The Opelousas courier., 1893-12-02
PRIZES ON PATENTS.
How. to Get Twenty-Five Hun
dred Dollars fog Nothing.
Winner has a Clear Gilt OF a
Small Fortune, and the Losers
Have Patents that may.
Bring them in Still
More.

Would you like to make twenty-five nun
dollars? If Won would, read carefully What
follows and you may see II way 10 40 H.
The Press Claims Company deyotes nl'lch
attention to patents. 1t has handled nous.
ands of notifications for Inventions, Dnt II
would like to handle thousands more. mere
il nlenty of inventive talent at large IN thiS
country, needing nothing but encouragement
to nroduce practical results. That encourage
ment the Press Claims Company proposes 10
give. a
NOT so HARD AS 1T SEEMS. &
A patent strikes most people as an HV
pallingly formidable thing. The idea ls that
an inventor must be "A natural genius, like
Edison or Bell that he must devote years 10
lelving in complicated mechanical problems
and that he must spend a fortune on delicate
experiments before he can get q new device
TO n natentahlc degree of perfection. ms
delnsion the company desires to dispel. 1t
desires to get into the head OF the public d
clear comprehension OF the tact that 1t Is NOT
the great, complex, and expensive Inventions
that bring the best returns to their authors,
but the little, simple aud cheap ones-the
things that seem so absnrdly TRIVIAL mat 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 lnVrlI-
lions have not been sufficient TO pay the cost
OF MS OK ItIlIltlltS. hut III man H' WIN
ceivcd the idea of fastening a bit of rubber
cord 10 d chiId'a ball, so that it would come
back to tho hand WHEN thrown, made u Tor
tune ont of his scheme. The modern SrWIng
machine is a miracle of ingennity-the pr"
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 Ell MOST VALU-
ABLE.
Comparatively few people regard them
selves as inventors, bnt almost every body has
been struck, at one time or another, with
ideas that seemed calculated to reduce some
of the little %trictlons OF hte. Usually such
ideas are dismissed 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
backs? exclaims the traveller. If L were
running the road | would make them in such
a way
what was the man that made this sauce
nan thinking of! grrmhles the cook. He
never had to work over & stove, or he would
have known how it ought to have been
fixed
"Hang such a collar buttonV gr"wls the
man who is late for breakfast. "it L were III
the business I'd make buttons that wouldn't
slip out, or break off, or gouge ont 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 ear windows, saucepans, and collar
buttons into practical shape, and then apply
for patents, 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.
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 resolved to
offer il 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 following condi
tions:
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
plication and take ont a patent in the regular
way. The total expense, including Govern
meui and Bureau fees, will be seventy dol
lars. For this, whether he secures the prize
or not, the inventor will have a patent that
ought 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-
cation:
Il submit the within described invention
in competition for the Twenty-Five hundred
Dollar Prize offered by the Press Claims
COmpaDV.