The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-08-06
MONEY IN PATENTS.
Small Inventions That Have Won
Fortunes.
More Valuable Than Gold Mines.
Millions in a Shoe Peg or a Heel
Plate - Toys That Have Coined
Cash.
From the Washineton star.

| tunes. The patent Office records are full
of tri6iug suggestions that have won
riches for lucky thinkers. More than half
Of them have been hit upon by accident.
Most thoughts are blanks in the lottery
of the human mind, out now and then out
| pops a prize. Catch it on the fly, and
you needn't do any more work.
For example, take little metal paper
| fastener, used to keep the pages of docu-
ments or manuscripts together Though
but trife, it made wealth for J. w. Me
| Gill, who invented it in 1867 The rubber
| pencil tip was devised by Philadelphia
man, Hymen L. Lipman, in 1858. 1t
| earned 300, 900 for him. 1t was in the
! same year that George A. Mitchell got
! patent for the metallic shoe tip. His APP
| plication for exclusive rights covered shoe
| tips of silver and all other metals, but
| copper was preferred From that time
on every boot-maker who sold shoes with
| copper toes had to pay royalty, which
| enriched the originator of the idea. An
! immense amount of money was made by
| William d. Ewart out of an improved
attachment for machine harvesters called
a driving chain"
An improved pattern of tbumb-latch
| was produced by Philos Eli and John A.
| Blake of New Haven. Thirty thousand
| were sold during the first year, and the
| brothers reaped a small fortune. 1t is
| reckOned that 81 5000 has been made
| out Of the simple device of metal plates
| for protecting the heels and soles of shoes
| and boots. No less than 143, 600, 600 of
! them We're manufactured in 1887. The
notion of utilizing the feathers of chick
| ems, turkeys, geese and other domestic
| fowls as a substitute for whalebone in
women's cOrsets has been worth more
| than fairly productive silver mine to its
| inventor. The quilts are woven into
! strips of what is called "feather-b bone A
man named Garfield first conceived the
| notion of making arm pit dress shields
seamless, with a sheet of cloth-covered
rubber. 1t brought him an income of
! many thousands year.
Heaton, who hit upon the notion of a
metal fastening for buttons, doing away
with sewing, got a fortune by it. A
wooden screw proved a mint for Thomas
J. Sloan in 1916 The man who invented
wooden pegs for shoes was B. F. Sturte-
want. The idea brought him millions of
dollars. He lived near Boston and went
crazy later on. The barbwire fence was
worth more than 81 600, 900 in royalties to
its originator Formerly many eggs got
broken on their way to market by rail A
countryman conceived the idea of packing
them in trays Of pasteboard, with q sepa-
rate compartment in which each egg
might stand upright The happy thought
was worth d furtune, and such traVs are
now universally used. An ingenious Chi
naman of San Francisco named Cheang
Guam Wo made quite pile of money out
of gusset for reinforcing the pockets of
overalls miner was equally lucky with
an eyelet, to be sown at the mouth of the
coat or trousers pocket, so as to resist
the strain caused by carrying heavy tools
or pieces of ore.
fThpt.a ,ung n In, h., i
glass bell, hung over a gas jet. to prevent
the ceiling from being blackened Big
money has been made out of a pen for
shading in different cOlOrs and a darn
ing weaver for repairing stockings, has
likewise been immensely profitable The
ball-and-sOcket glove fastener was pat
ented in this country by a Frenchman
named Raymond whose idea has proved
golden. Rogers got an independence for
life out of his screw wire nail. A com
mon needle threader has brought an in
come of $4,000 year to its inventor
Patents for gold, silver and copper tin
sci yarns, for upholstery, have fetched
profit of S375, 900 Paul E. Wirt's fountain
pen has made him rich A peculiar
crook in the wire of a recently patented
hook-and-eye is producing hundreds of
dollars day. The roller skate earned
cool million for the person who caught
the idea as it fioated in his brain and put
it into tangible shape.
COMMON SENSE NECESSARY.
A self-made millionaire was quoted
awhile ago as saying that one of the best
ways for young man to make money
quickly was to rack his brains until he
found something the public wanted, and
to supply it. Common sense may be more
useful to the inventor than mechanical
education In using bath bricks for
cleaning knives, housewives formerly
found that the most troublesome part of
the job was scrapiug the powder from the
brick. One day it occurred to somebody
to sell the brick ready powdered in neat
packages, and he got fortune by it,
Everybody knows how troublesome it is
to pick coins off a smooth counter. A
way to get over this difficulty suggested
itself to thoughtful person who prompt
~ devised rubber mat, with rubber
bristles standing up all over it. From
this the coins can be picked up as easily
as if they stood on edge. Henceforth
this thoughtful person will NOT be com
PEELED to toll for his livelihood.
Few inventions pay better than pat
ented toys. The ''return ball - with a
rubber string, earned an income Of S5O, coo
a year for the individual who struck the
notion. Two playthings that go by clock
work-the walking alligator and the
dancing negro have each won a large for
tune. Inc 'I'lgS IN Clover was worth ]
thousands of dollars a week while its
popularity lasted Those odd little fire
works, called "PharOah's Serpeuts,n !
which excited attention as a novelty some
years ago put $4,000 into the pocket of
their originator The idea was suggested |
by certain chemical experiments. That
ingenious plaything, known as the |
wheel of Life" Melted 500, 600 The |
familiar chameleon Top" which gave
such pretty play room lessons in the com
position of colors, was another very profit |
able toy.
WOMEN AND CHILDREN AS INVENTORS.
Thus far no woman's invention has been
greatly profitable to its originator The !
most successful patent granted TO a per-
son of the gentler sex up to date is the
ice cream freezer, now universally in use |
II was the idea of Mrs. Nancy NJ Johnson |
who died in Washington three years ago
at the advanced age OF ninety-fve. She
was the widow of "a professor in the
Smithsonian Institution. Rights on the
freezer were taken out in lS43 Up 10
that time ice cream had always been
made by stirring it with spoon. Mrs
johnson might have secured a great for
tune for the device, but she sold it for
81 800 Another Washington woman, Mrs
4. II. Woodal, not long ago invented an
attachment 10 the type-writing machine
by which the carriage is made to glide
back automatically to the beginning of the