The Iuka vidette. (Iuka, Miss.) 1894-1912, 1894-10-18

plans lest they be stolen. The per-
petual-motion lunatic is always around
the great building ut Ninth an i
streets. If the words perpetual mo-
ton" are mentioned in his papers his
money is sent back to him and his up
peal is firmly declined. To get around
this difficulty he usually calls his ma
chine motor" The final resort for
ing model as a condition necessary be-
fore his claim can be further consid-
cred. That silences him every time.
But whilesthe working model cannot
be produced, the wheels continue to
revolve in the lunatics head, and he
remains of the same perpetual motion
opinion still; but he ceases to annoy
the examiners and other officials
There are some scrap books down In
the pa tent office basement which tell
wonderful stories of the great fortunes
which have grown out of small IDEAS
There are undeveloped gold mines in
the brains of men, if they could only
strike the proper lead in their pros
pecting. The scrap books tell us that
little metal paper fastener made
wealth for Mr. McGill who invented it
in 1867. The rubber pencil tip was de-
vised by Philadelphia man, Hymen L.
Llpman, in 1858. 1t earned 500. 900 for
him. 1t was in the same year that
George A. Mitchell got patent for tho
metallic shoe tip, His application for
exclusive rights covered shoe tips of
silver and all other metals, but copper
every boot maker who sold shoes with
copper toes had to pay a royalty, which
enriched the originator of the idea. An
Immense amount of money was made
by William D. Ewart out of an i'm
proved attachment for machine har-
vesters called driving chain" The
idea of making metal plates for the
heels and soles of shoes was very SIM
pie, and yet the device brought the in
ventor over 81, 500,0 600.
Did you know that the man who In
vented the gusset for reinforcing pocls-
cts became very rich by that discovery?
He was Chinaman named Cheang
Guam Wo. and was doing laundry work
in San Francisco when the idea was
evolved.
The greatest fortune known to have
been accumulated by an inventor in
this country was made by Cyrus Nc
CormiclS, inventor of the machine
harvester. He was worth over 500
900, 900 when he died. That sum has
never been Appropriated by the Bell
telephone, the Westinghouse air brake,
nor by all of the wonders of the
wizard who has given us the phono-
graph and the electric marvels of the
century.
IF you have any intention of be-
coming an inventor" said the patent
Office examiner, ''you should invent
TOYS for children. They invariably
Drlng hGrv est great or moderate, to
he inventor; or his attorney" He
then referred to the return ball, ont of
which half a million dollars were
drawn; also the pigs in clover, the
planchette, the fifteen, fourteen six
teen puzzle, and numerous inventions
of similar character, as the best
money-making patents granted of late
years. There are hundreds of improve
ments patented for photographing,
stereotyping and for electric appli-
ances. 1t is stated that the Bell
Telephone company has bought up
every improvement which has ever
been patented for the telephone: and
all of these improvements are kept
under guard, in order to prevent the
public from using them. That is to
say that, if the patented improvements
upon telephony were in popular use,
the service would be greatly i'm
proved, but it would cost considerable
money to equip the telephone service
Of the country, and the people must
get along with what they have; at
least for the time being. 1t is easier
to pay 81 900 to 5000 to a poor in
ventor for his invention, than it would
be to spend thousands of dollars in
manufacturing an improvement which
the people can get along without.
Nevertheless, 1t does seem as though
humanitarian instincts would prompt
the telephone people to make it easier
for us to say hello, without painful
diaphragmatic contortions of inhala-
ton and expansion. SsnTH D. FRI.