The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1893-08-03

electric and elevated railways. A dis
pute over contract, which he desired to
escape from, on the grounds of his minor
ity, made an interesting case not, long
ago before the Commissioner of Patents.
Samuel ker Is years old, has patented
a self-feeding pen. Others boys have in
vented useful devices for electric signal
ing, telephoning, and cigarette making.
George G. Pyle, of Wilmington, Del, at
the age OF IL, patented a machine which
turns out sixty horseshoes a minute. He
sold it for sum sufficient to lift the
mortgage off his fathers home. In fact,
1T was this purpose which inspired him
to undertake the task of invention.
Formerly inventions were nearly al
ways made hap-hazard. People hit upon
them accidentally. Now the discovery OF
The inventor is a skilled man, employed
by firm of manufacturers with the lln7
Outstanding that all his inventions shall
belong to them. The Westinghouse
| Company, for example, picks up trained
| electricians all over the world, SETS them
to work and gives them every conven-
fence for producing new industrial appll-
| cations of electricity. These salarled IN
ventors are excellently paid. Electricity
| is the great field for invention now.
Twenty thousand electrical patents have
| been granted since 1880.
The patented devices utilized in shoe
making are more numerous and more
valuable than those employed in any
other industry or art. This country
turns out 1000, 600 sewing machines every
year, and these do the work of II, 600, 600
women. Mr.. Platt, speaking in the
United States Senate in 1888, said that
two-thirds of the wealth of the United
States was due to patented inventions.
Few known fortunes exceed that OF Cy-
rus Mccormick, inventor of the machine
harvester, who died worth $40, 200, 900.
The Westinghouse air-brake has earned
millions of dollars. Bell, the telephone
man, is ulti-millionaire. Edison, like
Bell and Mccormick, began life poor.
He is worth at least 81 100000 to-day, and
probably much more.
Sir Henry Bessemer's discoveries in
steel-making brought him great wealth
and many honors. He came to London a
poor boy from country village. In
two years he was pursuing a method of
his own invention for taking copies of
antique and modern bas-reliefs in a man.
ner that enabled him to stamp them on
card board, thus turning out an infinite
number of Embossed copies of the highest
works OF art at small cost. This pro-
cess, if made known to the INSCRIPTIONS,
would have opened d wide door to fraud;
for by it's means there was not a govern
ment stamp, nor paper seal OF corporate
body, which any common clerk could
not forge in few moments to absolute
perfection. The disclosure of it at that
time would have shattered the whole sys-
tenn of the British stamp Office. The
secret has been carefully guarded to this
day At the period referred to it was
reckoned that the British government
lost $780, 900 annually by the fraudulent
transfer of old stamps to new deeds and
other legal papers, the tax being thus
evaded. Bessemer invented new sys-
tenn, which was adopted by the govern
ment, but he never got even thanks for
it..
Not SO many cranks besiege the Patent
Office now as formerly. The attorneys
through whom they make their applica-
tions try to shut them off. No other in
ventors value their ideas so highly as
they do. Commonly they are afraid to
reveal their plans, lest they be stolen.
The perpetual motion lunatic is always
shopping around the great
PATENT OFFICE AT WASHINGTON,
though he is sat upon with steady de-
termination. If the words perpetual
motion" are mentioned in his papers, his
mony is sent back to him and his APP
peal is firmly declined. To get around
this difficulty, he usually calls his ma
chine motor The final resort for
getting rid of him is to demand work
ing model as a condition necessary be-
fore his claim can be further considered.
That stumps him every time.
The flying machine cranks likewise
bloom perennially. Some of them would
navigate the air after the manner of
birds, with folding wings and gigantic
tail-feathers Others rely on balloons,
with propellers. Others yet depend on
revolving fans both to lift them in the
air and to give an impulse in any de-
sired direction. A promising device is a
kite of vast area, with fish-tail for
steering, and basket suspended be-
Meath; another is an air tricycle., to be
padded with the feet.
Perhaps the meanest of all swindlers
are those who, prey on poor inventors.
They look over the Gazette, issued by the
Patent Office, every week, and get the
names of those to whom patents have
been newly granted Then they write to
each one, saying, "We see that you have
got a good thing. We know certain
parties who will put it on the market,
$40 to cover the cost of negotiations
The inventor perhaps borrows the money
and forwards it by mail. Subsequently
he is informed that SIS more will be re-
quired, and in this way he is worked
until nothing more can be got out of
him. A man will often write to the
Patent Office in good faith, saying that
he has something great, and asking the
government to put up the cash required
for placing it ON the market. But Uncle
Sam does not do business that way