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


stories Of gold. blood, luck, everything
that goes to make up the gamut Of hu-
man passion, come with mel to the Pat
ent ONCE. and behind those cases filled
with dry-as-dust specifications and legal
phraseolosy I will 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
best-known patent attorneys in Wash
ington, and then he walked across the
room and picked up from his desk one of
those little cylinder banks to hold IS
worth Of ten-cent pieces. which were all
the rage few years ago. Holding the
toy in his hand, he said:
when you come to write the romance
of the Patent Office you can make a
chapter OF what 1 am going to tell you
k You remember the craze for these banks
q 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
IL worth while telling.
II never advance a man money on his
patents or speculate in them. That is
not my business, which Is simply to rep
resent him in legal capacity before the
office. But one day a man came into my
New York ONCE with an idea which he
wanted to patent, and about which he
wanted to consult me. l told him that
s sns lees anu expenses "0Dlu amount 10
Mr.. Connolly he said, I haven't s1S5
In the world, and ! never expect to have
that much at one time
II looked at the man, and l looked at
the model, and said to him: i have
never yet taken an interest in patent,
ton with this patent il you will give me
| q quarter interest In it
|. "'WhyT he asked.
because you have fortune there 1
However, the man said he would see
about It.. 4 few days later he came
aSs Sih Ss mSass nTocv MeS h Ia
Now. 10 go back and tell you how
this, man conceived the idea for the the
Pennsylvania Railroad Company at Jer-
lsey City receiving salary Of Mt q
week He was net ,,o an u IN III
chanics. He was In the habit Of spend
ling his Sundays with his sister, and one
|day when he called there he found his
,|sittlng on the door shaking a toy bank
sister explained that whenever the
IaiI the money out to count, and she
went on to say to her brother: Why
ssov h ySv mae sh there P Is in ~ and the
brother said he thought he could:
got h. patent he had nio, few ,s banks snsd
around to the toy shops in the neigh;
sborhood and dispose Of them He found
them fast enough to supply the demand.
AFTER he had been doing business in this
way few weeks he came In to see me.
went On to say: Mr.. Connolly, do you
ana you eoeld 5s os fReTe Gnt X sae
that amount and which is just the thing
M want for making my banks. II / can
et hold OF that factory l am sure
Ian sell all the banks can make.
1T told him I thought could get him
i1he money and to come and see me in
he course of few days. 4 few days
think l need bother about finding him
|, 6 next V Week: asked him where he was
II You VIII think that am embellishing
khis story, because 1t sounds SO improb-
fble, but am simply relating the facts
| Ornament. He said he had a lottery
|tticket, and he expected it would draw a
prize. But wait; let me tell this story
pf the lottery ticket, He and some other
shmeke up q pool and buy a lottery ticket,
ea IN man to put in 81. When the time
lea ne the others backed out, and only
X in their dollars. The ticket drew 5000.
with his share he bought out the
Newark factory. and In short time had
400 men at work turning out these banks,
and even then he could not keep up with
orders. He was soon making clear
'roft OF $1,000 a week. then $1,000. then
s,s that mq ssted any vow Know
was not OF short duration, he made a
And what became Of the mani" l
"Oh. they put him in an insane asylum:
hAe couldn't stand prosperity. He lost
a great deal of his money about as rap
he put a couple Of hundred thousand or
90 in real estate, and which his wife
but that's an exceptional case" 1
mot by any means" said another
patent attorney. who heard the story
"A few years ago a New England
patent attorney was on his way from
his home to Washington on legal bust
ness before the Patent Office. En- route
\ car. and the first one-Smith Wen call
him for short-told his friend that he
was, going to WASHINGTON. This was
there He proceeded to explain that a
man in Washington of the name OF
Bell. but about whom he knew very
little. had some kind of a patent by
which persons at a distance could talk
1T isn't perpetual motion ma
chine, is it?' asked Smith, jekingly
who. like all men having to, do with
patents, was rather skeptical OF new
His friend went on to tell him that
the invention had something to do with
electricity. the science Of which was
not very familiar to him, but he knew
vsmith had devoted a great deal of at
tention to that subject, and therefore
he was the right man to investigate
the invention. He told him. as he I'M
Vderstood It, Bell had a working model
Nof his patent; that some very success
full experiments had been made, but he
twanted capital to back his idea.
terest in the patent for a very little
money. and this man was so much i'm
pressed with what he heard that he
|laKreed to supply half the money for
the interest II Smith would do the same
thing.
But Smith was not impressed. The
idea OF talking over a wire seemed SO
WILDLY improbable to him that he did
not believe II was worth while to make
liza cursory Investigation, and he never