The Kootenai herald. [volume] (Kootenai, Idaho) 1891-1904, 1893-10-07
PRIZES ON PATENTS
The Winner Has a Clear Gift Of
$2.5oo. and the Losers Have
Patents That May Bring
Them In Still More.

"""U iOHo"s ana you may see "a way to
do it.
The Press Claims Company devotes much
attention to patents. 1t has handled thous-
ands OF applications for inventions. but
1t would like TO handle thousands more.
There is plenty Of inventive talent at large
IN this country, needing nothing but eneour-
agement to produce practical results. That
ENCOURAGEMENT the Press Claims Company
proposes to give.
NOT so HARD AS IT SEEMS
a patent strikes most people as an appan
ing formidable thing The idea is that an
inventor must be natural genius. ike
Ellison or Bell; that he must devote years TO
delving ia complicated mechanical problems
and that he must spend a fortune on delicate
experiments before he can get a new device
to patantable degree of perfection. This
delusion the company desires to dispell 1t
desires to get into the public a clear com
prehension of the fact that it is not the
great complex, and expensive inventions
mat bring the best returns to their authors,
but the little. simple and cheap ones-the
things that seem so abruptly 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 invens
lions have not been sufficient to paw the
cost OF his experiments But the man
who conceived the idea of fastening a bit OF
rubber cord to child's ball so that IN
would come back to the hand when thrown,
made fortune out OF his scheme. The
| -fTlrr obi 80,
genuity-the product, toll OF hundreds of
busy brains through a hundred and fifty
! years, but the whole brilliant result rests
upon the simple device of putting the eve 81
the needle at the point instead of at the
other end.
THE LITTLE THING THE MOST VALUABLE.
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 without further thought.
why don't the railroad company make
its car windows so that they can be slid m
and down without breaking the passengers'
| backs?" 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 OFF, grumbles the cook. He
never had to work over 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. eff were in
the business d make buttons that wouldn' t
slip out 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. Ii they wonld sit down at the
next convenient opportunity, put their ideas
about the car 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 a prize.
To the person who submits to it the sim
plest and most promising invention. from a
commercial point of view, the company will
give twenty-five hundred dollars in cash, in
addition to rounding the fees for securing
the patent.
1t will also advertise the invention free of
charge.
This offer is subject to the following condi-
tons
Every competitor must obtain patent for
his invention through the company. He
must tirst apply for preliminary search, the
cost OF which will be FIVE dollars ShouId
this search show his invention to be unpat-
entable he can withdraw without further
expense. Otherwise he win be expected to
complete his application aud take out a pat
: ent i'll the regular way. The total expense
including 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 a jury consisting OF three reputable pat.
ent attorneys, OF Washington. Intending
competitors should ill out the following
blank and forward it with their application:
'----, ----, 1898
II submit the within described invention
! in competition for the Twenty-Five hundred
Dollar Prize offered by the Press Claims Com
pany.
NO BLANK IN THIS COMPETITION
This is a competition OF rather an unusual
nature. tits common to offer prizes for the
best story, or picture, or architectural plan
Z all the competitors ,risking the loss o
5 their labor and the successful one merely
selling his for theplice. But the Press Claims
Company's offer is something entirely diff
ferents Each person is asked merely to helE
himsel aud the one person who helps him
self to be best advantage is to be rewarded
for doing it. The prize is only stimulus tC
: do something that would be we'll worth do
ing without it. The architect whose com
petitive plan for club house on a certain
corner is not accepted has spent his labor
> on something OF very little use to him. But
the person who patents simple and usefu
: device in the Press Claims COmpany's com
( potion, need not worry if he fails to seCur,
the prize. lie has a substantial result tC
show for his work-one that will command
E its value in the market at any time
The plain man who uses an article in hi
rrrnf 70 l-r,rNx ha4r 10, -