Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1897-10-09

| Elh uvWT tlCS III patent CASTS.
wy Now and then an I'M
suspected attorney
has struck a fortune in his connections
| with a single patent, but such cases lately
! are few and far between.
| Some of the broadcast advertising carried
on in the world is said to be done by sew
| eral patent attorneys. The advertisement
| Of one Washington attorney appears reg
| ularly in thousands of country papers In
all parts of the United States. AS re-
| Enumeration for this a weekly Washington
| letter, prepared by a newspaper man, is
| submitted regularly 20 each editor. Many
! other attorneys furnish trades ana tecnhi-
| cal journals with information concerning
| special classes of new patents in exchange
| for advertisements. Such information is
| usually clipped from the Patent once ia
| zette, a weekly periodical containing
! drawing and explanation Of every pateE'
/ issued by the government. One of the old
| est and most famous scientific periodicals
| in this country is published by patent
| firm and maintained partly in the interest
| of its patent law business. Several OF
| minor Importance are conducted for the
| same purpose. In some of these are pub
| lished articles describing each invention
patented through the firm. Sometimes ad-
| vertising is given by papers in exchange
| for stock in a patent firm. One well-known
patent firm, an encouragement to in
| Ientors. advertises that no fees will be
| Charged unless patent Is SlNen
Tricks of the Trade.
| There have been practically few charges
of dishonesty made against patent attor-
| neys The most common practice of tho
| dishonest attorney is 20 pocket the fees
which ought to go to the government for
| preliminary examination and to notify the
client that a patent cannot be granted,
| when, in reality, no search has been made.
An inventor anxious to sell his patent was
| the victim OF a piece Of sneak work, in
| which one attorney was detected, not long
ago. The attorney, after being assured
| that the invention was paten;aole, filed
| bogus applications for the same patent,
and notified the inventor that another man
! claimed to have invented The device pre-
viously. This man. however the attorney
| pretended could be bought off for d snug
sum. which the inventor furnished. The
attorney pocketed the sum, sold the patent
| for five hundred dollars, but gave only
three hundred of it to his client. Another
inventor anxious to sell his patent was
notified to appear at an attorneys Office al
a certain hour. He rea .hed there at the
appointed time, but before the attorney
mad arrived. While he was waiting a man
in the next room entered into loud con-
versation concerning his desire to invest
millions of dollars in some good invention
The attorney entered shortly and wien
told by the inventor that his patent was
for sale, introduced him to the alleged mil
ionafre. The latter pretended 10 be great
~ pleased with the invention, and promised
10 purchase the patent for large sum
provided that certain foreign patents were
first obtained. The attorney thereupon
Charged the inventor $500 for foreign nat
ents, which cost him but 500 and nothing
more was ever heard Of the alleged mil
Ionaire.
There have been few frauds in the ra.ent
once within the memory of IN examiner
VINO mas been there twenty-five wears At
one Tune there was a charge of bribery un-
oHnclally made against IN examiner who
passed upon a famous case involving mil
mons OF dollars, but the case never reached
a crisis.
To BE PatentabIe.
A member Of Congress lately made the
remark that the patent office should be re-
strained from taking money from irresron-
sible cranks who wish to patent fool inven-
tioLs which have no utter usefulness, The
theory OF the law has always been that
patents can be obtained only for new and
usefuf' inventions, which, of course, must
be operative. Yet scarcely a week passes
during which there is not granted patent
Tor some device utterly frivolous in DUR
pose and which could not possibly he
adapted to either amuse or aid huma nity in
any way. OF course, the very slightest
sclntilla of usefulness is sufficient to pass
patent, and it is often difficult for the
examiner to discriminate. AS a rule H..
doubt. ~ NV
A method of rejuvenating superannuated
for poor idiots money. A cannon which
shoots water self-wagging tail for ami
mails, an automatic hat Upper for men and
an alrshlp TO be harnessed to birds are only
rev samples of the many things which
slip through the mill of the patent office.
1t Is not known, except to several indiyid-
uals that an inventor once succeeded i'm
receiving patent for perpetual motion
II was passed as a new system of railroads
All sorts Of impossible ideas in flying ma
chimes have passed from time to time in
Guiding sets of wings with which men are
supposed to fly la Darius Green Lately
however, greater strictness has been oh
served In requirements of applicants for
flying machine patents
Those without balloon attachments are re-
FUSED on the plea that they are inopera tive
Working models of machines for purely
mechanical flight well as those for ner-
petuai motion, are now required of all an
plcants. IN former years working models
OF all inventions were required before thew
could be considered by the examiners
Lately they have been demanded only
when the drawings submitted fail to con-
. vince ene examiners that devices are opera
tive. Sometimes an examiner, consulting
a drawing only. will decide that the annar
atuS represented is imperative hut will ha
surprised, On being presented with a model.
to find that 1t works like q charm
Where Fortunes Were Made.
1t frequently occurs that inventions
which on the surface appear to be friyo-
iouS, WILL, dIttT DelnB patented, net the
inventor a large fortune. A railroad man
for instance. invented several years ago
a simple cylindrical savings bank, which
could be opened only after being filled to
the top with ten-cent pieces. He cleared
a thousand dollars week and finally went
crazy as the result of too sudden prosperity.
Several men refused to buy part owner
ships IN the Bell and WESTINGHOUSE patents,
because they considered the schemes
tdiotic. man once patented the idea of
coating the outsides of oil-barrels with
blue paint. The application did not seem
striking al the time, yet he now receives
royalty on every barrel SO painted. A
country girl was made independently rich
by patenting the idea of packing eggs in
compartment trays made of pasteboard.
while the patent on the suspender garter,
which lately came in vogue for women.
was sold for fifty thousand dollars. the
same sum paid for the exclusive right to
manufacture the dome-shaped lemon
squeezer of glass. popular a few years ago.
The largest classes of patents are those
granted for agricultural implements and
household conveniences. OF agricultural
inventions. the greatest number pour in
from the west. New York and New En-
gland furnish the bulk of patents in manu-