The Opelousas courier., 1893-06-10

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.
NOT so HARD AS 1T SEEMs.
A patent strikes most people as an ap-
p~alliDgly 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 be must spend a fortune on delicate
experiments before he can get Il 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 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 invelr
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 IL for
tune out Of his scheme. The modern sewing
machine is a miracle of in~genuity-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.
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 withC further thought.
why don't the railro"s~ company make its
car windows so that they can he slid up and
down without breaking the passengers
backs 2" 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 of" gru1nbles the cook. d He
never had to work over a stove, or he would
have known how it ought to have been
fixed"
"Hang such a collar button T. 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
buttons into R~sSSactical shape, and then apply
for patents, Shey might find themselves as
independently wealthy as the man who in
vented the iron umbrella ring. or the one
VII" patented the fifteen puzzle.
A TEMPTING OFFER.
To induces people to keep track OF their
bright ideas and see what there is in them,
the Press Claims Company has resolved to
offer n prize.
To the person who submits to it the
simplest and nos 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 following condi
tions: Il
Every competitor must 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 be unpatentable. he can
withdraw without further expense. Other
wise he will be expected to complete his APP
piication and take ont a patent in the regular
way. The total expense, including Govern
lars. For this, whether he secures the prize
or not, the inventor will have a patent that
to be a valuable property to him. The
prize will be awarded by a jury consisting of
three reputable attorneys of Washington.
competitors should fill out the fol-
lowing blank, and forward it with their appli.