The Opelousas courier., 1893-07-29
PRIZES ON PATENTS.
How to Get Twenty-Five Hun
dred Dollars for Nothing.
The Winner has a Clear Gift of a
Small Fortune, and the Losers
Have Patents that may.
Bring them in Still
More,

Have Patents that may.
Bring them in Still
More.
Would you like to make twenty-five hun
dollars2 If you would, read carefully what
follows and you may see a way to do it.
The Press Claims Company devOtes much
attention to patents. 1t has handled thons-
ands OF applications for Inventions, but it
would like to handle thousands more. There
is plenty of Inventive talent at large in this
country, needing nothing but encouragement
to produce practical results. That encourage
ment the Press Claims Compo-G proposes to
give.
NOT SO HARD AS 1T SEEMS.
A patent strikes most people as an APP.
pallingly formidable thing. The idea is that
an inventor must be a natural genius, like
Edison or Bell that he must devote years TO
delving in complicated mechanical problems
and that he must spend a fortune on delicate
experiments before he can get n new device
to a patentable degree of perfection. This
delusion the company desires to dispel. 1t
desires to get into the head of the public Il
clear comprehension of the fact that it is not
the great, complex, and expensive inventions
that bring the best returns to their authors,
but the little, simple and cheap ones-the
things that seem so absurdly 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 inven-
tions have not been sufficient to pay the cost
of his experiments. But the man who con
ceived the idea of fastening a Bit of rubber
cord to a child's ball, so that it would come
back to the hand when thrown, made u 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 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 THE MOST vALU-
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 ~frictieas of life. Usually such
ideas are Observation-Disclosures further thought.
"Why don't thee4 abroad company make its
car windows so that they can be slid up and
down without breaking the passengers
running the road would make them in such
IA way"
What was the man that made?his sauce
pan thinking of" grumbles the cook. He
never had to work over a stove, or he would
have known how it ought to have been
fxed.'
"Hang such "a collar button y growls the
man who is late for breakfast. "If | were in
the business I'd make buttons that wouldn't
slip out, or break of. 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 car windows, -saucepans, and collar
buttonsi,-go practical shape, and then apply
for paten Is, 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 Undue 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 poison 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
1t will also sdvertise the invention
free of charge.
This offer is subject to the following condi
tions: Il
Every competitor must obtain a patent for
his invention through the company. He must
first apply for preliminary search, the cost of
will be five dollars. Should this search
show his invention to be unpatentable, he can
without further expense. Other
he will be expected to complete his APP
and take out a patent in the regular
way. The total expense, including Govern
nent and Bureau fees, will be seventy dol
lars. For this, whether he secures the prize
Or not, the inventor will nave a patent that
to be a valuable property to him. Thu
prize will be awarded by q jury consisting of
three reputable attorneys of Washington.
Intending competitors should fill out the fol-
lowing blank, and forward it with their appli-
Il submit the within described invention
n competition for the Twen&-fve hundred
Prize offered by the Press Claims
k----'
.O Blanks Inn This Competition.
This is a competition of rather an unusual
nature. 1t is common to offer prizes for the
story, or picture. or architectural plan,
I'll the competitors risking the loss of their
abor aud the successful one merely selling his
or the amount of the prize. But the Press
Claims Company's offer is something different.
Zach person is asked merely to help himself,
nd the one who helps himself to the best adj
'antage is to be rewarded for doing it. The