Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-05-25
ANY ONE MIGHT
HAVE DoNE1p
The Simplicity of Maxine =,
Millions--Louis H. perImsn,ss snIss
Little Auto Rim Wedge
and His Big Fight -

,bar,, q. ''OSe VINO didn't inv.-.
.lV .nenV Is the outrageous simn,,o,.,' Event
mem one imasines the inventor. .'v q
whose minds work like the most ~. - men
machines. 1t is commonp,aco - cate
since a boy wanted SO badly 10 M Az. ever
that ne sled a string 10 a sto..s oah
so that 1t would open a vatva eAslns
supposed to handle, thereby reves,,.s sas
most important mechanical pr,nc,,,,. !.
Dig Things have had simple bse,ss, 'as
usually invention has nothing ~ !.
inventions; somebody Just gets ""n
enough TO say, II won't do this th,n. W ~
more In this way" and means n 'us
1t had been a tiresome and du,,.
that John H. Duffy, wealthy pansr Up
chant, and his not wealthy friend ~
IL. Perlman, had Undertakes 4vas
Duffy's auto one Saturday in 1sos MI
were nearing Cornwall, N, Y win
the fourth time It was necessary 70 os.t -
a tire 1t fell to the lot of Perlnan ~
younger man, to do the dirty work A.
was Initiating the new tire with ~
pump he suddenly stopped pumpins ~
fell into a reverie. epa
hey, Keep on pumping, Louisp s.,.
Duffy, "or we'll never get therap
The man with the pump gave h,u,
OF those looks of venomous hatred ~,
only good friends exchange, ana ,h.s
went on pumping.
Il was just thinking of sometimes
he said, with deadly mildness.
cut out the thinking and pump.p sa,.
his friend. ''1
But Mr.. Perlman deposited check 70,
S3,o0O,ooo last month to pay for the aash
of thought which had cost only tbrsa !.
four pump shoves. And that was or,,
first payment.
A Ten Years Fight
When the auto trip was over. pern.,
went to see his friend, w. T. Eames uha
had garage. He told him the procedpr.
of doing the repair work on the road WA,
all wrong; that the pumping should bs
done in the garage, and an inflated tirs
on the rim carried along; that the process,
of having the rim shrunk on the wbaa
and applying the tire thereto was wrong
and that the rim should be renoyahls
and the tire applied to it at convenient
time and place, and then applied when
necessary to the wheel, bodily and whIle
inflated. a'
But how are you going to lock your
tire and rim to your wheel?" asked Earnea
II haven't thought that out yet" said
Perlman; sit will have to be figured outs
But, man, that's the most importan,
thing about it,"
mo, it isn't" said Perlman. "All we
have to do is to invent that"
The principle of the screw and the
principle of the wedge are as old as
Babylon. Also the idea Of the air spacs
to prevent rust between two metal sur.
faces is not novel. All Perlman had to
do was to put the three together Thus
the demountable rim came into being.
He applied for patent on May 2l, 1906
But he had never been through the Pat.
ent Office before. There was, first OF all,
At last, seven years later, he got his pat
ent. In the. course of his fight other ap.
plications for similar devices came pour
ing in, and today four-fifths of all autos
use the principle. There was money In
demountable rims for everybody except
the man who invented them. Perlman
had to fight some of the biggest supply
firms in the country. 1t was one man
and some thousands of dollars which he
managed to enlist in his fight against
hundreds of millions of intrenched capt
tai. The Automobile Chamber of Com
merce helped in the war to down the
inventor when he attacked the STANDARD
Welding Company, of Cleveland, which
he said was making more money out Of
his idea than any one else. A circular
addressed to the trade complaining against
Perlmans claims said:
The patent is alleged to cover all
forms OF automobile rims using wedges
between the rim and the felly, holding
the rim in its operative position on ms
wheel. II this is true, the patent would
cover practically all forms OF demoun1-
able rims
Wins Out in Court
And that is exactly what the unhsa
States Circuit Court of Appeals founa
that the patent covered 1t took decaas +
for Perlman to come to the point wneFs
he was in position to refuse Sou'ov'
year royalty for the use Of his patent ana
a cash bonus of s1,000,000.
There was another inventor who II 'n'
patent law were ideally adjusted 70 pfv
tect the man who does the hard thihklus'
would have made more than Fefnn14
will make. But he died without mAAns
a cent out of the process when u0ss
nothing less than make the moving r.
ture possible. For years the Rev. Ha''s
hal Goodwin, of Newark, toiied over ~
dream OF producing substitute lor 'as
cumbersome heavy glass plates useu
He devised the seheins I
making celIuloId plates and having ns'a
sensitized for the camera. In MS eAps,
ments he hit upon the idea OF the hsAis'.
aim but that was before the day OF ~
"movies." He died poor several ysa'
ago. But after his death the colnps'
which had grown out OF his invsnsrsa sss
sued the Eastman Kodak Company,
case was settled for about s4'Oeo'00Ol ~
this the pastors widow received . sS
share.
NATIONAL POINT OF VIEW !.