The Hartford herald. [volume] (Hartford, Ky.) 1875-1926, 1907-06-12
What to Invent and Be-
come Famous.
SOME MUCH NEEDED ARTICLES
Which Would Bring Millions
in Return to the In
yentOrS Thereof.


majority of the great inventions in
America are due to men who stumbled
onto improvements in their work.
Thomas A. Edison, who has taken
out nearly 500 patents, started work
at IL years of age as a newsboy on
the Grand Trunk Railroad. For more
than ten years he was a telegraph
operator, and 1t. was not until he was
81 years old that he took out his
first patent.
Benjamin Franklin, who first put
electricity to practical use, was a
printers apprentice at the age of II,
and it was not until he was As years
old that he finally found electricity.
The inventor of the telephone, Alex
ander G. Bell, was Scotchman, who
came to this country in 1870 as a
teacher of deaf mutes, and then be-
came professor in the University of
Boston.
Eli Whitney, of cotton gin fame,
was teacher in Georgia, where first
he realized the Importance of the i'm
provement which he later made.
Robert Fulton, who invented the
steamboat, and Samuel E. B. Morse,
the telegraph man, both were artists
until they each saw greater oppor-
tunities and grasped them.
From a commercial standpoint the
linotype,on of the greatest successes.
This invention practically was STUN
bled upon by a German matchmaker,
OttInar Mergcnthaler, who came to
this country in 1872.
A man was walking along the street
one day when he happened to stumble
over a trapdoor in the sidewalk. He
cursed the hinges, looked back and
wondered why they had to have hinge
that protruded from the sidewalk. The
result of that stumble was the sunken
hinge for trapdoors, which is univer-
sally used now. This man literally
stumbled into fortune.
There are thousands of simple
things for which the world is crying,
the invention of any one of which
would bring q fortune to its origin
atOr.
There always has been demand
for a handle for cooking utensils
which will not get hot.
Women forever are putting new
braids on the buttons of their skirts.
An attachment to prevent these from
wearing out, or new, more durable
braid would find ready market.
Flexible glass is a mercantile need
which would bring a fortune to the
man who invented it.
You've noticed the dumps and ash
heaps full of tin cans. There UNI
doubtedly is way of refusing the
tin, but as yet it has not been found.
Now they are using paper bottles
in some places In which to deliver
milk. A better type of bottle that
cannot be used a second time is
needed greatly.
An envelope that cannot be opened
without detection never has been
made, and there is big demand for
such a thing.
Large dealers in fish long have been
looking for a machine which will scas
a great number of fish at the same
time.
A self-feeding paint brush and a
self-feeding putty tool are needed and
easily could be made by man with
the proper amount of originality and
initiative
Electricity offers a great field. A
new filament for incandescent lights.
a perfect insulating material, troll
ley wheel that won't come off the
wire, new battery, all are needed.
The cries of animals to be used in
the making of toys have never been
perfectly initiated, and the man who
can reproduce a lions roar can make
fortune.
There are thousands, yes, millions,
of things which the world has been
9crying for long time. You know
what some of them are, these will
suggest others. You know the needs
of your own in the shop or office;
there is, indeed, a, great demand for
invention.
Spend little of your time thinking
up improvements and it would not be
at all wonderful If you should stumble
onto just the right thing, and, be as
sured, If you can find anything use
full to the world you will find 1t
good paymaster, as has been proven
by the many fortunes which have
been stumbled onto in the fields Of
Invention.
Youth to Hang