The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1907-06-05
LITTLE INVENTIONS

especially some little thing that any
body might have made, YOU will al
ways hear the remark, why couldn't
have thought of that?" Fortunes
are made from even the most trivial
contrivances. 4 man walked from
Philadelphia to Washington to patent
the gimlet-pointed screw, and the SIM
pie idea eventually earned him more
than a million dollars. The rubber
tip on the end of lead pencils made
its INVENTOR rich. The metal point
on the end of your shoestring earned
fortune for the woman who thought
of it, and the copper cap that so long
adorned the toes of children's shoes
earned 100000 for the lucky person
who patented 1t.
Bleaching Sugar.
Many valuable inventions were hit
upon in most accidental way. The
art of making sugar white was dis
covered by harmless old speckled
hen. This feathered matron one day
went for a walk through a field of
clay. and later. without taking the
precaution to wipe her feet. walked
through a sugar mill on the same
plantation, indifferent to the fact that
she was scattering clay over the
loose mounds OF sugar as she passed.
Afterward it was dicovered that wher-
ever her tracks had fallen on the moist
sugar the clay had whitened it.
Scientists took up the matter, and
from this incident introduced the
method of bleaching sugar by the clay
process.
A dog gave us the art of dyeing
cloth in quite as accidental manner.
One afternoon so many years ago that
the date is of small consequence,
for a walk along the sands of the sea-
shore in far-off country. A little
dog trailed along at their heels and,
becoming weary of much lovemaking,
finally ran ahead and went fishing
among the rocks. One particular she'll
fish which he captured and devoured
exuded fluid which dyed the hair
about his mouth pretty purple. In
vestigation of this incident founded the
science Of dyeing cloth which now
gives a happy feminine world the
pleasure of Haunting so many brilliant
colors in it's attire.
A man from Michigan was told by
the doctors to take his wife south for
her health. He purchased big wag-
on and team for the trip and thought
to make some profit by carrying
stock of feather busters to-sell along
the way. One day he went to the
factory where his busters were being
made, and while standing in the yard
talking to one of the employees, picked
up from the ground one of the
"strutters," or tail feathers from
turkey-the refuse from the buster
factory. He began idly twisting
thread back and forth through it's
broken edges, and the idea of the
featherbone came to him from the
result of the idle play of his hands.
The featherbone is the successor of
whalebone, and is indispensable to the
attire of the modern woman. He pat
ented the idea and received so much
money from it that he will never have
to travel overland in a wagon again
unless he wants to.
A man standing in front of the
postoffice in Washington, d. c., bent
a small piece of tin in his fingers un-
til it took the shape of a T. This
would make good paper fastener"
he remarked to the man with whom
he was talking, and he straightway
had the idea patented. Another man
made money from the device of an
imbedded string in the end of an en-
velope to cut the paper as it is drawn
out. Still another man added to this
idea by tying knot in the end of the
string to keep it from being drawn
through.
Borrowed from Animals.
1t is interesting to note how man
has borrowed many of his ideas from
the animal world. Wasps made paper
from wool long before man decided
it was good substitute for rags. The
folding scissors and folding pocket
compass are only copies of the fold
ing lower jaw of the dragon fly. The
flying squid, species of cuttlefish,
has way of projecting itself as high
as twelve feet above the surface of the
water by forcibly expelling water from
its body. Man saw this and invented
the skyrocket. The rope making ma
chine used in the United States navy
yard follows almost the precise lines
that a spider does when making his
own frail cable
Women for Inventors.
Women have been prominent in the
field of invention, and there are over
$500 different devices credited to
their ingenuity. OF the list of things
invented by women about 80 per cent
are devoted to the home, the kitchen
and to woman's dress. The records
in the patent Office almost tell the
history of woman and her progress
during the past two hundred years.
The first patent given woman in the
nineteenth century was granted to
Mary Kler in 1900 for straw weaving
with silk or thread" the probable fore
runner of American mating. One of
the most recent inventions by woman
is a shoestring that won't come I'M
tied.
The records of the patent Office
show how some people have invaded
the field of invention with most &C.
centric ideas. One of these is an anti
scratching device for hens. This
unique continuance, when fastened to