Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1902-01-18
Theuohts Worth Monsv


Happy thoughts. sold just as they
We're, hot on the brain, and inpatient
ed, sometimes have brought men for
tunes. For plan for making aerated
water. thought out over a pipe of to-
bacco, Harvey Browne got $50 .OO0-the
record price ever paid for a bare and
unpatented idea. 1t was a bare idea of
forcing carbonic acid gas into water
with suggestion Of how to do IT. and
it made Harvey Browne the father Of
all soda water and other artificial
"hZZes' in the world today. His IDA
having been born, Browne took il TO a
big beer bottling firm and offered it for
sale.
/ They questioned him closely and
easily could have appropriated his idea
without paying him a cent. but they
happened to be honest persons, and see
ing at once that the scheme would
work, they offered the man with the
happy thought s25 900 for his idea. But
Browne asked $4,000, and threatened
to go away and patent the idea and sell
1t tc someone else if his terms were not
complied with. The upshot of the mat
ter was that Browne signed an agree
ment and left the office of the firm with
a check for $50, 600
For easy money if would he hard to
beat the $4,000 which a man named
Norman Miles received for his idea CT
perforating postage stamp sheets from
the British postal authorities. Before
that the stamps were printed in sheets
which had to be cut with a pair of
scissors. One day when Miles was
thinking about nothing in particular it
occurred to him that perforations be-
between the stamps would enable them
to be separated without the bother of
using scissors. He did not stop to pat
ent his idea, but rushed off to the pro-
per postofiice officials and explained his
idea. illustrating it with pin and a
sheet OF writing paper. He also sug-
gested a simple device for a perforat-
ing machine. 1t did not take a genius
to appreciate the value of the idea, and
even the government Off1cialS-British
ores at that-saw it. Miles asked $685.
900 for his idea, and, though he held no
patent, he got what he demanded, after
sc me delay.
Twice in his life the late John Ruthin
sold bare ideas, just as they had come
into his head, for hard cash, impatient
ed notions as they were, merely the in
sriratiOns of an idle moment, he re-
ceived large sums for both of them.
One was an idea for a safety valve |
which is now used extensively all over |
the world. If he had taken out a pa
tent the royalties on his invention
would have Melted him much more |!
money, but he preferred to sell his idea |
as soon as it was born, and he got |
1000 for it. Five years later he sold, |
just as it stood in his head, an idea for |
a sausage making machine for $4,000.
Huntley Webb. when he conceived |
the idea of his '-facile" electric motor. |
rushed right off and offered it for sale, |
He confessed afterward that it was the |
fear of being forestalled that prevent |
ed his waiting to get the idea patent
ell before he sold it. He died last year
worth a comfortable fortune, but had |
he patented the idea and had smart.
practical agent to work for him. he
might have been a millionaire. AS it
was, he got $4,000 for his naked idea,
thus nearly equalling Harvey Brownies
record. In spite Of these brilliant ex-
amples, brain throbs at thousands OF
dollars a throb are extremely rare, and
sala BILE ideas are not born in every
brain.-New York Press.