The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1894-11-26
THE DIME BANK MAN.
SINGULAR ROMANCE or THE NOW
CRAZY INVENTOR.

~ NhlAu OEiGAmAGeO the Aue&--8A@00 u EOE-
tune and Became Insane-His Luck In n
Lottery Ticket Which Rrought the Need
ed Capital at the Right Time.
IF You q romanca if you want
stories of gold, blood, luck, everything
that goes to make up the gamut of hu-
man passion, come with me to the pat
emit Office, and behind those cases filled
with dry as dust specifications and legal
phraseology / will show you skeletons
that once had red blood in their veins. -
Thus spoke a friend OF mine, one Of
the best known patent attorneys in
Washington, and thcn he walked across
the rom, and picked up from his desk
n of those little cylinder banks to hold
90 worth of 10 cent pieces which were
all the rage a few years ago. Holding
the toy in his hand, he said: a..
When you come to write the ro-
nance of the patent Office, You can make
a chapter of what I. am going to tell
you. You remember the craze for these
banks a few, years ago, and how it
turned everybody to saving dimes until
at last there vas an actual scarcity Of
that coin created? Well, the history of
this patent is worth while telling.
II never advance q man money IN his
patents or speculate in them. That is
not my business, which is simply to
represent him in q 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 S1s6.
y" Mr.. Connolly, I said, 4 haven't
$135 in the world, and / never expect
to have that much at one time
o1"I looked at the man. and / looked at
the model and said to him, I have
v yet taken an interest In d patent,
but / win pay all the expenses in con-
nection with this patentif you win give
me q quarter interest in it
'Why?' he asked.
u" Because you have a fortune there, ,
I told him. al r. 4Et 81 VT
However, the man said lie would
see about il. A few days later no came
back with his brother-in-law, who had
advanced the money. I procured his
patent for him. . 49,
Now, to 60 back and tell you how
this man conceived the idea for the
bank. He was in the employ of the
Pennsylvania Railroad company at Jer-
sey City, receiving q salary Of $14 a
week. He was not an uncultivated man,
but had a little knack for mechanics.
He was in the habit of spending his
Sundays with his sister, and one day
when he called there he found his neph-
ew, a child of about 8 years old, sitting
ON the floor shaking a toy bank and try
ing to get the money out. His sister ex-
planned that whenever the y~oungster
dropped a cent into the bank he, like
most children, was wild to get all the
money out to count, and she went on to
say to her brother, why can't you in
vent a bank which viii show how much
there is in it, and the brother said he
thought he could. "
THAT gave him the idea. After he
got his patent he had a few banks made,
and on Saturday nights he used to put
them in a basket, carry them around to
the toyRhops in the neighborhood and
dispose Of them. He found only one
drawback-he could not make them
fast enough to supply the demand. Aft
err he had been doing business in this
way a few weeks he came to see me-.
He told me what he was doing and
then went on to say: MI. Connolly, do
you think you could find some who
would lend me 80, 800? There is q fac
tory in Newark which ! can buy for that