The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-11-16
Few Suggestions for Making
 Yourselves Wealthy
WIRE FENCE IMPRACTICAL
Man Who Can Reduce To Commercial Basis the Utilization of Millions of Horse Power of Solar Energy
 Will Be Benefactor.
BY FREDERIC j. HAsKIN.

needed inventions, ranging from nOn- i losable hairpin to a successful flying machine. Millions of dollars are being i spent annually in perfecting these need i of inventions. The General Electric com i pany alone maintains force of 800 peo- l pie, and spends for them and through 1 them upward of two and a half million dollars year in the effort to turn out something new. Besides, they inspect | every electrical invention that comes ! their way, and are just as anxious that nothing good slip by them as any im- pecunious inventor can be that they buy his patent. There are many other large corporations which maintain big forces | of inventors to turn out needed inven- tions on their own initiative or upon suggestion. The Bell Telephone com | pany. the Hoe Printing Press company l and the Westinghouse company are among the principal employers of men whose duty it is to turn out new inven- tions. the patents therefor to be as- 1 signed '1n consideration of salary and 1 S." The salary of these men runs from i 5000 to $12.0O0 a year
 i Thomas A. Edison is the most brilliant example in America of the independent ] professional inventor. He has list of several hundred needed inventions, and is constantly at work with a big force of trained men in | his splendidly equipped shops. He turns out inventions at the rate of one every two weeks, at least patents are is- i sued to him that often. Edison must be sure that an invention is a needed one l before he patents 1t. There is no senti- ] ment in the matter with him. Will it l pay?" "Is 1t needed?" It all depends ! upon the answer to these two questions l with him. He has a delightful old-fash- ioned direct way of doing things. He recently wanted to get the capacity of vessel of very irregular shape. He called In one of his expert mathemeti- l clans and had him measure it with the | most precise instruments in the market, and told him to make the calculations. It took the mathematician two days to figure it up But before his footballs had died away MT. Edison filled the yes sel with water. By pouring this in turn into a gauged vessel, he readily found the capacity of the other. It took him ! five minutes to do it. and the mathe- matician two days. MT. Edison says that mathematician never makes good
 inventor, that it takes imagination for an inventor and that mathematicians are notably deficient In this respect.
 1 The other class of inventors who are 1 turning out needed and unneeded in ventions Is made up of the hy-by-night'' l fellows the ones who patent something ' fhHV
 world needs. One-half of the inventions registered at the patent office are of this ! type, and two-thirds of them receive a verdict of mot needed" from the world l of affairs and are never heard of again. ! But now and then the inventor of this ! class strikes it rich. The inventor of | the dime savings bank, the pasteboards
 for packing eggs, the rebounding ball, 1 the paper clip the rubber eraser on the l lead pencil, and hundred other things l are instances of the casual inventor 1 reaping rich harvest
 The widespread interest in inventions | was demonstrated a few months ago i when in one of my articles l happened | to refer to a certain factory in New ! England which made nothing for itself, 1 but devoted it's entire energies to manu- 1 featuring articles for other people, in- 1 cluding models for inventors l did not | mention the name of the firm and as con- | sequence I am still receiving letters of l inquiry from would-be inventors in ev- l cry state in the union. That single para 1 graph brought me more mail than any | article I have written in 12 months.
 Perhaps ohe of the most needed ln- { ventions of today is the non-refillable bot | tie. There are millions in it for the
 man who will invent one that is prac-
 ticable. Every extensive user of bot
 ties in American has felt the need of ! a bottle that cannot be used but once.
 1mtators gather up old bottles with the
 name blown in, and fill them with in-
 ferior medicines. or whatever they hap | pened to contain, and place them on the
 market again. The result is that some
 body's business and reputation is in-
 jured to no small degree. A non-re- ! fillable bottle would obviate this. It must be cheap and effective at the same time. { There have already been more than n i thousand patents issued on non-reiillable ! bottles, but as vet none of them have
 come into general use.
 Another sadly needed invention is wire
 fence which will remain uniformly taut
 regardless of weather conditions. A fence that is horse-high bull-strong, and pig tight is needed more in summer than in winter. since the horses, cattle, and l hogs are in the fields in summer and in
 the stables in winter. But if the farmer
 builds a wire fence, so that it will not , break by the contraction ol' tue cuiu III
 winter, it sags down and gets so loose
 that 1t will not turn stock in summer. l If he tries taking up the slack to
 meet weather conditions broken wires
 generally result The man who will
 remedy this trouble in practical way
 can occupy a Fifth avenue mansion for 1 the balance of his life. The railroads
 us well as the farmers are waiting for
 him to appear.
 The puncture proof automobile and
 bicycle tire is another needed thing. The
 invention of this will not only be high
 ly profitable. but it will earn the en-
 comium of genera tions unborn. It keep
 ing with that strange rule of the uni
 verse which decrees that there shall be
 no honey without a stinging bee, it
 seems impossible to get an easy-riding
 tire which cannot be pdnctured. The
 more yielding, or resilient tire be-
 comes. the more easily it is punctured.
 And the more remote one makes the
 possibility of puncture. the less smooth
 ly the tire will carry him. The man
 who can give the waiting world these | two things in the highest degree in
 the same tire can certainly name his own figure for 1t.
 The street car companies of many
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