Catoctin clarion., 1895-05-30
PRIZES ON PATENTS.
How to Get Twenty-fv Hun
dred Dollars for Nothing.
The winner has a Clear Gilt OF u
Small Fortune, and the Losers
Have Patents that NAV
Bring them in still
More.

Would you Ike 10 nake I"eAUy r r;
dred dollarss 1fyou would, read careiuliy
what follows and you may see way 10 90 ~
the Press Claims Company devotes much
.,t.nt;on to patents. 1t has handled thous,
.nds Of applications for Inventions, but II
wonld like to handle thousands more There
ia nlenty Of inventive talent in this country
needing nothing but n o r Il 6 m ell
r. nroIuce practical results. That encour'
socment the Press Claims Company pro-
poses to give. -
NOT SO HARD AS 1T SEEMS,r,
patent strikes most people as an appall'
;ngly formidable thing. The idea is that an
inventor must be natural genius, like Edl'
son or Bell that he must put years TO delVlng
n complicated mechanical problems and
that he must spend fortune on deiicate ex'
neriments before he can get new 9eVice 70
\ patentable degree OF perfectlon. lh1s ae-
luslon the company desires to dlsPei. ~ ae-
sires to get into the head OF the puol'c clear
comprehension of the tact that 1t IS not lne
great. complex, and expensive Inventions
1e,.ot hr;ng The best returns to their authors
Init the little, simple, and cheap ones-the
things that seem SO absurdly trivial that the
c;t;zen would feel somewhat ashamed OF
bringing them to the attention OF the Patent
Office. ,o;vod
Edison says that the profits he has received
from the patents on all his marvellous inven.
tions have not been sufficient to pay the cost
of Ills rxnerimcpts. But the man VINO con-
ce;ved the idea of fastening bit OF ruboer
cord to chld's ball, SO that it wo9lo come
back to his hand when thrown mace lor-
tune out of his scheme. The modern sew
ing.machine is miracle OF lngenu''y-!he
product of the toll of hundreds OF ousy oralhs
through hundred and nifty years, ou. .ne
70
device of putting the eye OF tne heeoie a' 'ne
point instead of the other end.
THE LITTLE THINGS THE
comnaratiyely few people regard them
sclves as inventors, but almost everybody
has heen struck, at one time or another,
w,tb ideas that seemed calculated to reduce
some ofthe little frictions of life. Usually
snch ideas are dismissed without further
thought. o,,o
ito cor windows so that they could be slid up
and down without breaking the passengers
hacks ?" cxclaims the traveller. III l were
running the road would make them IN s1ch
q way"
"What was the man that made this sauce
nan thinking off,. grumbles the COOK. ne
never had to work oyer stove, or he "ou'u
have known how it ought to have peeh nAeu'
"Hanr such a collar button " groWls the
man who is late for breakfast "1fI were in
the business I'd make buttons that wouioh
slim out or break of, or gouge out the back
Of my neck" c..,.
And thcn 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 luc"s
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 thc 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 10
offer a prize.
TO the person who submits to
IT the simplest and most prom
Using ginventiOn, from CONNER
ciaI point Of view, the company
will give $4,000 in cash, in ad-
ditiOn 10 refunding the fees for
securing the patent.
irwin also advertise the In
yentiOm free Ofcharge.
This offer is subject to the following con-
diiipns.
Every competitor must obtain patent for
his invention through the company. He
must first apply for preliminary search,
the cost of which will be five dollars. Should
this search show his invention to be unpat-
cntable. he can withdraw without further eX-
pensc 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
a patent that ought to be a valuable property
to him. The prize will be awarded bya jury
consisting of three reputable patent attorn-
eys of Washington. Intending competitors
should fill out the following blank, and for.
ward it with their application
-" -, -, 1898.
II submit the within described invention
In competition for the Twenty-Five Hundred
Dollar Prize offered by the Press Claims
Company
No Blanks in this Competition:
This is a competition of rather an unusual
nature 1t IS common to offer prizes for the
best story, or picture, or architectural plan,
all the competitors risklng the loss of their
labor and the successful one merely selling
his for the amount of the prize. But the
Press Claims Companys offer is something
entirely different Each person is asked
merely to help himself, and the one who
helps himself to the best advantage is to be
rewarded for doing it. The prize is only
stimulus to do something that would be well
worth doing 1t. The architect whose com.
petitive plan for club house on a certain
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