Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1913-12-12
sNUBBINe INVENTORS.
How Clever Ideas Are Discouraged In
England and Welcomed Abroad.

Is II not time that Great Britain treated
inventors in a more generous spirit? 1t
is the frequent complaint that inventors
in this country are neglected, that ideas
are ignored and not persevered with.
owing to the shortsightedness of the
powers that be- There certainly are
some striking illustrations of the fact
that inventors do not always meet with
the consideration they deserve.
Lieutenant Dunno, after many discour-
aging rebuffs from the War Office, re-
luctantly disposed of his wonderful aero
plane to France, which was quick to
recognize its advantages. Every year
we pay Germany over million pounds
because Mr.. Perlin could get no one
here to take up the great discovery OF
anillne dyes. while letters are in exis-
tence which show how our Admiralty
numerically snubbed the inventor who.
in 1859. urged that ships should be made
of iron, not of wood.
Nordenfelt offered an efficient sub
marine boat to the Admiralty so far
back as 1853, when no other power pos
sesed one. But the inventor was cold
shouldered. and as a result we were al
most the last naval power to adopt the
submarine
But there is another side to the ques-
ton. Great Britain actually discourages
inventors by the prohibitive fees charged
for patents. Five pounds must be paid
before a patent can be sealed a patent
is then granted for a term of IA years,
but at the end of four years $50 has
to be paid for certificate of renewal,
and another e100 before the end of eight
years. These fees, however, can be paid
in installments if desired
or course, if the invention is a huge
success, and brings in thousands of
pounds, these fees 20 not seem very
large, but they are certainly a great
burden on the small inventor, and a
striking contrast to he small fees
charged to inventors in other countries
In the United States, for instance, the
Government fees for a patent are only
81 is, and probably there is no country
in the world that has derived greater ad-
vantages from the ingenuity of the small
inventor than America.
In Germany the inventor Is charged
only so marks-equal to about 49c of our
money-for patent AS the Agricultural
Economist points out, In the case of Ger
many wages of workmen are much lower
in England, but even with this disadvan-
tage in income, we can see at glance
how much more helpful Germany is to
the moneyless inventor than we are A
mechanic is only mulcted of fortnight's
wages for the cost of a patent Thought
less Britannia charges him a year or a
year and quarters wages for similar,
protection of his ideas. The German
workman engaged on the construction of
a zeppelin airship or a Krupp gun can
afford to let himself think of improve
ments in the details of the things on
which he Is at work. No wonder Ger
many gets ahead of us In many DEPART
ments of modern industryi
In France and Belgium the cost of ma.
tents is ridiculously low as compared
with the cost in this country. -Four
pounds covers the fees In France, and
the French workman can thus purchase
protection for his invention at the cost of
about three weeks wages. while in Bel
GUM workman can patent any I'm
provement of which he thinks for the
nominal sum of 10 francs. equivalent to
just under eight shiliinga Of eur monsv-
Tit-Bits.