Sunday morning globe., 1901-09-08
THE BRITISH PATENT OFFICE.
No Models Required to Secure a Pat
emit Rules Governing the Office.

SHt- NuISS GOFeiulnS the UTllce.
Chancery Lane, that lively thorough.
rare between High Holborn and Fleet
street is about equally divided be-
tween students and practitioners of
the law on the one hand and patent
agents on the other. Here comes the
great army of invetors from the four
corners Of the earth, who hover about
MS majesty's patent Office like vulures
over a dead carcass; and the patent
specification, till recently clothed i'm
blue, is the one thing ever present I'm
most offices round about Chancerv
Lane.
All application for patents must be
made i'm English, and no models are re.
quired to demonstrate that the invep.
uon is workable. Provisional protec.
uon can be obtained for nine months
aJ a cost of Il, and at the end of that
ume the complete specification will re-
qulle a stamp, value f3. Every patent
Is granted for the term of IA years
from the date of application. subject
TO the payment of the prescribed an.
nual fees, which for the ten INSTALL
ments, amount to t95; but the annual
fee gives an inventor a chance al rea. /
sonable cost, of experimenting as TO !
"hether his novelty will succeed. Any
person who represents that an article
sold by him is a patented article when
no patent has been granted for it. is
lable for every otfense on summary
conviction to q fine not exceeding f5.
The patent Office does not undertake
to give legal advice or opinions on anv
subject connected with patent law.
which, like other laws is left to the
Interpretation Of professional men. A
patent is granted upon an application
which passes the prescribed stages and
is unopposed, whether the invention
be novel or not Applications for pa.
tents contrary to general law are re.
FUSED; as, for example, those relating
TO gambling and to adulteration for
purposes of deception, such as making
milk to look like cream, or making the
automatic machine give back the coin
as well as the goods at certain inter
walls unknown to the purchaser. Att
me end Of last year there were about
54O,OoJ British specifications Of pa.
tents, ranging from the year 1917.
Some of the specifications are very
curious. There is a machine for wash.
ng and peeling potatoes, a workman's
iinner-can with a never-cooling food.
warmer a pie-funnel and crust sup.
porter combined, and all kinds of do.
nestle appliances. Lecturers, clergy.
men and lawyers, whose memory NAV
sometimes be rather treacherous. will
appreciate the genius of the inventor I
If the microphotoscope. 1t consists of
pair Of spectacles or eyeglasses. with
me or a number of minute photo.
graphs arranged I'm or along the rim.
The minute photographs are placed be-
lind suitable magnifying glasses, and
IRE so arranged that the eyes Of the
yearer may see either one or all the
photographs without moving the spec. 4
acles.
volcanoes are, according to one in L
.entor, to be harnessed and applied to
Iseful purposes. The volcanic heat is
o be drawn into receptacles provided
With tubes for distribution to public
nd private buildings, even to great
distances; the invention may be APP I
lied to heating baths, drying-rooms, |
nd for distilling water For the use
Il miners, more especially, one invent
IT makes a coiled tube containing com
,ressed air and carried like a lady's c
nun, handy for regulating a supply Of N
resh air to persons in a poisoned at
losphere. A hood which fits over the
ead is connected with this reservoir,
nd thus only pure air is breathed.
ieans are adopted for letting out the r
impure air, and also a window tor see
ng through the hood.