The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-12-18

ipal 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 saw
Ing Of human life from burning buildings
IS portable parachute CONTINUANCE, which
cry room of every hotel on the globe The
man who is caught on the twelfth floor of
a burning hotel has only to fasten the para
and neck straps, and then jump into space,
with or without "muttered prayers Be
fore donning the portable parachute he has
fastened shoes with thick rubber soles to
his feet (the shoes being part OF the APP
paratus) to break the force of his fall. The
only weak feature of this patent consists
in the chin and neck straps Of the portable
parachute. The patentee gave a demon
stration Of the working of his contrivance
off the roof of a seven-story Kansas City
Hotel, unbeknownst to the proprietor OF
the hosiery. The parachute opened up all
right, but the inventors 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 10
bring the inventor back tc 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.
Raj OCAfLE1O AMI GOW MlIhE<16o
An invention for the scarifying of rats
was patented not long ago, and simple as
the continuance is, it is said to serve it's
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 paper
mache cat is plunked down before a rat
hole, and it is said that peering rats in
VaPiah lV in at iph of
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,
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
didn't care to have the shedding of human
blood on his soul, applied for a patent on
bullet with gelatine tip The hollow
bullet was filled with a certain sort of
powerful gas. Upon striking the miscreant
intended to be brought down the soft CELIA
hitting the escape of the aforementioned
powerful gas, the empowering narcotic
properties of which were designed to put
the victim to sleep for a considerable length
Of 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
jack which begins operations at the re-
CURED and adjusted hour in the morning
by slowly pushing the mattress upon which
the sleeper reposes up toward the ceiling.
EXERCISES FOR CRIMINALS.
sort of enlarged treadmill invention that
the applicant for a patent thereon thought
would be mighty useful thing wherewith
to give convicts in large prisons exercise
consists of long, movable sidewalk, run on
a ground trolley with steam as the motive
power and capable of being regulated at
any speed. The prisoners in need of exer-
else simply hustle in the opposite direction
to that in which the movable sidewalk is
travelling, and get themselves exercised
willy nilly.
Numerous applications have been filed
within recent years for patents upon devices
wherewith to fraudulently beat the horse
racing game, such as electric saddles and
brides. Electric saddles have been in use
on the outlaw tracks for some time, but
there is no record of the electric brides
having been used. Any number of new
year. The Patent Office was in no wise
created for the purpose of exercising a
censorship over the morals of the citizens,
and, when new gambling device comes
along that presents patentable features the
inventor gets his patent without any more
trouble than the more legitimate patentees
experience. Very few. however of these
gambling devices are made to pay by their
inventors, for the probable reason that the
betting devices already in operation present
TO the betting public ample opportunities
for them to burn up their money.
An oregon man who, when the KlondilSe
fever broke out, figured that the ordinary
wouldn't be strong enough to hold in the
criminals put in quod by the peace preserv-
ers put in an application for patent on a
portable steel CELL capable of being put to-
no time. The patentee's invention infringed
upon a similar device invented numerous
years ago by an Englishman for use in some
of England's more lawless colonies, and he
didn't get a 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 rails
ent was granted, is still on exhibition i'll the
Patent Office modelroom. There is no model
of the glass-cased piano upon which Ole
Bull, the great violiniSt of another genera
last tour in this country, but the specifica-
tons, claims and drawings of his transpar-
ent piano are still file The model of
Mark TWaln'S ingenious scrap book, upon
which he took out patent many years ago,
still lies in one of the showcases in the Pat
ent Office modelroom. 1t is not far sepa-
rated from the model of a patent babys
rattle, the invention of a little six-year-old
girl: The patent was taken out in the little
ones name. and sworn affidavit was sub
mi, ed to the effect that the child had. with
out any assistance whatever, devised the
invention.