The Opelousas courier., 1893-12-16
PRIZES ON PATENTS,
How to Get Twenty-Five Hun.
dred Dollars for Nothing.
The Winner has a Clear Gift rs
Small Fortune, and the Losers
Have Patents that may.
Bring them in Still
Moro


Would y0u like to make tWGuty.tva bru
dollars! If you would, read carefully what
follows and you may see il way to do #,
The Press Claims Company deyotes m,oL
attention to patents. 1t has handled thn,a
auds Of applications for Inventions. hut i
would like to handle thousands more Thoro
is plenty OF inventive talent at large in this
country, needing nothing but ENCOURAGEMENT
. produce practical results. That cpc0nraao
lneut the Press Claims Company PROMISES r.
give. -"
NOT so HARD AS 1T SEEMS,
A patent strikes most people az an 8,
pallingly formidable thing, The idea ia tbapt
an inventor must be a natural genius, like
Edison or Bell that he must devote vears ~
delving in complicated mechanical pIrohlamo
and that he must spend a fortune on delicata
experiments before he can get a new devico
to a patentable degree of perfection. This
delusion the company desires to dispel, #
desires to get into the head of the pnhl;c o
clear comprehension of the fact that if ia mot
the great, complex, and expensive inventions
that bring the best returns to their authors
but the little, simple aud CheaD ones-tha
things that seem so absurdIy trivial that the
average citizen would feel somewhat ashamad
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 inven.
tions have not been sufficient to nav the coat
of his experiments. But the man who con.
ceived the idea of fastening Il bit of rubber
cord to a child's ball, so that it would coma
back to the hand when thrown, made A for.
tune out Of his scheme. The modern sewing.
machine is a miracle of ingenuity-the pro.
duct Of the toll of hundreds of busy brains
through a hundred and fifty years, but tbe
whole brilliant result rest upon the simnIe
device of putting the eye of the needle at the
point instead of at the other end.
THE LITTLE THINGS THE MOST yALU-
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 ]friCtlons of life. Usually such
ideas are dismissed without further thought,
"Why don't the railroad company make it's
car windows so that they can be slid up and
down without breaking the passengers
packs2" exclaims the traveller. eff | were
running the road | would make them in such
a way"
What was the maB that made this sauce
pan thinking OF" grunbles the cook. "He
never had to work over a stove, or he would
have known how it ought to have been
fixed"
Hang such a collar buttony y growls the
man who is late for breakfast. of | 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 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
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
It will also sdvertise the invention
free of charge.
This offer is subject to the following eondl
Every competitor must obtain d patent for
his invention through the company. He must
first apply for preliminary search, the cost of
will be five dollars. Should this search
his invention to be unpatentable, he can
withdraw without further expense. Other
he will be expected to complete his APP
ard take out a patent in the regular
way. The total expense, including Govern
nent and Bureau fees, will be seventy dol
lara. For this, whether he secures the prize
not, the inventor will have a patent that
to be IL valuable property to him. The
prize will be awarded by a jury consisting of
three reputable attorneys of Washington.
Intending competitors should fill out the fol-
blank, and forward it with their appli-