The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1893-08-18
PRIZES ON PATENTS.
HOW TO GET TWENTY-FIVE HUNDRED
DOLLARS FOR NOTHING.
The Winner has Clear Gift Of Small
Fortune, and the Losers Have Patents
that May Bring them in Still More.

Would you like to make twenty-five
hundred dollars? If you would, read
carefully what follows and you may see
way to do it:
The Press Claims Company devotes
much attention to patents. 1t has
handled thousands of applications for in
ventions, but it would like to handle
thousands more. There is plenty of in
ventive talent at large in this country,
needing nothing but encouragement to
produce practical results. That encOur-
agement the Press Claims Company pro-
poses to give.
NOT so HARD AS 1T SEEMS.
A patent strikes most people as an ap-
pallingly formidable thing. The idea is
that an inventor must be natural genius
like Edison or Bell; that he must devote
years to delving in complicated mechani-
cal problems, and that he must spend a
fortune ON delicate experiments before
be can get 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 clear
comprehension of the fact that it is not
the great complex and expensive inven-
tions 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 re-
ceived from the patents on all his mar
velous inventions have not been suffi-
cient to pay the cost of his experiments.
But the man who conceived the idea of
fastening a rubber cord to ball, so that
it would come back to the hand when
thrown, made fortune out of his
scheme. The modern sewing machine is
a miracle of ingenulty-the product of
the toll of many hundreds of busy brains
through hundred and fifty years, but
the whole brilliant result rests 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 VALUABLE
Comparatively few people regard
themselves as inventors, but almost
everybody has been struck. at one time
or another, with ideas that seemed calcu-
lated to reduce some of the little frictions
of life. Uusually such ideas are dis
missed without further thought.
"Why don't the railroad company
make its car windows so that they can
be slid up and down without breaking
the passengers backsn' exclaims the
traveller. ''If were running the road
would make them in such a way"
what was the man that made this
saucepan thinking OFF" grumbled the
cook. HE never had to work over a
stove, or he would have known how it
ought to have been fixed"
"Hang such 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 something else. If they would sit
down at the next convenient opportunity,
put their ideas about car windows, sauce
pans and collar buttons into practical
shape, and then apply for patents, they
might find themselves as independently
wealthy as the man who invented the
iron umbrella ring, or the one who pat
ented the fifteen puzzle.
A TEMPTING OFFER.
To induce people to keep track of their
bright ideas and see what there is in
them, the Press Claims Company has re-
solved to offer prize.
To the person tUhO submits to IL the sim
plest aud most promising inuentiOn, from
commercial point OF Cletu, the company
mill give twenty-five hundred dollars in
cash, in addition to refuuding the fees for
securing the patent.
1t ,oiu also advertise the patent free OF
charge.
This offer is subject to the following
conditions:
Every competitor must obtain patent
for his invention through the company.
He must first apply for a preliminary
search, the cost of which will be five dol
lars. Should this search snow his inven-
ton to be unpatentable, he can with
draw without further expense. Other
wise he will be expected to complete his
application and take out a patent in the
regular way. The total expense, includ-
ing Government and Bureau fees, will be
seventy dollars. For this, whether he
secures the prize or not, the inventor will
have patent that ought to be valuable
property to him. The prize will be
awarded by jury consisting of three
reputable patent attorneys of Washing
ton. Intending competitors should fill
out the following blank, and forward it
with their applications:
-, 1892.