Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1897-12-27

: The Inventors Mania.


It. Nearly every city has man who
Is Just about to solve the problem of
dying machines, and perpetual motion
enthusiasts are almost us plentiful, al
though they are Inclined to be secretive
through fear of ridicule.
In secluded barns or in dingy atticS
these inventors labor from year to year
in the hope of one day revolutionizing
the world of machinery. In expert
ments carried far into the night they
spend the money they have earned dur
ing the day with the fullest confidence
that its investment will some time make
them fabuiously rich. A student of
human nature has observed that every
man with an active, healthy mind at
some time in his life is caught by the
perpetual motion disease or mania, and
the one is lucky who escapes its clutches
after Il few months experiments. There
are men who never recover, but go
down to old age in poverty while pur-
suing the phantom.
Every machine shop in the country
holds secrets of men who spend fortunes
in trying to reverse the laws of me-
chanics.
TO argue with these men who imagine
they are inventors is a useless waste Of
time.
The proprietor of a machine shop on
the South side said in speaking of the
men who come to him with impossible
schemes: 81 used to argue with them
when | was younger, but found the
only effect it had was to make them
angry, and they took their work else
where. They looked on me with sus-
picion as a man who wanted to dis
courage them and then steal their ideas.
Now | build whatever a man brings to
me without question, and take orders
from him as if he were a superior be-
ing"
In the scrapyard of this machine
shop lie several useless combinations
of wheels and shafts on which inventors
have spent hundreds of dollars which
would have been saved to them had they
possessed even an ordinary knowledge
of natural laws. Inventors of this class
seem to have the idea that by multiply
ing wheels and pulles they can in the
same proportion multiply power.
tall, slim man with a thin beard
s.DrinllIed with urav. rnIlrd at This sbon
one day year or two ago with neatly
executed drawings of machine he
wished TO have built. On paper it was u
combination OF a bicycle and horseless
carriage The two rear wheels were
taller than the CORES sponding whees
of a wagon. Above those wheels was
seat from which the operator was to
work the pedals. Each MEDAL was COW
rected with rod that PLAYED into an
air cylinder. By means of the air that
would be thus compressed small on
gine was to De operntpd This enpire
was designed to transmit mower tn III.
wheels. After spendiug n oreot de.I
,f nanny ,rd ..ra,oI ,,,5,,,,,,7, ,,,,., 49,,
hopeful inventor climbed into his tail
seat, and, with beating heart. pressed
his feet to the pedals. lie not only
failed to attain the mile-a-mfnllte Sueed
he had predicted for the initial trip, bnt
the. morbin,. ,yo,,ld MOT ,n,,,. ~, an m ''
A farmer who lives few miles from
Chicago and who was willing TO sDend
part of the money he had made in rcl-
lowing the pow in order to make his
son famous came into the sbop one da,.
The son. who was an ordinary. cou,.-
trv lad. had been tinlsrino ,,,.,.r o.,,,.o,
days on marhira tho, ,.,, =, -,
,yater vitb rr,cti.oll,. ,,...,l -
idea was IN r,isa. .boa,.,.. ,,.oi,.,,,
49,, - ~, -''' ~ ''-