Iuka reporter. (Iuka, Miss.) 1888-1894, 1893-07-20
Prizes on Patents.



Fortune. and the Losers Have
Patents that may Bring
Them In Still
More.
Would you like to make TWENTY-FIVE
hundred dollars? II you would read
carefully what follows and you may see
. way to do 1t.
The Press Claims Company deyotes
much attention 10 patents. Il has ham
died thousands OF applicatioDs for In;
ventiOns, but it wnuld like 70 handle
thousands more. Tnere Is plenty OF in
ventive talent at large in this country,
needing nothing but encouragement 10
produce practical results. That en-
couragement the Press Claims Company
proposes to give.
NOT so HARD AS IT SEEMS.
patent strikes most people as an
appallingly formidable thing. The idea
is that an inventor must be natural
genius, like Edison or Bell, that he
must devote years To delving IN COM
phcated mechanical problems and that
he must spend . fortune on delicate
experiment. before he can get a new
device to paten:able degree OF per-
fectiOn. This delusi0n the company
desires TO dispeL 1t desires to get into
the head OF tk 0blic clear compre-
hension Of the fact that 1t 10 NOT the
great, complex, and expensive lnven-
tions thai bring the best returns to their
suthors, but the little, simple, and
cneap ones-the things that seem SO
absurdly trivial that the average citizen
woulc feel somewhat ashamed of brlng-
inc them TO the attention of the Patent
Office.
Edison says that the profits he re.
ceived from the patents on all his mar
veiOus Inventions have not been suffici-
ent TO pay the cost of his experiments,
Blu; the man who conceived the idea OF
fastening . bit of rubber cord to
child's ball, 90 that it would come back
to the hand whom thrown, made f0r-
tune out OF his scheme. The modern
sewing machine Is . miracle of ingenus
ity-the proauct OF the toll OF hum
dreds Of busy brains through q hun-
dred 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 vAI.U-
ABLE. ~ y - -
Comparatively few people regard
themselves as inventors, but almost
everybody has been struck, at one time
or another, with ideas that seemed CAL
culated to reduce some Of the little fric-
tion of life. Usually such ideas are
dismissed without further thought,
"Why don't the railroad cnmpany
make its car windows so that they can
be slid up and down without breaking
the passenger backsp'' exclai.ns the
traveller. s'If l were running the road
l would make them in such way"
"What was the man tha. made this
saucepan th,nking Of" grumbles the
cook. 'He never had to work over
stove, or he would have known how 1t
ought to have been fiAed."
''Hang such collar button!" growis
the man who is late to breakfast. ssIf l
were in the business I'd make buttons
that wouldn't slip mt, or break of. or
gouge out the back OF my neck. y
And then the various sufferers forget
their grievances and begin to think Of
something else. Ittney would sit down
at the next convenient opportunity. put
their ideas about car windows, sance.
pans and collar buttons into practical
shapes and then apply for patents. they
might fad themselves a. independently
wealthy rs the man who invented the
iron umbrella ring, or the one who pat
ent0d the fifteen puzzle.
A TEMPTING OFFER.
To induce peOp.e TO keep tract Of
their bright ideas and zee what there V
in them. the Press Claims Company has
resolved to offer = prize.
To the person who submits to It the
simplest and most promising invention,
from commercial point Of view. The
company viii give twenty-five hundred
dollars in cash, In addition to rsfund.ng
The fees for securing the patent.
It vii. also advertise he invention
Tree Of charge.
This Offer u subject to the following
conditions: Every competitor musf
obsain . patent for hia inventien through
The company. He must first apply ior
; preliminary search, the cost Of vhIch
will be five dollars. Should this se.roh
show his invention 70 be unparentable.
be eau withdraw without further ex-
pense. Otherwise he will be expected
to complete his application and take
out : patent In the regular way. The
total expense. including Government
and Bureau fees. will be seventy dollars
For THE. whether he secures the prize
or not. the ipYeutor will have : patent
that ought 20 be valuable property to
him. The prize viii b awarded By =
jury consistiDg OF three reputable patent
attorneys OF Washington. Intending
competitors should fill out the following
blank. aud forward IL with their appli-
cation.
s -, l6S3
II submit the within described IN
vention In competition for the twenty,
i've hundred Dollar Prize offered by
the Press Clalms Company.