Evening journal., 1898-03-17
MECHANICAL TOYS.
Some Have Made Large Fortunes fOr
the Inventors.

Some Have Made Large Fortunes for
the Inventors.
CAS- the holidays approach 1t will no
doubt be a source of much wonqer-
ment 20 many parents, uncles and
aunts, where all the toys displayed in
toy windows and at curbstones come
from, and what novelty WI appear
next" said large wholesale dealer in
toys In New York to a Star reporter re-
Gently. "To me it is no mystery, for
almost every day in the year somo
Yankee genius brings me some new
plaything to inspect. If II is good,
| put 1t on the market, and then IL IL
makes a temporary hit the inventor and
| myself both make money. When q
/ strike is made the market is flooded
| with the new favorite, for its popularity
Is genrally short lived a few days,
weeks or months at the most and its
reign is over.
Nowadays nearly all the cheap five
and ten-cent novelties and the better
class OF mechanical toys, such as river
steamboats,, locomotives, trains, trolley
cars, dolls that walk and talk and an
imals that move about almost natu-
rally are made IN America, while such
old-fashioned playthings as building
blocks, tin soldiers, wooden sheep, skim
covered horses, cows and dogs, oil of
which, judging from the numerous
sales, are as great favorftes with the
children of to-day as they were a gem
Grafton or two ago, come mostly from
Germany. In that country these toys
are handmade by peasants, who work
ut them at night or during dull seasons
on the vineyards or farms. labor Il
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 result of TINS there are
many toys which in their completed
state are partly American and partly
foreign. Among these are toy vehicles
with horses or oxen attached. The We
hicles and everything in and about
J them may be the product of American
machinery, while the animals standing
I in front of the toy may be from Ger
3 many"
= "Are many Americantoys patentedY
+ YES; tine most expensive and insig
q nificant novelties are alike protected
= by patents before the manufacture
= puts them on the market. A patent one
: granted protects the holder from in
, fringement upon his idea for the tim
a during which tho patent runs, and h
controls the manufacture of his articl
ns absolutely as he would any real es
tate that might be in his name. Few in
ventions pay better than popular pat
= ented toys. A clergyman In New Yor
q state has realized $4,000 during tn
: last two years by iuventlng a jumpinI
v frog that opens and shuts its eyes an
q mouth naturally. Tho dancing negro
II whichscan be seen in every toy shop an
g which is simply a figure of gaudil
IS attired oolored gentleman, balanced b
le q wire, which Is moved rapidly up an
y down by a system of cloclrwork IN tt
= Is box upon which II dances, provides O
- Income for its inventor OF $4,000 yea
'That'old, bsrt still popular America
q tov, q return ban'-a wooden ball wit
ts an elastic attached-yielded the pa
Is antee an incoane. equal to s5O,OO0 yea
e The sale of the little wooden fgur
If John G8pin' was incredibly large, an
q very Ingenious toy, known as tn
wheel of fortune; is said to have pre-
duced upward OF 100000 to its il
ventOrs.
~ zone of the most successful of mod
n ern toys has been the chameleon top
the sale of which has been enormous
4 The field of invention is not only vas
4 and varied, butit is open TO everybod,
X without respect to sex OF age, static
n or means. The merest trifie may be III
~ key TO a fortune, II il DO an article ths
~ the public actually wants in great nun
n bers. Washington Star.