El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1912-01-08
Inventions Have Reduced Cost
Of Farming Almost 900 Per Cent
Large Especially
p0rtaton Largest Created
BY FREDERICK J. HASKIN
WILLIS L.MOORE. Chief.

flying machine becomes commercially
feasible the patent office viii do tre-
mendous business in patents on appuF-
tenances fol. the Improvement of aerial
navigation.
Indirectly the development Of Ameri-
can inventive genius has been due 10
the fostering care Of the patent office
Ii is estimate by statisticians that
two-thirds Of all the national wealh IS
the product of inventions Great IN
dustries have been called into existence
through the patent system, ana nave
given employment TO hundreds of thous-
ands Of people with wages and salaries
aggregating hundreds OF millions OF
dollars. In less than 40 years the &C
tiTities Of the inventor in the IlelQ OF
electrical application have resulted IN
the filing Of patents which have putt
up an industry with total investment
Of s1000,000,000.
Many Divisions.
There are 43 general divisions In the
patent office under which applications
for patents are made, embracing all the
known arts These general classes in
turn are each divided into subclassess
and there are many thousands OF sub
iects upon which patents are issued.
Every applicant for a patent pays a
stated fee, S35, for his patent This,
with the other receipts OF the patent
office, mas created a net surplus OF
over 100000 In other words. in
the nation by inventors, they have
been taxed 100000 more than it cost
to maintain the American patent sys-
TEN.
A great celebration was held in the
city Of Washington in 1891 in honor
Of the first centennial OF american pat
ent history. Four hundred and fifty
thousand patents had been issued up
to that time. Statesmen, inventors, and
publicists were enthusiastic in Boosting
of the achievements of the century.
Since that time only 20 years have
passed, yet in those 20 short years more
patents have been granted than in the
full century that went before. In that
year congress made an investigation of
the wage problem which showed that
the average mechanic was then get
ting twice as much wages as his pre-
decessor in 1870 The average mechanic
Of 1871 gets twice as much as his pre-
decessor of 1891. It viii be seen there
fore, that wages Tor labor have prac-
ucaly quadTupled since the dawn Of
the age Of labOr-saving machinery in
America. Yet at the beginning labor
ing men were violently opposed to the
adoption Of such machinery.
More transportation Patents.
More patents have been issued for in
ventions relating to transportation than
upon any other line of human activity.
These inventions have resulted in a
great saving to the people and have
made possible a civilization which could I
never have come into existence but for
them In the early history of the cOun-
try it was no unusual thing to pay
from 20 to 80 cents a ton per mile for
the transportation Of freight. Today
the average ton Of freight in the United !
States is hauled a full mile for less !
than 1 cent
In no other realm have the labors |
OF the American inventor and the fos-
tering care Of the patent office served /
a better purpose than in the develop
ment Of the apparatus with which the /
farmer produces the things that men I
eat and the raw material out of which I
they make their clothing. Without 1
the farm machinery which the United I
States has given to the world, mankind /
necessarily would be still a race OF 4
small farmers. There could be no big 4
cities; a thousand arts and sciences !
could flourish only in an Indifferent 4
way II at all.
The DEVELOPMENT of agricultural ma
has so enhanced the productive /
power of the individual farmer that /
fully three-fourths of those who for !
merry obtained their 4liYing by filling /
the soil may now find profitable Occu- /
patton in other VOcations. According /
TO authentic statistics it cost an aver Z
age of S4.95 an acre to cut wheat with !
The old time sickle The invention Of J.
he grain cradle reduced this cost TO /
$3.50 an acre The big steam harvest
sr threshes have lowered it to 90 cents
an acre When the Chicago Worlds /
fair was held delegation of foreign I
agricuIturists were taken to a big Da-
xota ranch and shown how American
wheat may be harvested at a smaller
cost per busheI than the mere cost Of
food of slave labor under old time con-
iitions.
saving In Wheat Harvest.
Tt is estimated that if the worlds /
,rop of wheat were harvested without
he aid Of modern machinery Of Ameri-
IAN invention, the annual additional
expense would he half a billion dollars.
Iore than $4,000 patents have been is
ued upon inventions relating to agri-
culture by the American patent office.
IND the present day value OF the farm [
machinery and tools in the United
states aggregates billion dollars.
With these the farmer has been able
o make his property holdings worth
ome $4,000. 100000 and his annual
,ross income greater than the capital
-alue Of all the trusts Of the United
states.
Yet the maker Of agricultural i'm
dement's declares that the application
# machinery to farm work is only in
Is infancy. Il has been demonstrated
hat denatured alcohol can be utilized
s motive power for all sorts Of farm
operation, and that the farmer may
make this motive power from potatoes
grown on his own farm, and that with
{ he can conduct his farming opera
ions more economically than with the
.orsn The arrival Of the lorge1aee aaa /