The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1907-03-01

man was given in the 18th century
was granted to Mary Kier, in 1909. for
straw weaving with silk thread p
the probable forerunner of American
! mating. One of the most recent in
ventions by woman is shOestrlng
| that won't come united.
The records of the patent office
show how some people have invaded
| the field of invention with most &C.
centric ideas. An invention called the
"anti-snoring device" is -ometnirg
similar to Ine telephone. No sooner
| does the sleeper begin to snore than
the sound is transmitted to his own
ear causing nlm to awake at once. An
other ambitious inventor has brought
out a machine which will autOmatical-
| ly tip mans hat when he passes
! woman acquaintance on the street.
Patent Crimp.
A woman is responsible for the pat
ent crimping pin that can be used as
paper cutter, skirt supporter, a
| paper file, a bouquet holder, a safety
] pin a shawl fastener and book mark.
There is a patent churn that rocks
the baby's cradle: q pocketbook that
| combines a pistol, so that when the
highwayman demands your money or
your life you can send him to king
J dom come while in the seeming act
of handing him your values.
The story is told of an Iowa man
who patented an India rubber side
walk. After much lobbying with his
friends among the town councils he
was allowed to put GOWN several yards
of it as an experiment. AS noise
absorber it proved most effective, and
the early demonstrations seemed to
be living down all skepticism in re-
gard to it so rapidly that the invent
or's fortune was all but made.
Then the inventor made a blunder.
To show how strong and solid it was
he began jumping up and down on it
with his whole weight. The walk
could not forget that it was still rub
, Der, and when the ambitious inventor
| planked his heels into it he was
promptly pitched over the fence into
a brier patch The episode proved
such a joke that the budding popular
ity of the new idea began to wane and
there are still no rubber sidewalks in
Iowa.
! Another happy idea that came to
grief was the adjustable pulpit, brought
out by Texas inventor. An Observ-
ing member of certain congregation
in the Lone Star state noticed that
some of the preachers were tall and
some were short, so he conceived the
idea of making an adjustable pulpit
which would accommodate itself to all
heights. The first preacher to use the
automatic device was a short man, and
the inventor was on hand and took
MS measure to a nicely. Later when
a six-foot pastor came on the inventor
lad the grip and could not go to the
church
The pulpit was set for his short pre-
decessOr and nobody could do a thing
with it. The inventor had insisted that
his device was easy enough to manipu-
late, but it proved most stubborn
and would not submit to REIMBURSEMENT
The tall man started in with it, and
it was so low that in reading his text
he had to stOop over almost as much
as if the book had been placed on a
chair. When he began to preach he
was getting along well enough until
he suddenly stamped his foot to en-
phasiZe a point. His action released
the spring in the floor and the pulpit
shot upward until is completely hid
the preacher from the view of his
hearers. The remainder of his ser
mon sounded about the same as if he
had been in we'll
Thomas jefferson may be termed
the Father of the patent office" for
it was he who saw the passing of the
act creating the Office and the copy
right system. For number of years
he was one OF committee who passed
on the merits of all designs submitted
to the office. one DR.. Thornton. a
rather eccentric man, was the onlv de-
partment clerk the Office had for a
long period. In the war of 1872. when
the British soldiers had a cannon train
ed on the patent office to destroy it
the doctor rushed out and placed his
body before the muzzle of the common
eZclaimlng that if Goths and Vandals
would destroy a building containing
models that would benefit all the world
the ball must first go through his BODY.
1t was spared, but in 1886 the office
was burned and the only thing saved
was book of no particular value.
| like TINT I 1,rae oroi,,.. a.. IL,