Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1912-03-07
MANY BIG FORTUNES
FROM LITTLE INVENTIONS
It's the Simple Obvious Thing That
Succeeds-and There's q Good
Deal Of Luck In II, Too.

FROM lle view VI u
Every now and then somebody some
where invents something n makes a
fortune out of it. And then somebody else
OF an equally inventive turn of mind won
ders why he didn't think of 1t first. Max
ing Il fortune out of a patented simple
invention is largely a matter of luck.
after all.
One day q man stood behind his wife
while she put up her hair. The hairpins
OF those days were straight pieces of wire.
They did not stay put very effectually.
The woman in this case bent her hairpins
before putting them in. Her husband saw
her do 1t. The result was the invention OF
the crinkly hairp.n, which is today used
in carload lots by the women of the world.
That husband is a rich man today. thanks
to his wife and his interest in the way she
dressed her hair.
Even so important an invention as the
telephone was made by accident and the
turning of "a screw one-fourth of one revo-
luton. William Anterior Du Puy. writ
ing in the Scientific American. declares
that all the millions that have resulted
from the invention of the Bell telephone
depended upon this slight twist of the
wrist of DIR. Alexander Graham Bell.
There had been men before DIR. Bell who
had come near finding a way to make
female gossip and masculine commercial
Intercourse easier.
The Refs patents came nearest success.
But in the REFS patents the current was
Intermittent 1t had to leap a gap. Or.
Bell closed that gap when he turned the
screw. But DIR. Bell was not trying TO
invent a telephone when he incidentally
stumbled upon his secret. He was work
ing on a method of making speech visible.
for his wife was deaf and dumb and he
was seeking an easy method of convers-
ing with her. Instead he found the meth
cd of talking over a wire to people at a
distance. He did not patent the idea, now
ever. and it knocked about his house for
months. Finally he demonstrated 1t TIC
some friends and they saw the possibility
of it's application. Upon their advice he
patented the invention. His patent was
filed at 10 o'clock i'm the morning, and al
s in the afternoon another man Applied
for a patent on the same thing and lost
800, COO. 1000 by d nose.
a towel manufacturer found that hi
machinery was not working light ant
that his towels We're suffering d vas
tangling of the threads. While adjusting
the machine he used one of the damaged
towels to dry his hands. Tile found il
pleasingly absorbent, and from the .dea to
which that gave rise was born the pau
towel and a fortune to the patentee.
Every time you pull the cap off a bee
bottle or a soda water bottle you put ;
fraction of a cent into the pocket of
Baltimore man. William III. Painter. Thu
patent has been the cource of millions t.
him. But he carried his patent arouns
in his pocket for six years before he sue
coded i'm Interesting capital in it's manu-
facture.
The paten, for a typewriter lay dorman
for half a century in France before j
ever came into use. Then a man by TIL
name of sholes made a machine in thi
country and called it Remington. Anothe
man named Brown made Il different kline
of typewriter and called it the Smith
These and other patentees immortalize'
other men by tl,eil' work. They mad
millions and also made 1t much NOR
pleasant for the editor who has to reat
\ cOoy