Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1898-11-26

To Save Human Lives.
a patent that at first thought might seem
more impracticable than it really is,
cording to the patent examiner who passed
upon the patentabil.ty of the invention. is
an elevator for rescuing persons from the
windows Of burning buildings. The frame
work of the eleI ator is run up into the air
in much the same fashion as the ladder of
a hook and ladder outfit, and this frame
work IS capable of being extended to almost
any height, close to the windows of the
burning building. Once the framework is
hrmiy adjusted, the elevator at the bottom
begins its ascent. by means of pneumatic
power and in charge of fireman. Then.
all that the frenzied people hanging out Of
the windows of the burning building have
TO dc when the elevator reaches their floor
is to step out onto the platform of the
same and take hurried ride to the ground,
when the elevator is ready for more aerial
business The elevator is capable of ac-
commodatinS eight people, and its opera
ton IS said to be swift and successful. In
quiry among the municipal fire departments
of American cities fails to show, however,
that the invention has yet been adopted by
any of them.
Another queer patent devised for the
saving of human life from burning build
inSs is a portable parachute contrivance,
which the inventor aims to have installed
in every room of every hotel on the globe.
The man who is caught the twelfth
floor of a burning hotel has only to fastea
the parachute firmly to his head by means
or chin and neck straps, and then jump in
| to space, with or without 'muttered pray
ers Before donning the portable para
chute he has fastened shoes with thick
rubber soes to his feet 1.-THE shoes being
part of the 1Dparatns) to break the force of
his fall. The only weak feature of this
pdtert consists in the chin and neck straps
OF the portable parachute. The patentee
gave demonstration of the working of
his contrivance shortly after he received a
inEr off pf
story Kansas City hotel. unbeknownst to
the proprietor of the hosiery. The para
chute opened up all right. but the invent
or's descent was so gradual that he was
considerably more than three parts hung
by the neck before he reached the ground.
1t took the whole day staff of one of the
emergency hospitals to bring the inventor
back to earth
improvements on a patent that is not at
all queer, but that seems somewhat so to
persons fitted with all the natural parts of
their anatomies. are constantly being made.
This Is a combination knife and fork for
use by persons with but one arm.
Rat Scarers and Cow Mixers
Al invention for the scarifying of rats
was patented not long ago, and simple as
the continuance is. it is said to serve its
purpose well and to have already become
a money maker for the patentee. The pat
ent is nothing more than a PAPER mache
cat provided with luminous eyes The
papier mache cat is piunked down before a
rat hole. and it is said that peerfng rats
invariably flee in terror at the sight of
the imitation cats blazing orbs
All sorts and conditions of patents have
been granted to farmers for rendering the
job OF milking cows easy. Orville Grant
a brother of General Grant. got out one of
these patents. The fact that it wasn't par
ticularly practicable was made manifest
by General Grants description of how it
worked
"orville tried the thing on an unframed
cow, with no respect for patents" said
General Grant. He didn't look so pretty
when he got through, but he knew id
sight more"
a Chicago man who stated that he had
been twice held up by footpads neither OF
whom he cared to shoot to death with the
pistol he carried on his person. because he
dldn care to have the shedding of human
blood on his soul, applied for a patent on
a bullet with a gelatine tip The hollow
bullet was filled with certain sort of DOW
erful gas. Upon striking the miscreant in
tended to be brought down the soft CELIA
tine point OF the bullet would drop off, per-
hitting the escape of the aforementioned
powerful gas, the oVerpowering narcotic
properties of which were designed to put
the victim to sleep for considerable
length oil time. The Chicago man didn't
precisely prove his case, and he didn't get
his patent.
Any number of contrivances have been
patented for awakening hard sleepers One
VI tlASlL 10 d SOGt Oh automatic lyOrd ulic
Jack which begins operations at the re-
qulred and adjusted hour In the morning
by slowly pushing the mattress upon which
the sleeper reposes up toward the ceiling.
Exercises for Criminals.
A sort of enlarged treadmill invention
that the applicant for a patent thereon
thought would be a mighty useful thing
Wherewith to give convicts in large prisons
exercise, consists of long, movable side
walk, run or a ground trolley with steam
as the motive power, and capable of being
regulated at any speed. The prisoners in
need of exercise simply hustle in the ,jppo-
site direction to that in which the movable
sidewalk is travelling, and get Themselves
exercised willy niIly.
Numerous applications have been filed
within recent years for patents upon de-
vices wherewith to fraudulentIy beat the
horS--raclng game such as electric saddles
, ana brides. Electric saddles have bean in
use on the outlaw tracks for some time
hut there is no record of the electric brides
having been used. Any number of new
gambling devices are patented from year to
year. The patent office was in no wise
created for the purpose of exercising a
Censorship over the morals of the citizens
ana when new gambling device comes
along that presents patentable features the
inventor gets his patent without any more
trouble than the more Legitimate paten.e.s
experience. Very few, however, of these
new gambling devices are made to paw hy
tHeIT inFtntOrS, Tor the probable reason
that the betting devices already in opera
ton present to the betting public ample op-
portunities for them to burn up their
money.
Jail for the KIOndike.
An Oregon man who, when the KIondike
fever broke out, figured that the ordinary
shed-like jails up in the Alaska camps
wouldn't be strong enough to hold in the
criminals put in quod by the peace preser1-
ers, put in an application for a patent on a
portable steel cell, capable of being put to-
gether and taken apart in a trife less than
no time. The patentees invention infringed
upon a similar device invented numerous
years ago by an Englshman for uss in
some Of Engiand's more lawless colonies,
and ne didn't get patent.
The fact is not often recalled that a num-
Der of famous men have taken out patents
upon their own inventions. The working
model of Abraham Lincoln's device for
raising vessels from shoals, upon which a
patent was granted, is still on exhibition in
the patent office model room. There is no
model of the glass-cased piano upon which
Ole Bull. the great violnist of another
generation, took out a patent when he was
on his last tour IN this country, but the
specifications, claims and drawings Of his