Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1913-11-29
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SNUBBING INVENTORS.
Clever Ideas Are Discouraged in Eng
land and Welcomed Abroad

Is il rot time that Great Britain
treated inventors in a more generous
spirit? 1t is the frequent complaint
that inventors in this country are ne
elected, that ideas are ignored and not
preserved with, owing to the short
eightedness Of the powers that be.
There certainly are some striking Illus
trations of the fact that inventors do
hot always meet with the consideration
they deserve.
Lieut.. Dunno after many discourag-
in,, rebnffs from the war office reluc-
tanflMs disposed OF his wonderful aero
plane to France. which was quick to
recognize its advantages. Every year
VIC pay Germany over a million pounds
because Mr.. Perkin could get no one
here to take up the great discovery Of
aniline dyes, while letters are in exis-
tnce which show how our admiralty
numerically asnubbed the inventor who
IN 1855 urged that ships should be made
ef iron and not of wood.
Mcrdenfelt offered an efficient sub
marine boat to The Admiralty so far
back as 1888 when no other power pes
sessed one, but the inventor was cold
shou,dered and as n result we We're al
most the last naval power to adopt the
submarine.
But there is another side to the qHes-
lion. Great Britain actually diseo7Ir-
ages inventors by the prohibitive fees
charged for patents. Five pounds must
be paid before q patent can be sealed.
A patent is then granted for term y
fourteen years but at the end of four
years so pounds has to be paid for
certificate of renewal and another 100
before the end of eight years. These
fees however can be paid in instal-
mcnts if desired.
OF course if the invention is a huge
success and brings in thousands q
pounds, these fees do not seem xeg3
large, but they are certainly sres@
burden on the small Inventors in eebsT
countries, in the United States foT IN
stance. the government fee for pat
ent is only pounds as, and probably
there is no country in the world has
derived greater advantages from the
Ingenuity of the smaller Invention than
America. d.. ~
In Germany the inventor is charged
Only so marks for patent. As the Az
ricn!tural Economists point out In the
ease OF Germany wages of workpaen
are much lower in England. but even
With this disadvantage in iHcons We
can see at a glance how much more
helpful Germany is TO the nloneyless
inventor than we arc. A ineehanlc IS
only mulcted at fortnights wages for
the cost of a patent. Thoughtless Bril-
t&nnia charges him a year or year
and n quarters wages for a similar
prateotion of his ideals. The German
workman engaged on the construction
of Zeppelin airship or Krupp gun
can afford to let himself think OF I'M
pruements in the details of the things
ON which he is. at work, NO wonder
4 Germany gets-ahead of US in MANY de-
spartmentssof Iandern industry;
In France and Belgium the costs OF
patents is riditulously low as compared
with the cost of this country. Four
pounds covers the fees in France, and
the French ,workmen can thus pur-
chase proteetien Tor his invention at
the cost of abous tiEee weeks wages
while f%-3elgium b ycuHiSman can pat
ent any Improvement of (which he
thinks for the nominal sum OF ten
francs equivalent to just under eIzfl
shillings of our money.--Londen' Fit
Bits