Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1916-1918, 1917-11-02
WAR INVENTORS
MUST TAKE PAY
. At FIGHT 5 END
Many Patents Are With
held To Avoid Inform
ing Nations Enemy.
ENEMY ALIENS LOSE
u. S. PATENT RIGHTS

Washington, D. C., Oct. Wax
has caused an anomalous situation In
the patent onices where the number
Of applications for patents on war
devices increases daily and the fea1
Of giving valuable information to the
enemy is causing the Withholding Of
patent rights to scores Of inventions.
Patents Commissioner Newton an
nounced today that the bureau within
the last few weeks has refused pat
ents to about sixty war inventions.
COLLECT AFTER WAR.
A corps of West Point and An
napolis graduates, trained In the
technical problems Of war, scan tho
thousand or more patent papers il
sued weekly for details OF military
significance and choose those OF
which patent proceedings should b<
suspended during the war. Inventor.
thus deprived of patent rights may
offer their devices to the government
and sue after the war for compensa.
ton.
Regulations under which articles
patented in this. country by enemy
aliens may be manufactured BY
American producers were issued to-
A0S W kuO lOocI lItuc COluuu1SoxUI
under authority conferred by the trad.
Ing with the enemy act.
AFFECTS IMPORTANT DEVICES.
Licenses will be issued for the life
OF the patent and not merely for the
duration Of the war, but exclusive IL
censes win not be granted to individ-
ual firms. The new regulations affect
approximately 10000 patents, includ-
ing many of paramount value to
American industries.
Fifty new ways to end the war ara
proposed daily to the war department,
for that many military inventions are
submitted each twenty-four hours and
nearly every inventor claims his de.
vice will revolutionize warfare. Nine
ty-nine out of 100 are discarded ~
impracticable in the war emergency,
but for the sake Of the possibilities in
the one all are welcomed and invasti.
gated.
HOW TO END WAR.
Here are few of the devices be-
fore the war departments board of
ordnance and Notifications which
give preliminary Investigations to In 9
ventions for consideration today.
Polished rehectors to throw sun.
light into the eyes Of the enemy and
blind him. Elaborated sling-shots for
throwing bombs; land torpedoes re-
sembling small tractor engines to run
across No Mans Land and explode in
the enemy trench; aerial torpedoes to
fly without a pilot; double shot con-
nected by chains to entang1e air
planes in the skies: setEproPelling
bombs resembling sky-rockets; xabres
with pistol attached to the hit to In
Met double wounds. Costs of mail
like medieval armor. 70 make Soldiers
shed bullets like raindrops; and hand
grenades with trailer strings. the pull
ing of which causes an explosion after
the grenade lands in the enemy
trench.
MANY HAVE MERIT.
Nearly 10000 inventions have been
offered the war department since the
war was declared. These include
about fifty designs Of centrifugal guns
and hundreds each Of hand grenades.
new explosives. machine g,tns md
poison gas. Many have strong ele-
ments OF merit but are rejected be-
cause they cannot be adapted to tho
war exigencies.
Centrifugal gun inventions have
been given careful attention but tho
objection to most is that they shoot
only round bullets which do not
travel as straight or as fast as the
elongated sort and that the bullets
momentum is not sufficient to peno.
trnfa at a distance