The evening world. [volume] (New York, N.Y.) 1887-1931, 1894-09-28
FORTUNES IN INVENTIONS.
HALF A MILLION DOLLARS IN THE
DIME BANK PATENT.
An Ingenious Mechanic Driven In
sane by Sudden Prosperity.

"If you want romance; II you want
stories of gold, blood, luck, everything
that goes to make up the gamut of hu.
man passion, come with mel to the Pat
ent Office, and behind those cases filled
with dry-as-dust specifications and lega,
phraseology 1 will show you skeletons
that once had red blood in their veins, y
says Maurice Low in the Boston Globe.
Thus spoke 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 81
worth Of ten-cent pieces, which were all
the rage few years ago. Holding the
hoy In his hand, he said:
when you come to write the romance
of the Patent Office you can make a
chapter of what I am going to tell you
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
Is worth while telling.
II never advance a man money on his
,patents or speculate in them. That is
Jhot my business, which Is simply to rep
resent him in a legal capacity before the
office. But one day man came into my
wanted to patent, and about which he
wanted to consult me. l told him that
the fees and expenses would amount to
sl35.
"'Mr. Connolly he said, I haven't S135
In the world, and never expect to have
that much at one time
II looked at the man, and / looked at
the model. and said to him: I have
never yet taken an interest in a patent,
but will pay all the expenses in connec-
ttion with this patent If you will give me
tR quarter interest in it
"'WhyT he asked.
Because you have a fortune there 1
However, the man said he would see
about it. A few days later he came
back with his brother-in-law. who had
advanced the money procured his
this man conceived the idea for the
bank He was In the e employ Of the the
s week III He f was not an uncEiuvated
man but had little k xmas, 4 for sns ms
ing his Sundays with his sister, and one
day. when he called there he found his
nephew, child do Of about three sev y es rs
and trying. to get the money out. His
sister explained that whenever the
youngster dropped a cent into the bank
=
ali the money out to count, and she
went on to say to her brother: Why
can't you invent t,sr. bank "a * Thi sho T sba
"That gave him the idea. After he
got his patent he had , few banks s,nRs
to put them In a basket, carry them
around to the. toy shops In the neigh;
borhood and dispose Of them; He found
ouly one drawback-he could not make
them fast enough to supply the demand.
After he had been doing business in this
way a few weeks he came In to see me.
went on to say: Mr.. Connolly. do you
think you could l. tn l6a S some one % an
tory in Newark which l can buy for
that amount and which Is just the thing
! want for making my banks. If can
get hold Of that factory l am sure 1
II told him ! thought could get him
the money and to come and see me In
the course Of few days s.,d f few o dsys
think I need bother about finding him
that money, as he expected to have 1t
next week. asked him where he was
You viii think that am embellishing
this story, because 1t sounds so improb-
Without the slishtes. exaggeration Or
ornament. He said he had lottery
ticket. and he expected 1t would draw
p ne teket He and some
men working at Jersey City decided to
make up pool and buy lottery ticket,
each man to put In 81 When a the time ons
himself and one other, carpenter, put
in their dollars. The. ticket drew 5000;
with his share he bought out the
men at work turning out these banks.
md even then he could not keep up with
orders. He was soon making clear
profit Of 81 900 a week, then $1,000, then
almost that much day. During the
time the craze lasted, and you know 1t
was not of short duration. he made a
And what became OF the man?"
"Oh, they put him In an insane asylum.
great deal of his money about as rap
idly as he made 1t, although fortunately
ne put a couple of hundred thousand or
80 In real estate and which his wife
but that's an exceptional case" 1
said: $500, . o.,ou
patent attorney who heard the story.
"A few years ago New England
His home to Washington on legal bust
ness before the Patent Office. En- route
another patent attorney came into the
him for short-told his friend that he
was going to Washington. This was
good news to his friend, who asked
MIN TO execute u
there. He proceeded to- explain that
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 distance could talk
to one another.
,"'It isn't a perpetual motion ma
chine. is itT asked Smith. jokingly,
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
Smith had devoted a great deal OF at
tentlon to that subject, and therefore
! he was the right man to investigate
the invention. He told him. as he I'M
derstood 1t. Bell had a working model
OF his patent chat some very success
full experiments had been made. but he
wanted capital to, back, his idea
! Bell, he said. offered to sell a half in
terest In the patent for very little
money, and this man was so much i'm
pressed with what he heard that he
Agreed to supply half the money for
the interest II Smith would do the same
thing.
Y ''But Smith was not impressed. The
idea Of talking over a wire seemed so
wildly improbable to him that he did
not believe 1t was worth while to make