Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1896-05-02

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| Rl NJ SsN t1W ventions, only those
| &A No. V who have given the
| llMEI MTa subject attention
| WILL WHl. . have any compre
| ~ VIII hersion of the great
| ~ interests involved or
| IT. of the vast number
| who are laboring in
the neid or Invention in some manner
ailied 10 the Industry. Applications come
TO the United States patent office from ev
cry city snd every little hemet in the land.
During the fiscal year ending June 30, 1885,
| the number of applications fled including
caveats, reissues, ETC., was LOLA, of which
| 1900 wer, granted. This aggregate, and
| that or the year next preceding, shows
slight falling off from the average for sew
| eral years previous, especially in the num-
per OF patents issued, which is due to the
hard times Not many years ago nearly all
the inventive genius of the country was To-
Gated in New England and the eastern
| states, brit during the last two or three de-
cades the west has developed it's share of
mechanical ingenuity, though Connecticut,
the land of wooden nutmegs, still leads with
| 'Ee largest number of patents in proportion
to population with Massachusetts second,
the District of Columbia third, New Jersey
| fourth, Montana fifth. Rhode Island and
New York sixth and seventh, Colorado
| eighth and Ohio, Minnesota and Illinois well
| I'D in the list.
| The goTe rnment departments have all
| been called beehives but the patent office
| Is more than any other aptly described by
| the term. 1t is busy, busting place, with
| It's nearly 600 employes-examiners, drafts
men, clerks, coDysts, etc.-crowded into
ffty-sx rooms. And with all the rest, 1t is
| the Only bureau or department that is self
| sustaining. In the year 1880, tho banner
year IN the history Of the office. the total
receipts were sl.340.372.G6. while the ex-
penSes We're 81 ,O99, 297 "A, giving a net profit
| of s241 ,074.o2. In 1892 the ret earnings
were sl75,592 50, and for the fiscal year
ending Jure 30 last the profits were $751;
5000, notwithstanding the depressed con-
| dition of business generally. The total
amount of net earnings to the credit of the
| office in the Treasury of the United States
is si,56G, 1918 The question has been
raised whether the govern ment should go
| on accommodating this fund. which has been
characterized as so much blood money
squeezed from the inventors of the coun-
try. If the fees are new larger than neces-
sary to cover the cost of adjudging and
acting upon all appiica tons. say the OBJ
Jectcrs, why not reduce them?
In the Model Room
Patent office research has many interest
ing features. The model room, that great
storehouse of miniature mechanical de-
vices, has It's curious and it's humorous
side. The curositieS of literature" are
not more entertaining than the curiosfties
of the patent office. Within its archives
are models OF almost every implement of
human use from the Hotchkiss machine
gun to the toy pistol from a steam eneiIe
TO common wood screw. from the great
windmill to a bottle stopper from a steam
ship 20 a rat trap, from a thrashing ma
crime to an ice cream freezer, from a
cradle to a tombstone, and from a brick
machine or a folding bed to a fish hook
and toy hoop. There are jumping jacks
| lE,Siy l,rtt la.n a
ing stoves, printing presses and gate open
ers horseshoes, railroad frogs and sausage
machines corn planters, corn shelters and
corn extractors, fans, corset STAYS and
glove fasteners without end.
Patents for the Same Thing.
The number of patents that have been
issued for variations or improvements of
the same thing is astonishing. Covering SO
small thing as a wood screw, there are
over 100 different patents; in the class of
lanterns nearly 1000 patents and for wash
boilers something like 500. For tobacco
pipes and mouth pieces 40 patents have
been issued, and fer bottle shoppers up
ward of 600 These are among the simplest
devices; but coming to the more important
classes, there have been UP to the last
year 6ois patents granted for sewing ma
chimes and their various attachments; for
firearms, not including heavy ordnance
| torpedo or machine guns, 1856 patents; for
car couplings, 6,7So, and for weaving and
knitting machines, 1912 For agricultural
implements, including planters haryesters
thrashers and the whole range of ma,
chimes and appliances, the total number of
patents is 36,5I5, of which TO- 122 relate to
ploWs alone. In the class of electric light
ing 1916 patents have been issued previous
to the current fiscal year, and in that of
carriages and wagons the total number is
2oNl. These are fair Illustrations In
the line OF toys there is an almost endless
array, including nearly 200 TOW savings
banks some of which are exceedingly in
genl2us and unique; and dolls without
most profitable patents issued
Most OF the contents of the model room
have recently been removed to the Union
building, over the city post office
Within "a Few Years.
1t would seem that with this great Num-
Der of patents already granted every pos
sible Improvement or device in these
classes must be covered. But so it seemed
10 many few years ago, when majority
of the present inventions were undiscoy-
cred; 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 extraordi
nary development has been shown within
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 aggre-
gate Of patents granted is vastly swollen
by the continual; Improvement Of impor-
tant inventions. sFor instance, a single
firm of passengerand lifting elevator
and operating MECHANISM more than $50
separate patents. and new improvements
are being added constantly The modern
printing press manufacturers own hun
dreds of patents Covering the various
parts which go ta make the complete ma
chine, while the great electric companies
have procured or@purehased scores of pat
ents useful or necessary in the perfection
Of Their various systems. And so it is all
practically limitless, and great as are the
rewards that have been realized for the
wonderful and useful discoveries already
made still greater ones remain to be en-.
joyed by those who solve the numerous
problems and possibilities vet remaining in
the realm of the iinattained
1t is the profit realized by successful in
ventions that'inspiresi the greater part Of
this activity Nearly every inventor ex-
poets hopes to make fortune out of
the happy idea which he believes he has
discovered; yet it is singular fact that
beneficiary, either because his necessities
compel him to sacrifice his prospective
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