Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1894-06-07
PRIZES ON PATENTS.
How to Get twenty-five Hun
dred Dollars for Nothing.
The winner has a Clear GIFT ora
Small Fortune, and the Losers
Have Patents that may
Bring them in still
More.

what follows and you may see way 10 90 It,
The Press Claims Company devotes much
attention to patents. 1t has handled thous-
ands of applications for inventions, but 1t
would like TO handle thousands more. There
ia plenty of inventive talent in this country,
needing nothing but oura e m Ell
to produce practical results. That enconr'
agement the Press Claims Company pro-
poses to give:
NOT SO HARD AS 1T SEEMS,
A patent strikes most people rs an appall'
inely formidable thing. The idea is that an
inventor must be natural genius, like Ed
son or Bell that he must put years to delvlng
In complicated mechanical problems ano
that he must spend fortune on delicate eA'
periments before he can get new device 70
q natentable degree of perfection. This de-
lus,on the company desires to dlspel. 1t de-
sires to get into the head of the public clear
comprehension Of the fact that 1t 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 OF
bringing them to the attention OF the Patent
Office.
Edison says that the profits he has received
from the patents on all his marvellous lnven.
tions have not been sufficient topay the COST
of his experiments. But the man who con-
ceived the idea Of fastening bit OF ruooer
cord to child's ball, SO that it would come
back to his hand when thrown made a Tor
tune out of his scheme. The modern sew
ing-machine is miracle OF lngenul'y-uhe
product of the toll of hundreds otbusy brains
through hundred and fifty years, but the
whole brilliant result rests upon the simple
device of putting the eye OF the needle al 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 ?" exclaims the traveller IF l were
running the road would make them IN such
way"
"What was the man that made this sauce
pan thinking ot!'' grumbles the COOK. ne
never had to work oyer stoye, or he would
have known how it oughtto have been liked
''ltnnR SuCIl u collar Eio"'o WV
man who is late for breakfast. off were in
the BUSINESS I'd make buttons that wouldn't
slip out 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, saucepans, ana collar
buttons into practical shape, and then apply
for patents, they might find themselves as
independently 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
1t the simplest and most prom
Using from Il CONNER
cial point Of view, the company
will give $4,000 in cash, in adj
ditiOn to refunding the fees for
securing the patent.
1t will also advertise the in
ventiOn free Ofcharge.
This offer is subject to the following con.
ditons:
Every competitor must obtain patent tor
his invention through the company. lie
must first apply for preliminary search,
the cost of which will be five dollars. Should
this search show his invention to be unpat-
entable, he can withdraw without further ex-
pense. Otherwise he will be expected to
complete his application and take out pat
ent in the regular way. The total expense,
including Government and Bureau fees, will
be seventy dollars For this, whether he Sc
cures the prize o. not the inventor will have
apatent that ought to be valuable
TO him. The prize will be awarded by jury
consisting of three reputable patent attorn-
eys of Washington. Intending competitors
should iii out the following blank. and for
ward it with their application ANN
- -, 1893.
"I submit the within described invention
IN competition for the Twenty-Five Hundred
Dollar Prize offered by the Press Claims
Company
No Blanks In this Competitions.
This is a competition Of rather an unusual
nature 1t 10 common to offer prizes for the
best story, or picture, OF architectural plan,
all the competitors risking the loss OF their
labor and the successful one merely selling
Al D,.A 10