Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1895-03-28
PRIZES ON PATENTS.
How to Get twenty-five Hun
dred Dollars for Nothing.
The winner has a Clear GIFT Ola
Small Fortune, and the Losers
Have Patents that NAV
Bring them I'm still
More.

WouId YOU like to make twenty-five hun
dred dollsrsf Ifyou would, read carefully
what follows and you may see way 10 90 IL
The Press Claims Company devotes much
attention to patents. 1t has handled thous.
ands of applications for inventions, but II
would like to handle thousands more. Ihere
ia nlenty of inventive talent in this country
needing nothing but c ourag m ell
e. nroiuce practical results. That encour'
apement the Press Claims Company pro-
poses to giye
NOT SO HARD AS 1T SEEMS,
A patent strikes most people as an appall'
inrly formidable thing. The idea is that an
inventor must be natural genius, like Edi'
son or Bell that he must put years to delVing
in complicated mechanical problems and
that he must spend fortune on deilcate ex-
periments before he can get new device 70
patentable degree OF perfection. ms Ge'
luslon the company desires to disPei. ~ ae.
comnre6ension of the tact 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 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 inven.
tions have not been sufficient to pay the cost
of his experiments. But the man who con-
ceived the idea of fastening bit OF ruoper
cord to childs ball. SO that it would come
back to his hand when thrown maze lor'
tune out of his scheme. The modern sew
ing-machine is miracle OF lngenu1y-!he
product of the toll Of hundreds OF pusy Drains
through hundred and fifty years. Out inc
whole brilliant result rests upon the simple
device If nutting the eve Of the needle at the
point instead of the other end.
THE LITTLE TH!NGS THE
MOST VALUABLE.
Comnaratiyely 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 the little frictions of life. Usually
snch ideas are dismissed without further
thought
"Why don't the railroad company make
it's car windows so that they could be slid up
and down without breaking the passengers
backs ~ excaims the traveller. III were
running the road I would make them IN such
q way"
"What was the man that made this sauce
pan thinking off, grumbles the cook. he
never had to work oyer stoye, or he wou'u
have known how it ought to have been nxed.
"Hang such collar button y growls the
man who is late for breakfast. III were IN
the business I'd make buttons that wouidnt
slip out or break of, or gouge out Inc pacR
Of my neck"
And then the various sufferers forget about
their grievances and begin to think OF some
thing else. If they would sit down at the
next convenient opportunity, put their ideas
about car windows, saucepans, and 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 reso we'd 70
offer prize.
70 the person who submits to
1t the simplest and most prom.
Using inyentiOn,fr from a CONNER.
ciaI point Of view, the company
will give $500 in cash, in adj.
ditiOn to refunding the fees for
securing the patent.
IT. will also advertise the In.
yenliOn free Of charge.
This offer is subject to the following con-
ditiOns:
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-
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
a patent that ought to be a valuable property
to him. The prize will be awarded by 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
81 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 competition of rather an unusual
nature 1t is common to offer prizes for the
best story, or picture, OF architectural plan,
all the competitors risklng the loss Of their
labor and the successful one merely selling
mis- for the amount of the prize. But the
Press Claims Company's 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
corner is not accepted has spent his labor on