The evening world., 1894-09-28
FORTUNES IN INVENTIONS.
HALF A MILLION DOLLARS IN THE
DIME BANK PATENT.
An Ingenious Mechanic Driven In
snnc by Sudden Prosperity.

hHnc by sudden Prosperity.
"1f you want romance; II you want
stories Of gold blood, luck everything
that goes to make up the gamut Of hu-
man passion, come with mel to the Pat
'nt Office. and behind those cases filed
with dry-as-dust specifications and legal
phrasoology / viii show you skeletons
that once had red blood in their veins"
says Maurice Low in the Boston Globe.
Thus spoke a friend Of mine, one Of the
bcst-known patent attorneys in Wash
inEton, and th,n he walked across the
room and picked up from his desk one Of
those little cylinder banks to hold s.
worth of ten-ccnt pieces which were all
the rage few years ago. Holding the
toy in his hand, he sad:
! "Whcn you come to write the romance
of the Patent Office you can make "a
chapter of what / am going to tell you
| You remember the craze for these banks
a few years ago, and how 1t turned
! everybody to saving dimes, until at last
! there was an actual scarcity of that coin
created? Well, the history Of this patent
| Is worth while telling.
| 81 never advance man money on his
patents or speculate in them. That is
/
resent him in IA legal capacity before the
office. But one day a man came into my
! New York office with an idea which he
wanted to patent, and about which he
| wanted to consult me. | told him that
the fees and expenses would amount to
sl$5. .,o-
| in the world and | never expect to nave
| that much at one time
81 looked at the man, and looked at
the model and said to him: i have
| tab. In tor cot N n m
| but ] will pay all the expenses in connec-
ton with this patent If you will give me
a quarter interest in it
| "'Why? he asked.
| Because you have fortune there /
| told him.
"However. the man said he would see
| about ii. a few days later he came
back with his brother-in-law, who had
advanced the money l procured MS
patent for him.
"Now. to 20 back and tell you how
bank He was in the employ of the
Pennsylvania Railroad Company at Jer-
sey city, receiving IA salary OF N4 "a a
man, but had "A little knack for me
chanics. He was in the habit of spend
| ing his Sundays with his sister, and one
day when he called there he found his
nephew. child of about three years,
sitting on the floor shaking toy bank
| and trying to get the money OUT. Ills
sister explained that wheneyer the
|
he. like most children, was wild TO get
all the money out to count, and she
went on to say to her brother; hX
can't you invent bank which VII
show how much there is in it, and the
brother said he thought he could:
THAT gave him the idea, After he
made, and on Saturday nights he used
| to nut them in a basket, carry them
around to the toy shops in the neign3
borhood and dispose of them. He found
ouiy one ORA wback-he could not make
them fast enough to supply the demand.
After he had been doing business in this
way a few weeks he came in to see me.
He told me what he was doing ana then
went on to say: Mr. Connolly, do you
think you could ind some one who
would lend me 500? There is n,,v t9 9or
that amount and which is Just the thing
want for making my banks If ! can
get hold OF that factory | am sure
can sell all the banks ! can make
81 told him thought | could get him
the money and to come and see me In
the course of few days. Few Gays
think | need bother about finding him
that money, as he expected TO nave II
4; next week. l asked him where he was
going to get 1t from.
you will think that ! am embellishine
this story, because IT sounds so improb-
able. but | am simply relating the facts
ornament. He said he had lottery
ticket, and he expected it would draw a
= | prize But wait: let me tell this story
: of the lottery ticket. lie ana some other
make up pool and buy lottery ticket
each man to put in 81. When the time
came the others backed out, and only
| himself and one other, IA carpenter, put
in their dollars, The ticket drew 5000
with his share he bought out the
| Newark factory, and in short time had
| 800 men AT work turning out these banks
and even then he could not keep up with
orders. He was soon making clear
profit of $1,000 week. then $1,000, then
; almost that much II day. During the
was not of short duration, he made a
large fortune"
And what became of the MANI" ]
asked.
oh they put him in an insane asylum
: He couldn't stand prosperity. He lost
great deal of his money about as rap
, idly as ne made it, although fortunately
he put couple of hundred thousand OF
so in real estate, and which his wife
, now has"
but that's an exceptional case"
Not by any means" said another
patent attorney, who heard the story
Listen to this
"a few years ago New England
patent attorney was on his way from
his home to Washington on legal bust
ness before the Patent Office. En- route
another patent attorney came into tn,
car and the first one-Smith Wen cal
him for short-told his friend that h,
was going to Washington. This wa:
good news to his friend, who asked
!, him to execute a commission for hin
there. He proceeded to explain that
man in Washington of the name o
; Bell, but about whom ne knew very
! little. had some kind of patent by
which persons at distance could tall
to one another
1t isn't a perpetual motion ma
chine. is it? asked Smith, jokingly
, who, like all men having to do viii
patents, was rather skeptcal Of new
tangled ideas.
His friend went on to tell him tina
, the invention had something to do will
p electricity. the science of which wa
not very familiar to him. but he knew
Smith had devoted n great deal Of at
| tenton to that subject. and therefor,
he was the right man to investigat,
the invention. He told him as he un
derstood it, Bell had a working mode
Of his patent; that some very success
ful experiments had been made, hut h,
wanted capital 10 back his idea
= Bell, he said, offered To sell a half in
trrrst in the patent for very littl,
II