The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-12-01

1 the place of riveting in making our great bridge of ships across the At ! lantic Americans have invented the ma chimes for making the barbed wire so l much used in front of the trenches; and the airbrakes used by every rail- road here and in Europe are based on the invention of Westinghouse It was the Yankee Patterson who invented the cash register and Eastman, another Yan- kee, brought forth the transparent pho tographic film, which forms the founda- tion of alk war photography. Allied to the latter is the motion picture machine invented by Edison, which enables the airman at one-second intervals to take photographs of the country below him in such a way that they give complete may of the region over which he is traveling.
 The typewriter is an American inven- tion and every machine that flies the air is based upon the discoveries Of Langley. The most of the metal now used
 in modern warfare is manufactured oy ,the aid of American inventions of one kind or another. The rotary converter was invented by Bradley in 1881. and the dry air process for blast furnaces. by Gayley few years later Harveyized armor plate, such as is now found in projectiles. guns and war vessels. was patented here in 1891, and high-s speed steel was the production of Taylor anu White just ten years after that. With out these steefs we could have no pro- jectiles for guns of the modern type and in fact modern industry would practi- cally stop were they taken out of our knowledge.
 It is the same with abrasives and invented by Achesop is the only thing that will do for high-speed tools and another discovery by the same man is the artificial graphite now produced at Niagara Falls. Were it not fer AIneri- can shoe machinery inventions the arm ies in Europe would be practically bare footed, and were it not for buttonhoie and other clothes making machines our troops would be almost naked. Among the other great inventions which indirectly have to do with the lsituation at present is the disc blow that adds so greatly to our food sup plies, the cellufoid used in many indus tries. the trolley car and block signals for railways the Mergentllaler type cast ing machine and the hundreds of minor inventions which form such important parts of other. great industries that were they eliminated they could not go on
 As to the war inventions now being
 made, I have spent several days of this week at the patent office talking with Mr. James F. Norton, commis- sioner of patents, and the various ex- aminers who have to do with special war work. The department has been thoroughly mobilized and the most Of it's men are engaged on this class of patents Much of the information given me is confidential and it cannot be pub lished lest it get into the hands of the Germans. There is now a close associa- tion between the patent office and our military establishment. The departments of the army and navy have their own corps of officials assigned to new war inventions and every discovery that may be of advantage to LIS is passed upon and it's use directed by them. It is the same with all the applications that come in from Europe, and all German patents past and present that might be of adT vantage to us in the war are thrown open to use.
 Many of the new war patents come from officers of the army and navy. These are being taken out in the name of the inventor and dedicated to the government the law being that an of-
 fcial cannot make personal profit by -patenting discoveries he has made Tn connection with Uncle Sam's work Were I permitted could fill this paper with the descriptions of the applications for new things in gun construction. fnu- nitions and ordnance of one kind Or an
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