The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-11-10
InDentors And Their Work
By Frederic ,. Haslkin.


 him list of lawyers from which to select an attorney. The patent went through with flying colors. and today that boy js a man of wealth. main taining. a large force of expert horse shoers who travel over the country shoeing the Aristocrats of the equine world, The winners of nearly all the American and European classics have worn those shoes.-
 A young man from western Penn sylvania recently brought an fnven. ton to Washington which promised to make him a fortune It was an at- tachment for typewriters which made all the workings of the carriage auto- uatic. Tie paper was turned from line to line without the use of the hand, and as soon as the carriage got to the end of the line it was auto mattcaily returned He had a work ing model and proved it's efficacy by attaching 1t to several different makes of typewrfters.. It increased the speed of the average typewriter at least fifteen per cent. When his attorneys came to examine the records, however they found that one man had a patent covering one feature of his invention and another man one which covered the other part of the attachment
 Neither could be used without the other, and so the world will have to continue wagging along with the old way of operating it's typewriter car rtages. The young inventor still thinks he can overcome the difficulty and went back home with a new idea for accomplishing the same end
 The American inventor Is now con fronting an entirely new situation
 Recently the English government has RtTanRGA It's Ia '. ,fufe that when a patent is granted to a foreign patentee its life shall not con tihue more than two years unless steps are taken to operate in England within that time. If the inventor falls to make or sell this article cover l ed by the patent in Great Britain with in the specified time any one else be- comes at liberty to use the idea. and may send as many of the patented arr tfcles into this country as he chooses If they come in original packages the only relief that the American patentee can find will be to seek redress from individual users through out the country. The expense of such a proceeding win probably prove greater than the advantages that might accrue tnder it It is therefore apparent that the new British law will operate to the disadvantage of the American inventor. It Is not improb- able that the United States will take some action looking for the protection of her inventors from the threatened danger. Or Tetaliate by limiting the English patent in America to the same degree. But even this would not be entirely satisfactory, since the Ameri- cans get out more useful inventions than the English
 There has been much speculation as to the future of invention. Some have taken the ground that ingenuity has about exhausted itself, and that here after it can do little more than i'm prove on the old rather than evolve the new. Those who take this view would find much confirmatory evil dence were they to look at the thous- ands of well-filied pigeon-holes in every division of the patent office
 They would take 1t as proof positive that at last there Is really nothing } new under the sum" But patent of- flee authorities do not appraise the situation that way. They tell us that | invention is but in it's infancy We
 once marve'ed at the telegraph, and were aftefward astounded by the tele- l phone. Then came the wireless tele- | graph and we thought the Ultima Thule of Invention had been reached. But the wireless telephone was it's | successor before it had passed the nine days wonder stage e' Now they are l sending pictures by wire, and even by wireless. Who knows but that people
 may yet see by wire. and if by wire, why not by wireless? Why may not men live to realize the wonder of the , Oriental tale of holding up a mirror to see the distant. image?
 Tn the Omaha shops of the Union Pacific they have an electric truck which Is started and stopped by wire less electricity Another inventor has | succeeded in turning on electric lights and turning them off by electricity wireIessly communicated. He Is able to explode dynamite in the same way. and likewise to guide a torpedo through the water And he has an automatic registering device which shows him what he has done.
 Another genius has developed a
 wireless typesetting machine, Think of an operator in Chicago working a keyboard which sets the type in a
 Washington newspaper office, with only the cjrcumambient atmosphere to
 connect them! Yet a working model
 of such an invention has proved sue
 cessful in a test in London. If they | can set type by wireless, where Is the
 end? It means the wireless transmits
 sion of electric power, and Niagara
 Falls may yet turn the machinery of
 Memphis In The Coming Man" one
 is introduced to magic invisible fluid
 controlled by the waving of wand.
 through which miracles are wrought.
 When they set type by wireless. start
 trucks by wireless. guide torpedoes by
 wireless. send pictures by wireless.
 who knows but that the fancy of the writer was not prophetic? The step 1 to be taken is short--a thousand times
 shorter than the one from Benjamin
 Franklin to present day things.
 Copyright. 1908. by Frederic J. Has