The Opelousas courier., 1893-10-07
PRIZES ON PATENTS.
How to Get Ts Twenty-Five Hun.
dred Dollar 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 ike 10 mako tWeuIJrufS AuH
dollars7 If you would, read carefully what
follows and you may see a way to do 1t. -,
The Press Claims Company deyotos much
attention to patents. 1t has handled th0us-
ands Of applications for inventions, but 1t
would like to handle thousands more. There
is plenty Of Inventive talent at large III TINS
country, needing nothing but encouragement
to produce practical results. That encourage
ment the Press Claims Company proposes tc
give.
o so HARD AS 1T SEEMS.
A patent strikes most people as an APP
pallingly formidable thing. The idea Is tnat
an inventor must be Il natural genus, llke
| Edison or Bell that he must devote years to
delving in complicated mechanical prooiems
and that he must spend IL fortune on delicate
experiments before he can get IL new device
| to a ratentable degree of perfection. This
delusion the company desires to dlSpel. Ii
desires to get into the head of the public a
clear comprehension OF the fact that 1t 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 lnVen.
tions have not been sufficient to pay the cost
OF his GXp6ElLu6uUS- ouU Ii man NV I'm
ceived the idea of fastening a bit of rubber
cord to a child's ball, so that it would come
back to the hand when thrown, made Il Tor
tune out of his scheme. The modern sewing
machine is a miracle of ingenulty--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.
,,vr, e ,rrv " ruyNcS ruE MOST XATTT,
ABLE.
Comparatively few people regard them
selves as inventors, but almost everybody has
been struck, at one time or another, will
ideas that seemed calculated TO reduce some
of the little ~frictions of life. Usually SuCl
| ideas are dismissed without further thought
"Why don't the railroad company make 1t:
| car windows so that they can be slid up ant
! down without breaking the passengers
hncks}" exclaims the traveller. If | were
| running the road l would make them in sucl
a way"
What was the man that made this sauce
pan thinking of" grumbles the cook, H
never had to work over a stove, or he would
! nave known how it nnght to have heel
! fixed"
Hang such a collar buttonH GROWS th'
man who is late for breakfast. "If | were il
| the business I'd make buttons that wouldn,
slip out, or break off, or gonge ont the bach
of my neck"
And then the various sufferers forget abou
| their grievances and begin to think OF some
thing else. If they would ait dow nj th'
next convenient opportunity, put their idea
about car windows, saucepans, and cola
buttons into practical shape, and then appl,
for patents, they might find themselves a
INDEPENDENTLY wealthy as the man who in
vented the iron umbrella ring. or the on
who patented the fifteen puzzle.
A TEMPTING OFFER.
To induce people to keep track of tlel
bright ideas and see what there is IN them
the Press Claims Company has resolved Il
offer a 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 in cash, in addition t.
refunding the fees for securing TIL
patent.
It will also sdvertise the invention
free of charge,
This offer is subject to the following cond
tions:
Every competitor must obtain a patent 70
his invention through the company. He mus
first apply for preliminary search, the cost q
which will be five dollars. Should this scare
show his invention to be unpatentable, he CO
withdraw without further expense. Other
wise he will be expected to complete his az
plication aud take out a patent in the regula
way. The total expense, including Govern
ment and Bureau fees, will be seventy dol
lars, For this, whether he secures the priz
or not, the inventor will have a patent tia
ought to be Il valuable property to him. The
prize will bo awarded by u jury consisting O
three reputable attorneys Of Washineton
lowing blank, and forward it with their appli
cation: