The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1896-05-09

| pTUuUaDlG
| tents issued
Most of the contents of the model room
| have recently been removed to the Union
building over the city postoffics.
WITHIN A FEW YEARS.
1t would seem that with this great
number of patents already granted every
possible improvement or device in these
classes must be covered. But SO it
seemed to many "a few years ngo, VIII en- a
majority of the present inventions were
undiscovered; yet inventive brains have
gone on evolving new ideas, and more
than half of all the patents issued have
| been granted in the last fourteen years.
In the various classes of electricity the
most extraordinary development has
been shown within q few years, and the
number of patents run we'll up into the
thousands, Of which the wizard Edison
alone has obtained nearly seven hundred.
| The great aggregate of patents granted
| is vastly swollen by the continual i'm
provement of important inventions. For
| instance, single firm of passenger and
| lifting elevator manufacturers employ
| in their construction and operating me-
chanism more than $50 separate patents
and new improvements are being added
| constantly. The modern printing press
| manufacturers own hundreds of patents
covering the various parts which go to
make the complete machine, while the
great electric companies have procured
or purchased scores of patents useful OF
necessary in the perfection of their va
| rious systems. And SO it is oil through
| the list. The field of invention is practi-
| cally limitless, and great as are the re-
wards that have been realized for the
wonderful and useful discoveries already
| made, still greater ones remain to be en-
| joye by those who solve the numerous
problems and possibilities yet remaining
in the realm of the unattained.
1t is the profit realized by successful
| inventions that inspires the greater part
of this activity. Nearly every inventor
expects or hopes to make fortune out
of the happy idea which he believes he
| has discovered; yet it is a singular fact
| that the original inventor is rarely the
| actual beneficiary, either because his
necessities compel him to sacrifice his
prospective profits before the patent is
| secured or because be is SO lacking in
business capacity that he lets his inUer-
est slip away from him before its real
value has been demonstrated. 1t is the
great companies organized for handling
or manufacturing valuable patented in
yenions that really make the money in
majority of cases. Ex-Commissioner
Mitchell is authority for the statement
that more than three-fou1 this of all the
capital invested in manufactures in this
country, a total of over $3.50. 00O. 600, is
directly or indirectly based upon patents
WEALTHY FROM PATENTS.
| Several of our well known American
| millonaires owe their fortunes to valu-
able inventions. Of these, perhaps the
| four most conspicuous are George NJ.
Pullman, of palrce car fame; Alexander
Graham Bell, who secured the first tele-
| phone patent; Cyrus III. Mccormick, the
harvester manufacturer, and Thomas A.
| Edison.
| OF the other men whose important and
successful inventions brought them both
fame and wealth, high up on the list is
Elias Howe the original inventor of the
sewing machine, whose early struggles
were full of disappointments and trials,
finally ending in success and aff1uence;
Samuel +. B. Morse, who invented the
telegraph; Samuel Colt, inventor of the
revolver pistol, who made the first model
of his invention on board O ship in 1929,
and took out his first patent in 1885,
which was the furerunner of all tho great
inventions in revolving firearms bearing
his name; Richard NJ. Hoe, who by
gradual steps after many improvements,
finally produced the wonderful rotary
presses, into which were fed ribbons of pa
per five miles long at the rate of $40 yards
a minute; Robert Bruce, inventor of tho
type-ca casting machine; Eli Whitney, who
invented the cotton gin; Thomas Blan-
chard, inventor Of tho tack machine;
John Ericsson, who designed the screw
propeller for vessels ard invented the
ironclad Monitor, and James B. Eads,
whose genius created the st. Louis
More honored than any of these, perhaps,
because his inventions stood more for
philanthropy than for possible profit, is
Joseph Francis, who invented the life
saving boat used in the government coast
service. The Fifty first Congress voted
him medal of pure gold valued at Sc, 900
1t is the largest and finest ever given,
by this government to any individual,
and WAS presented to Mr.. Francis at the
White House in 1890 by President Harri-
SOD, with appropriate ceremonies. 1t is
two-thirds of an inch thick and as large
as tea plate. On the occasion of his
last visit to Washinton four years ago
than in his niuety-seoond year, the medal
was donated to the National Museum,
where it is now on exhibition, together
with his original life car. which saved
210 lives from the wreck of the Ayrshire
on the coast of New Jersey in 1S47.
THE GREAT AMERICAN CRANK