The Opelousas courier., 1893-08-05
PRIZES ON PATENTS.
How to Get Twenty-Five Hun
dred Dollars for Nothing
The Winner has a Clear Gift of 4
Small Fortune, and the Losers
Have Patents that may.
Bring them i'll Still
More.

Would you like 10 make twenty-five hun
dollars? If you would, read carefully what
follows and you may see q way to do it.
The Press Claims Company devotes much
attention to patents. 1t has handled thous-
ands of applications for inventions, but it
would like to handle thousands more. There
is plenty of inventive talent at large in this
country, needing nothing but encouragement
to produce practical results. That encourage
ment the Press Claims Company proposes to
give.
A patent strikes most people as an APP
pallingly formidable thing. The idea is that
an inventor must lie a natural genius, like
Edison or Bell that he must devote years to
delving in complicated mechanical problems
and that he must sI,end a fortune on delicate
experiments before Ie can get II new device
to n patentable degree of perfection. This
d~elusiOn the company desires to dispel. 1t
desires to get into tho head of the public a
clear comprehension of the fact that it is not
the great, complex, and expensive inventions
that bring the best feturns 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 10 the attention of the
Patent Office.
Edison says that the profits he has received
from the patents on all his marvellous inveu
tions have not been sufficient to pay the cost
of his experiments. But the mar who con
ceived the idea of fastening Il bit Of rubber
cord to a child's ball, so that it would come
back to the hand wlien thrown, made Il for
tune out of his scheme. The modern sewing
machine is a miracle of ingennity-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 tho eye of the needle at the
point instead of at the other end.
- ---rr r., -rrrce = ~ .rs
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 ~frictiors of life. Usually slcl
ideas are dismissed without further thought.
WIN don't the lilroad company make its
car windows so teeT they can I've slid up and
down without breaking the passengers
backs9" exclaims the traveller. IF | were
running the road | would make them in such
a way
What was the man that made this sauce.
pan thinking off" gr umbles the cook. He
never had to work over a stove, or he would
have known how it ought to have been
fixed"
"Hang such d collar button - growla the
man who is late for breakfast. "Ii l were i'll
the business I'd make buttons that wouldn't
slip ont, or break off or gouge out the back
of my neck"
And then the various sufferers forget abont
their grievances and begin to think of some
thing else. If they would sit down at the
next convenient opportunity, put then ideas
about ear Windows saucepans, and collar
buttons into practical shape, and then apply
for pat1nts, they might find themselves as
independently wealthy as the man who in
vented the iron umbrella ring, or the one
who patented the fifteen puzzle.
nEEER.
To induce people to keep track of their
bright ideas and see what there is in them,
the Press Claims Company has resolved to
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 to
refunding the fees for securing the
patent.
It will also sdvertise the invention
free of charge.
This offer is subject. to the followingcondl
tions: i
Every competitor mast 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 Se unpatentable, he can
without further expense. Other
wise he will be expected to complete his ap-
p~lication and take out q 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 ave n patent that
to be a valuable' property to him.. The
prize will be awarded by Il jury consisting Of
three reputable attorneys of Washington.
Intending competitors, should fill out the fol
lowing blank, and forward it with their appli-
.. [ snhmit The within descrihed inuentinn |