Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1912-08-15

before the improved hook that made a
| bigger fortune broke the simplicity rec
ord as we'll. One Of these hookers-up, a
| man named De Long, and living in the
samnambulent city of Philadelphia, had
noticed that his efforts often came to
| naught for the hooks at the top were
frequently undone before those at the
bottom were fastened He bent on es-
pecially exasperating hook in such a way
as to make a hump in II. It stayed fas-
| tened. The hook with a bump was pat
| ented and the public has been asked
continuously since to see that hump"
| 1t has seen II to the extent of some hund-
reds Of thousands Of dollars
There IL another story of an invention
that likewise has a domestic setting that
rivals this one for simplicity. The WON
en- OF the world have been using wire hair
pins for some decades. Through most
Of the time since their invention these
hairpins have consisted Of two straight
prongs Of WIRE One day man was stand
ing behind his wife while she dressed
to go out with him. He was killing time
watching her tie few sailors knots with
| her hair. She reached that stage of the
operation where the hairplns were to be
wife bent each hairpin back and forth
| before putting It In her hair He asked
her why she did IT, She said that she
wanted TO make some crinkles in the hair
pin so It would stay in. The husband
Immediately patented crinkly hairpin
| and now n bevy Of maids insert them in
| my lady's hair. for these people have
q summer home on the Hudson and a
1NvENT1NG BY NIGHT.
Thaddeus Fairbanks was a New Eng
| land farmer with long whiskers and much
Yankee ingenuity. In his time those old
! fashioned steelyards were the only scales
for weighing the produce Of the farm,
| Platform scales were unknown and there
was much trouble wherever large mer-
chandizing was done in Weighing the
bulky articles that were bought ana sold.
| The difficulty of weighing an article on
a platform scale was due to the fact that
the levers underneath the platform had
| never been so adjusted that the weight
would be recorded the same regardless of
the portion of the platform upon which 1t
| rested
| Fairbanks thought the levers could be
rugged upright. He drew many diagrams
| of these levers by day and thought much
of their arrangement by night. It was
from thinking by night that the problem
was finally solved and Thaddeus aroused
! the family to celebrate the occasion The
| family did not enthuse at the time, but
| later got in the game for everybody in the
world named Fairbanks was made rich
because of the demand for platform scales
that came from every nook and Granny of
the whole world. To-day the Fairbankses
of St. Johnsbury. VT. defy any traveller
to penetrate to any point on the globe
where any semblance Of trade is carried
on without finding the family name there
| before him.
{ 1t was in 1853 in the city OF Philadelphia
that a man named Hyman II. 1dpman In
vented a lead pencil with rubber on 1t.
In those days the people of the street did
not talk in the monster sums that are
common to-day. In those days. likewise,
dollar would provision a good-sized
household for a day Yet even In those
days Of small fortunes and high value OF
money this Lipman cashed in his patent
for 100000 Since then all the world
had an added convenience because he
lived and got rich.
INVENTORS WHO HELPED WOMEN.
There was a man named Heaton
who lived in Providence. r. l., who
should have place in the heart OF
every mother of children; for Heaton
made 1t possible to so fasten on shoe
buttons are punched on to all the shoes
invented the fasteners with which the
buttons are punched onto all the shoes
of the present generation but the one
that preceded this must needs sew Its
buttons on by hand.
There is also the sewing machine
which Is one of the inventions that has
been the greatest of boons to woman
kind. The development Of the sewing
machine depended very largely upon
one very small idea. that of putting an
eye near the point of the needle. Ella,
Howe was the man with the idea. He
patented 1t and built a sewing machine
around 1t. Gradually the machine was
perfected by Howe and others. When
Howes patent rights were expiring he
asked Congress to extent them. He
acknowledged that he had received
N,1s5,Ooo in royalties. but maintained
that his service to mankind had been
so great that he deserved more money
Congress agreed with him.
The brass tips that went to
protect the toes of those red top boots
that were the pride of the youth of a
generation ago were invented by n man
named Silverthorn. and he made much
money as result of his invention
Another genius Of the name of Denni-
son figured out the ACCESSIBILITY OF
manufacturing baggage tag that was
reinforced by greater thickness pasted
about the eye through which the string
that attached II passed. All the tags
IN the world are now made that way
yet IT has been but a short time since
they were constantly tearing off at the
point OF attachment. Chewing gum
was invented and patented in 1871 and
the name of Adams thus became asso.
ciated with that favorite luxury of the
shopgirl Adams is likewise amons
the men who live on the Palisades
surrounded by landscape gardens ant
takes vacations on private yachts.
Bath towels were accidentally discov
cred by towel manufacturer who's,
machinery got out Of order and tangled
the threads intended for a smooth prod
uct. The manufacturer after read
justing his machine. wiped his hands
on the rejected cloth. 1t was mora eff
fective than the smooth SO he patented
1t and made machine that would nor
mally tangle the thread. The man wht
invented tin cans made II necessary To-
somebody to invent an opener. Thi,
was done and additional money cor
rallied In the process. Yet there wa,