The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-09-25


ployed by the women of ancient Rome
to fasten their dresses. Among the
most profitable patents have been var
ious little devices having relation to
women's costume, such as the pers-
piration-proof shield of rubber. the
idea of substituting the qulls of chick
en- and turkey feathers for whalebonc
ia corsets, and the suspended garter.
The last was sold outright for $4,000
The ball and socket glove fastener is
Frenchman's idea and has made him
rich. Another successful invention is
the double ball clasp for pocketbooks
and handbags. 1t is said that no sort
of clasp can be popular unless 1t makes
noise when it catches. Only n few
years ago lucky man thought of put
ting a couple of little strips of cork on
the nose pieces of eyeglasses, to make
them more comfortable. Nearly all
eyeglasses nowadays have this i'm
provement, and every pair pays n roy
atty to the inventor The latest of the
very profitable small inventions is the
tin cap for beer bottles, which is taxi
ing the place of corks 1t is cheaper
than the cork, more convenient and
keeps the beer better. Metal lemon
squeezers are undesirable because the
juice Of the fruit acts upon the metal
and makes it a poison. Not long ago
somebody thought of making lemon
squeezers of glass, and the idea was
worth just $4,000 to him.
Tin cans are now made so that they
can be opened by simply striking the
top a smart blow. AS soon as he
learned of the invention Armour, the
Chicago packer, ordered 100000 of the
cans, and the inventor is already inde-
pendently wealthy. The automatic
inkstand, which keeps an equal supply
of ink always ready for the pen, is said
to have earned 5000, 600. The shading
pen" has earned a sum even larger
Shoe buttons are no longer sown on,
but are applied with a metal fastener
This idea has been worth a big for
tune. A new contrvance that prom
ises to be very profitable is whistle
for bicyclers, made on the principle of
the siren fog horn whistle. There was
100000 in the wooden shoe peg, but
the inventor went insane just as wealth
was pouring in upon him. Another
gold producing patent was the inverted
glass bell placed over gas jets to pro-
tect ceilings. Great sums have been
earned by the rubber pencil tip, barbed
wire for fences and a contrivance for
shaving ice. A hump on a hook to
keep it from slipping out of the eye
has made the proprietors of the con-
trivance millionaires.
CONCEIVED IN A DREAM.
One of the most valuable patents
| was the result of a dream An engin-
| eer named Springer had been trying
| to devise an automatic lock which
would breake a carriage going down
| hill, so that the driver would not have
| to get out, but might lock the brake
| by pulling his horse in. He dreamed
| that he was driving down steep hill
and had just such lock on the wag-
on. He noticed exactly how it was
| constructed and, on waking he got up
| and sketched the details of the me-
| chanism. Then he went to bed again.
| Three days later he applied for pa
tent, which was granted. 1t yielded
| $4,000 the first year. Scores of patents
are issued every week by the United
| States patent office. Only very small
PERCENTAGE of them have any practical
usefulness. But it is not always pos
sble to judge before a thing has been
tried. A few years ago man thought
of enclosing trees in canvas and filing
the canvas with deadly gases for the
| purpose of destroying insects. He was
| considered n lunatic, but this method
is now practiced on a great scale ana
with much success in California.
One man has patented a scheme for
| utilizing seaweeds as food, shredding
| them very fine drying them, mixing
them with sugar and cornstarch, and
I L.
| guaranteed to last indefinitely. An
| other inventor proposes to distill
whiskey from seaweeds. Yet another
| has a process for making flour from
| bananas, which are to be Sliced dried
in hot air and pulverized. This flour
| is nutritious and very cheap.
Banana flour, by the way is already
| manufactured on quite a large scale
! in Central America. A process has
been patented for making a kind of
wine out Of overripe bananas. pressed
and fermented. Sweet potato flour and
dessicated mince pie are numbered
among the original ideas on the files
An automatic tack driver is a ham
mer that contains q reservoir of tacks,
/ so that there is no danger of bang
| ing ones thumb. Devices for cosmetic
| d
vance to hold back the cars, a spring
to alter the lines of the mouth,
tongue-clean and an anti-snorer. A
! special novelty is false noises, attached
to a spectacle frame. and imitation
| gold filings are added to false teeth
by furnishing gold foil upon them in
| spots, so as to make them look more
| natural.
Artificial hens eggs are to be made
in the laboratory. the whites being
a mixture of sulphur, carbon and beef
| fat and the yelks of beef blood, mag
nesia, colored with chrome yellow. The
| shells are to be shaped with a blow
J pipe from a moist composition of lime
| and gypsum. Lockets of asbestos are
| intended to contain the addresses of
| people who travel on railways for in
| Identification in case Of collision and
| fire. One inventor proposes to stretch
a cable the entire length of the Allan
| tic coast, some distance from shore
and anchored at intervale. Vessels
dragging their anchors and in danger
| Of being wrecked are expected to catch
this cable and so save themselves. An
other genius proposes that the govern
ment shall locate large rihed guns on
! dangerous parts of the coast, to be
loaded with anchors and chains. on
being discharged the anchor unfolds
and drops in the sea beyond the vessel,
with the chain across her bows, so
that the crew will only have to make
the chain fast and ride out the storm
in safety.
| OTHER ODD CONCETTS