Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1897-11-27
! MECHANICAL TOYS.
A Number Of Them Have Made Large
ill., FortmRes for the Inventors.

A Number Of Them Have Made Large
IT, Fortunes for the Inventors.
"As the holidays approach it will no
doubt be source of much wonderment to
many paIents; uncles and aunts, where all
the toys displayed in store windows and
at curbstones come from, and what novelty
will appear next" said a large wholesale
dealer in toys in New York to a Star re-
porter recently. ITO me it is no mystery,
for almost every day in the year some
Yankee genius brings me some new play
thing to inspect. If it is good put 1t on
the market, and then if it makes a tenn
porary hit the inventor and myself both
make money. When a strike is made the
market is Hooded with the new favorite,
for it's popularity Is generally short lived.
A few days, weeks or months at the most
and its reign is Oh er.
Nowadays nearly all the cheap 5 and
1O-cent novelties and the better class of
mechanical toys, such as river steamboats,,
locomotives trains, trolley cars, dolls that
walk and talk and animals that move about
almost naturally, are made in America,
while such old-fashioned playthings as
building blocks, tin soldiers, woolly sheep,
Skin-covered horses, cows and dogs, all of
which, judging from the normous sales,
are as great favorites with the children of
today as they We're generation or two
&C untry these toys are handmade by peas
arts, who work at them at night or during
dull seasons on the vineyards or farms.
Labor is cheap. and although the designing
is seldom original. the workmanship is
usually good, and the toy can be imported
and sold cheaper here than the same class
of goods made in this country. As re-
suit of this there are many toys which
in their completed state are partly Amer
lean and partly foreign. Among these are
toy vehicles, with horses or oxen attached
The vehicles and everything in and about
them may be the product Of American ma
chinery. while the animals standing in
front of the toy may be from GERMANY"
Are many American toys patented?"
Yes: The most expensive and fnsigntfi-
cent novelties are alike protected by pat
ents before the manufacturer puts them on
the market. A patent once granted pro-
tects the holder from INFRINGEMENT upon
his idea for the time during which the
patent runs. and he controls the manu-
facture OF his article as absolutely as he
would any real estate that might be in his
name. Few inventions pay better than non.
ular patented toys clergyman in New
York state has realized 10000 during the
frog that opens and shuts it's eyes and
mouth naturally. The dancing negro
which can be seen in every toy shop and
which Is simply figure of a gaudily at.
tired eolored gentleman balanced by a WIRE
which Is moved rapidly up and down by a
system of clockwork in the box upon which
it dances. provides an income for its in
ventor of $30.OQ4 year.
That Pld, but still popular American
toy, return balf-a wooden bali with an
elastic attached-yielded the patentee an
income eapal te $4,000 year. The sale
of the little wooden figure John Gilpin'
was Incredibly large, and very ingenious
toy. known as the wheel Of fortune is
said to have produced upward of 10000
to its inventors
"One Of the most successful of modern
toys has been the chameleon top the sale
Of which has been enormous. The field of
invention As not only vast and varied. but
it is openoto everybody. without respect to
sex or age station OF means. The merest
trt1e maybe the key to a fortune. if It be
an article that the public actually wants
in great Aumb6rs.'