Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1894-10-11
PRIZES ON PATENTS.
How to Get twenty-five Hun
dred Dollars for Nothing.
The winner has n Clear Gilt Ofa
Small Fortune, and the Losers
Have Patents that may
Bring them In still
More.


fave Patents that may
Bring them I'm still
More.
Would YOU like to make twenty-five hun
dred dollars? Ifyou would, read carefully
what follows and you may see way to DO 1t.
The Press Claims Company devotes much
attention to patents. 1t has handled thous-
ands of applications for inventions, but it
would like to handle thousands more. There
is plenty of inventive talent in this country,
needing nothing but cnco Outrage m ell
to produce practical results. That encour-
agcment the Press Claims Company pro.
poses to give.
NOT so HARD AS IT SEEMS
A patent strikes most people as an nppall-
ngly formidable thing. The idea is that an
inventor must lie a natural genius, like E,di-
son or Bell that he must put years to delvlng
in complicated mechanical problems ana
that he must spend fortune on delicate ex-
pcriments before he can get new device TO
a patentable degree OF perfection. This de-
luslon the company desires to dlspei. IL de'
sires to get into the head of the public 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
citizen would feel somewhat ashamed ot
bringing them to the attention OF the Potent
Office
Edison says that the profits he has received
from the patents on all his marvellous 'nVcn-
tions have not been sufficient to pay the cost
of his experiments But the man who con-
ceived the idea of fastening q bit of rubber
cord to a Child's ball, so that il would come
back to his hand when thrown made for
tune out of his scheme. The modern sew
ing-machne is miracle OF ingenulty-th
product ofthe toll of hundreds OF busy brains
through hundred and fifty years, but the
whole brilliant result rests upon the simple
device of putting the eye of the needle at the
point instead Of the other end.
THE LITTLE THINGS THE
MOST VALUABLE.
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 frictions of life. Usually
such ideas are dismissed without further
thought.
"Why don't the railroad company make
its car windows so that they could be Slid up
and down without breaking the passengers
backs?" cxclaims the traveller. "lf l were
running the road would make them IN such
a way"
What was the man that made this sauce
pan thinking oi?.' grumbles the cock. "He
never had to work oyer stove, or he would
have known how it oughtto have been fixed"
"Hang such collar button!' growls the
man who is late for breakfast. "lfl were in
the business I'd make buttons that wouldn't
slip on" or break off, or gouge out the back
of my neck"
And then the various sufferers forget about
their grievances and begin to think of some
thing else. Ifthey would sit down at the
next convenient opportunity, put Their IDEAS
about Car windows, sauccpans, and collar
buttons into practical shape, and then apply
for patents, they might find themselves as
wealthy as the man who IN
vented the iron umbrella ring, or the one
who patented the fifteen puzzle.
A TEMPTING OFFER.
To induce people to keep track of their
bright ideas and see what there is in them,
The Press Claims Company has resolved to
offer prize.
TO the person who submits to
il the simplest and most prone
Using invention. from II c0Ennmer-
cial point Of lew, the company
will give $500 in cash, in adj
dition 10 refunding the fees for
securing the patent.
1t will also advertise the in.
free Ofcharge.
This offer is subject TO the following con-
litions:
Every competitor must obtain a patent for
lis invention through the company. He
must first apply for u preliminary search,
he cost of which will be five dollars. Should
his search show his invention to be unpat-
,ntable, he can withdraw without further ex-
oense. Otherwise he will be expected to
complete his application and take out n pat
mt IN thr regular way. The total expense,
Government and Bureau fees, will
,e seventy dollars For this, whether he Sc
lures the prize OF not, the inventor will have
patent that ought to be II valuable property
o HIM. The prize Will be awarded by jury
consisting of three reputable patent attorn-
ys of Washington. Intending competitors
hould fill out the following blank, and for.
ward it with their application:
II submit the within described invention
n competition for the Twenty-Five Hundred
Dollar Prize offered by the Press Claims
company