Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-12-29
INVENTORS WERE BUSY
Past Year Broke the Record
for Issue of Patents.
THE TELEPHON Elm WAR
EMPLOYMENT DURING THE HOS
TILITIES IN MANCHURIA.
Service in This Country Compared With
That in Europe-The Post Card and
Parcels Post Systems.
By WILLIAM E. CURTIS.


Record Herald
One of the most serious objections offered
to the consolidation of manufacturing in
dustries and the organizations of the great
trusts was that it would discourage compe-
tltlon and rivalry, repress invention and
thus obstruct progress in the mechanical
arts and industries. This apprehension was
general.
The strongest argument in favor of the
combination of companies in the same line
of business was economy, which would en-
able them to pay larger dividends. 1t was
claimed that the large sums of money that
were being spent for advertising, promoting
sales and for producing novelties could be
saved. The selling expenses of ordinary
machinery were estimated from 10 to 20 per
cent of its value, and in many cases we
were told that it would cost as much to find
a customer for an article as it did to make
it.
1t was also asserted that an immense
amount OF money was wasted in petty ana
insignificant improvements in all kinds of
machines, particularly in patented articles,
for the sake of having something to adver-
tise. Big manufacturing concerns employed
inventors for the express purpose of devils
ing novelties and improvements, and each
had it's own attorneys to hurry the papers
through the patent office, in order that the
improvement might be placed upon the mar
ket soon as possible. With the comblna-
ton of interests and with the consolidation
of companies which had been engaged IN
active competition 1t was feared that the
inventive genius of the country would be
deprived of employment and when compe-
tition ceased manufacturers would not make
new machines but continue to sell the old
ones.
Records for Patents Broken.
Tho renort of the commissioner of pat
ents does not confirm that apprehension,
for it shows that there has been greater
progress in patents since the trust cpl
demic began than before; that 1903 was
the biggest year in the history of the
patent system of the United States up to
that date, and that 1904 has surpassed it
to an extraordinary degree. There have
discoveries during the year past, but
there have been healthy and important
improvements in every branch of me-
chanical industry.
The year 1904 is a record breaker The
inventors of the country were never SO
busy and manufacturers have never be-
fore shown so much enterprise. The clerks
at the patent Office have been compelled
to work over time to keep up with their
duties, and the commissioner refused to
grant leaves of absence during the holi-
days. in order that he might close up the
years business, as nearly as possible, on
the 31st of December.
1t also appears from the records of the
patent office that more attorneys and in
yentors are employed by the trusts than
were employed by individual manufac-
turerS before the combinations, and in
ducementS are continually offered i'm
portant officials to resign their positions
in the patent Office and accept employ
ment with the trusts.
Use Of Telephones in War.
Speaking of modern ideas reminds me
that the telephone has been remarkably
useful as an implement of war in Man
churia. We used it lin the Spanish war
to a certain extent, and it was a great
convenience in camp, but the japanese
have utilized it on the field of battle and
the men of their signal corps have stood
again and again under fire with wires
and instruments in their hands, ready
to rush forward and string them up as the
troops advanced in the face of the enemy
OR in following the retreat. Foreign mill
tary observers say that several battles have
been directed by telephone by the Japan
csc. The Russians may have used them
also.
The headquarters of Field Marshal Oyama
have been connected by wire with the
Headquarters of every division and many
brigades, regiments and batteries, and or
ders and reports are now given orally over
the wires, instead Of being sent by aid-de-
camps and orderlies.
One of the foreign attaches describes a
general of division in the midst of a bat
tie, seated upon his horse with a transmit
ter in his hand, making a report to head
quarters. He was compelled to fill his left
ear with mud in order to hear the replies
because Of the rattle of musketry around
him. The Japanese are farther advanced
in the use of the telephone than any other
nation except Sweden, and the United
States probably comes third
Europe,s Telephone Service.
TO Of lpy,i
that returning friends from Europe tell
us that the telephone and telegraph service
in the principal countries far exceeds in
and general efficiency the same
service in. the United States; that it is
cheaper to the public, and managed in
more acceptable way:ssthat the mail de-
liveries are far more numerous and prompt;
that by pneumatic tubes letter is trans
mitted and delivered in thirty minutes over
such distances as from Berlin to Paris, and
at OILY small advance over ordinary
postage rates"
It is true that the telegraph and mail
facilities of the principal countries of Eu-
rope and Japan also excel those. of the
United States. We are far behind them in
of delivery and efficiency of
mails and in economy of telegraphiag but
no country except Sweden and Japan has
such perfect telephone facilities as the
United States.
1t is also true, Mr.. Capp states. that
in several European cities people can hear
operas in their own drawing rooms over
telephone wires. That has been popular
fad, but, at the same time, the ordinary
daily service with the butcher, the baker,
the groceryman. the liveryman and among
the houses of friends in England. France
Germany, Italy and other countries except
Sweden. is nowhere near as good as in our
own country.
Poor Telephone Service Abroad.
:
send message over a German telephone.
The first time he tries he will work him
self up into such state of evaporation
that the lives of the telephone people are
not safe; the second time he will drop the
transmitter in disgust and despair. and the
third time he will walk two miles to de-
liver the message or use telegraph blank
or post card, which are much more salts
factory. Indeed, in France Germany and
England there are comparatively few tele-
phones. You seldom find them in private
houses for the service Is so exasperating
that ponDlf will not 11Re them