The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1897-12-24

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the invention of Louis Bagger, patent
attorney of Washington. The car in
question has double row of little rooms
running from one end to the other. Each
room contains bath tub, and hot water
is in tank on the roof of the car. At
PENDANTS, who are skilled masseurs, have
at hand, in condensed form, the prepare
lions requisite for making imitation sea
water or any sort of medicated bath.
The Patent Office takes great pride in
the discretion which it exercises in the
granting of patents. Abroad, Iany fold
thing is patentable, andlthe inventors are
left to fight matters out in the courts.
But in this country an invention, in or
der to befpatented must.appear to.beiboth
new and useful. Slips will occur, it is
true, in the best-regulated business estab-
ilshments. 1t was not by deliberate Yin
tention that the Patent Office gave
patent on a scheme for preserving eggs by
the simple process Of punching pin-hole
IN each one-the pin hole being designed
merely for ventilation. Pure accident
process for chopping beef and potatoes
into small pieces and cooking them to-
gether Probably the responsible exam
liner knew nothing of the customary
method of making hash. But--and here
tear must be shed!-it has always been
brag of the Patent Office that it never let
perpetual motion scheme through.
Unhappily, in an unguarded moment
recently, an examiner granted patent on
what he supposed to be sorue sort of pleas
ure railway for summer resorts. 1t wasya
mere plaything. he thought, and so it
passed inspection successfully and OBJ
tanned Uncle Sam s Endorsement as new
and useful idea. Alas 1t was a contriv-
ance for transportation by perpetual
motion-a com bination of the principles
Of the inclined planeand the trolley which
is doubtless destined to supplant steam
and electricity for locomotive purposes.
The problem of lifting ones self by ones
bootstraps is simply modification of the
same idea. And this is how one more
fool patent was added to the already long
list.
The development of the kite into con-
trivance based upon definite mechanical
principles is altogether new. Tt Is now
being employed for number Of practical
purposes, such as aerial photography,
meteorological observation, etc., having
been graduated from the domain Of Toy
dom. But no suggestion in this line Is
more striking than that given by Bos-
ton inventor named d. Thayer, who pro-
poses to journey over the ocean in an
aerial car drawn by flock Of kites. To
keep him from being carried away, a
drag, floating on the waves, is to be at
tached to the rear of the balloon car Also
lest the machine drop into the sea and
sink, boats are fastened on either side of
thu car.
Nowadays the routes of steamers across
the Atlantic are laid as if they were &C.
closeness that the passenger vessel bound
for Liverpool often passes returning ship
within few hundred yards. 1t is pro-
posed by Reuben H. Plass of Brooklyn to
mark this transoceanio highway with a
series of small floating lighthouses a few
miles apart. These lighthouses will be
somewhat like exaggerated buoys, each
one bearing light beacon SO arranged as
to require attention only once in four
months, not to mention foghorn, which
worked by compressed air stored by the
wave-rocking, will Lellow warning blasts
fhn hox, 81
who may happen to be shipwreoked with
in reach of this line of floating and an
chored stations will beIguided to the near
est one by the light and the sound of the
foghorn. Gaining admittance to the in
terror of the big buoy by opening a key
less door, he finds food and shelter there.
The act of opening the door sends an
alarm by wire along the line of stations.
AT intervals of fifty miles are central
stations, manned and provided with life
boats, and rescue is at once sent.
No discussion of devices for transporta
ton at the present time would be deemed
complete without some reference to cycles.
For obvious reasons. however, it is i'm
possible to go into this branch of the sub
ject at any length here. One might men,
tiou the water cycle, which is bicycle
set in a boat and riddan in the ordinary
fashion, with the sprocket geared by the
chain to a little propeller Also one
might refer to the ice cycle, which has
toothed wheels, and to the bicycle that is
propelled partly by windmill. In the
latter rod runs through the tubular
backbone, and at the front end carries
an arrangement of metal fans like pro-
peller. The fans aotuate gearing which
connects with the ordinary gearing of the
wheel, SO that, with fair breeze, the
machine runs without the use of the ped
ais by the rider.
Some competent authorities are Of the
Onion that the day will yet arrive when
the epicyole will supplant the bicycle as a
means of locomotion. The term
"epicycle'' is applied to that type of ma
chine which consists of one huge wheel,
inside of which the rider sits, and &C.
tuates small wheel by means of pedals.
The small wheel, by gearing, causes the
LARGE and in this