Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1900-08-07

IMAM mall order man, He had offers
vi astounding sums for his patent. He
hao scores Of offers from hustling
agents VINO wished to be with him at
the start to skim the cream Of the
business. All kinds of advice was Of
fered him. He walked on air for as
much as week, lived on faith and
built air castles galore. His fortune
was made and when the money com
menceo 10 come in he would have more
than ne could handle and he began to
make anxious inquiries about the d.
mansions OF the bank vault.
There was, however. one peculiar
thing about all the offers. Every one
was accompanied by a request for a
small sum Of money. The agents
wanted few dollars for local adver-
Using before they began to book orders.
The prospective buyers wanted a half
dollar or so in advance to help nav for
the expense of an Investigation and at
torney's fees. The generous advisors
wanted a few shares of stock IL their
advice was accepted. The inventor
soon perceived that the fountain head
OF the golden stream must be with him
and dropped his great invention.
The adage that history repeats itself
is never more true than in the inyen-
ton business. The same invention Of
ten turns up in the patent office sew
eral times. The inventors are located
perhaps thousands of miles apart and
have never seen the previous device
so think that their idea is a new one.
A man. also not thousand miles from
this city, one winter, had a terrible
time with his sink spout. Yankee
genius came to his assistance and dur
ing the summer he developed his idea.
1t was a cute one and he was very
proud of it. 1t was very simple, being
only small lead pipe inside a larger
one. When the small pipe froze up it
could be easily thawed out by pouring
hot water into the larger one Not a
drop Of water would be wasted and the
ice in the smaller pipe would disap-
pear like the piece left on the door step
on hot morning by the iceman.
His friends increased at a more re-
markable ratio than the Democrats are
supporting. Wasn't he brany man
and soon to be a wealthy one? OF
course. In due course the idea wan
dered into the patent Office to make
the examiners earn their salary. It's
life was brief and hopes fell with
dull thud. The patent on the same idea
had expired 20 years before and the in
ventor had died poor man,
A neighbor of this man thought he
could do better and that he had an
idea that the patent office never
dreamed Of He was right He reason
ed that il salt would melt ice inside a
sink spout it ought to melt ice on the
outside and thereby prevent any form
ing within. He was not familiar with
an ice cream freezer so put his idea
to a practical test. When he banked
his spout in the fall he packed it snug
ly in rock salt and his wife emptied
the Stops out the back door for six
months.
Speaking of stolen patents said
the inventor. look here" and he
reached over the bench after an inno-
cent looking lamp wick labelled 'inde-
strUctable." l paid a quarter for
that and probably thousands have done
the same. but that's my wick. l dis
covered the principle by accident while
experimenting, one day. and never
thought it worth developing. Some
other crazy coot discovered the same
thing and pushed it so he's probably
making dollar out of it. today"
Well said listener. as he dug the
ashes out of a patent pipe with pa
tent jackknife and emptied them into
patent cuspidor Il 'spose there's
money in the patent business but l
guess it's about as hard to get it there
as it is in the Klondike." and then he
came near swallowing his store teeth
in a yawn.