, eff | were
running the road would make them IN such
a way"
What was the man that made this sauce
pan thinking OFF," grumbles the cook. "He
never had to work over a stove, or IT would
have known how it ought to have been
fixed"
man who is late for breakfast. eli | were in
the business I'd make buttons that wouldn't
slip out, or break of, or gonge out the back
Of my neck"
And then the various sufferers forget about
their grievances and begin TO think of some
thing else. If they would sit down at the
next convenient opportunity, put their ideas
about Car windows, saucepans, and collar
buttons into practical shape, and then apply
for patents, they might find themselves as
independently wealthy as the man who ill.,
vented the iron umbrella ring, or the one
who patented the fifteen puzzle.
A TEMPTING OFFER
III. :al,oo noon1a fn lroon fr,ab Of th,;r
bright ideas and see what there is in them,
the Press claims Company has resolved to
offer II prize.
To the person who submits to it the
simplest and most promising inven-
ton, from a commercial point of view,
the company will give twenty-five
hundred dollars i'm cash, in addition to
refunding the fees for securing the
patent.
It will also sdvertise the invention
free of charge.
This offer is subject to the following condi
ti0ns:
Every competitor must obtain a patent for
his invention through the company. He must
first apply for preliminary search, the cost of
which will be five dollars. Should this search
show his invention to be unpatentable, he can
withdraw without further expense. Other
wise he will be expected to complete his ap-
p~lication and take out a patent in the regular
way. The total expense, including Govern
ment and Bureau fees, will be seventy dol
lars. For this, whether he secures the prize
or not, the inventor will lave a patent that
ought to be a valuable property to him. The
prize will be awarded by q jury consisting of
three reputable attorneys of Washington.
Intending competitors should fill out the fol
lowing blank. and forward it, with their annfi-
cation: