The Opelousas courier., 1893-08-26
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 make twenty-five hun
dollars? If you would, read carefully wha
follows and you may see a way to do it.
The Press Claims Company devotes mucl
attention to patents. 1t. has handled thoua
ands of applications for inventions, but i
would like to handle thousands more. There
is plenty of Inventive talent at large in thi!
country, needing nothing but encouragement
to produce practical results. That encourage
ment the Press Claims Company proposes t.
give.
o so HARD Assn SEEMS.
A patent strikes most people as an APP
pallingly formidable thing. The idea is that
an inventor must be a natural genius, like
Edison or Bell that he must devote years to
delving in complicated mechanical problems
and that he must spend a fortune on delicate
experiments before he can get u new device
to a 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 absnrdly 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
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 a for
tune out OF his scheme. The modern sewing
machine, is a miracle of ingenuity-the pro
duct of the toll of hundreds of busy brains
hundred and fifty years, but the
whole brilliant result rest upon the simple
inrInn NJ ptrf in In auo @f kIN xo~IIu 1
point instead of at the Otherteud.
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 f%rictions of life. Usually such
IDEAS are dismissed without further thought.
"Why don't therailroad company make its
EAR windows so that they can he slid up and
without leaking the passengers
exclairys the traveller. eff | were
'nnning the road | would make them in snch
way"
What was the man that made this sauce
IAN thinking OFF," grumbles the cook. "He
never had to work over a stove, % he would
Hang such a collar button y growls the
nan who is late fer breakfast. "If | were in
he business I'd make buttons that wouldn't
lip out, or break off, or gouge out the back
# my neck"
And then the various sufferers forget about
heir grievances and begin to think of some
hing else. If they would sit down at the
ext convenient opportunity, put their ideas
bout car windows, saucepans, and collar
buttons into practical shape, and then apply
or patents, they might find themselves" as
ndepehA 1ntly wealthy as the man who in
enteds the iron umbrella ring, or the one
Tho patented the fifteen puzzle.
A TEMPTING OFFER.
To induce people to keep track of their
and see what there is in them,
he Press Claims Company has resolved TO
Ter a prize.
To the person who submits to it the
implest and most promising inven-
on, from a commercial point of view,
he company will give twenty-five
undred dollars in cash, in addition to
sfunding the fees for securing the
atent.
It will also sdvertise the invention
ee of charge.
This offer is subject to the following condi {
Dns: 1
Every competitor must obtain IL patent for
8 invention through the company. He must
st apply for preliminary search, the cost of
hieh will be five dollars. Should this search
ow his invention TO be unpatentable, he can
without further expense. Other
Use he will be expected to complete his APP
ication and take out a patent in the regular
~. The total expense, including Govern
emit and Bureau fees, will be seventy dol
rs. For this, whether he secures the prize
not, the inventor will nave a patent that
ght to be a valuable property to him. The
ize will be awarded by o jury consisting of
rec reputable attorneys of Washington.
competitors should fill out the fol
wing blank, and forward it with their appli
ton: