The Opelousas courier., 1893-09-16
Pn1ZES ON PATENTS.
How to Get Twenty-Five Hun
dred Dollars for NOthin@
The Winner has a Clear Girst-Cia!
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 thOns
ands of applications for inventions, but i
would like to handle thousands more. Their
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.
NOT Sc HARD AS IT SEEMS.
A patent strikes anOst people as an APP
pallimgIy formidal@Ohing. The idea is thai
an inventor must be ii natural genius, like
Edison or Bell that he must devote years tC
delving in complicated mechanical problems
and that he must spend a fortune on delicate
experiments before he can got IA new device
to u 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 invon-
tons 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 IA for
tune out of his scheme. The modern sewing
machine is a miracle of ingenuity-thc pro
duct OF the toll of hundreds of busy brains
through a hundred and fifty years, but the
whole brilliant result rest upon tho 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 it's
car windows so that they can be slid up and
down wit}Nlt breaking the passengers
backs = ex Bins the Traveller. IF / were
a a" H;ES;s IIT''a would make the" i" such
"Whas was the man that made this sauce
pan thinking Off" grunbles the cook. HE
never had to work over a stove, or he would
hays ave known how it ought to have been
Hang such a collar button! = growls the
man who is late for breakfast. ''If | were in
the business I'd make buttons that wouldn't
slip out, or break off, or gouge 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
into practical shape, and then apply
for patents, they might find themselves as
wealthy as the man who in
the iron umbrella ring, or the one
W~patented the fifteen puzzle.
A TEMPTING OFFER.
To induce people to keep track of their
ideas and see what there is in them,
the Press Claims Company has resolved to
a prize.
To the person who submits to it the
simplest and most promising inven-
ton, from a commercial point of view,
company will give twenty-five
hundred dollars in cash, in addition to
-efunding the fees for securing the
1t will also sdvertise the invention
rec of charge.
This offer is subject to The following condi
Every competitor must obtain a patent for
lis invention through the company. He must
apply for preliminary search, the cost of
which will be five dollars. Should this search
how his invention to be unpatentable, he can
without further expense. Other
wise he will be expected to complete his APP
,~lieation and take out a patent in the regular
way. The total expense, including Govern
nent and Bureau fees, will be seventy dol
ars. For this, whether he secures the prize
IT not, the inventor will nave a patent that
'ught to be a valuable property to him. The
'rize will be awarded By a jury consisting of
hree reputable attorneys of Washington.
Intending competitors should fill out the fol-
blank, and forward it with their appli
alton
"---.--. 1898
81 submit the within described invention
n onnDatitinu for tho Tuantr-6vo bupdra1