The silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1909-1925, 1919-02-01

ANY government bureau that has
done what 1t was established to do
more than a million times has accom-
plished a vast amount of work. Prac-
tically the entire machinery of that
bureau has revolved each single time.
At the close of business November IL,
1918, the United States patent Office
had registered 1,2S4,956 patents, and
any one who has ever gone through
the complicated channels Of getting
one thing patented will realize what
it means to have recorded a million
and a quarter of them. On an average,
about 500 patents are issued weekly.
Red tape attains a very luxurious
growth in patent office business, but
necessarily. When more than 100000
machines and chemical compounds and
whatnots have been recognized as be-
care must be taken that the machines
and compounds that arrive daily are
not Implications in some important
feature of those already on hand.
And care In a government bureau I'M
a~voidably requires the use of a lot OF
red tape. There is a book issued by
the commissioner of patents contain
ing one hundred and sixteen pages of
printed rules. draftsmen's symbols,
and legal forms. all a part of the pro.
cedure to be followed.
War Stimulates inventors.
Naturally the war has been a great
stimulant to the efforts of inventors
and many man-killing devices have
been conceived or reached a high
stage of development within the last
few years.
This has been a wal in which high
explosives played a leading part, and
it is along that line that many Ameri-
can inventors turned their minds. For
instance, many applications have been
received for the issuance of patents on
hand grenades, all of which are SIM
ply based upon a pound or so of some
powerful explosive In a metal contain
err. The important part of a grenade,
the part On which a patent is asked, Is
its timing mechanism, by which it can
be set to explode at a certain time af-
ter 1t is thrown. Then there are men
who have sem In drawings Of rifle
grenades. practically the same as the
hand variety, save that they are fired
from a rife; and "minenwerfer" or
trench mortars-small, squat cannon
which throw a tremendous and very
destructive charge of high explosive
over a short distance. Germany sur
rendered 25,000 of these minenwerfer
TO the allied forces by the terms of the
armistice, which indicates that the al
lies have a pretty high opinion of their
usefulness.
These are old ideas. It required a
war like this one to furnish an incen.
tive for developing them to a high de.
gree Of effectiveness. The same is true
If the depth bomb, another wartime
favorite of the inventors, which put
the fear of the. Lord into German u
boats. Dropped from the rear Of a
.orpedo boat destroyer, primed to ex-
lode at a certain depth, 1t was the
most effective weapon the allies had
FOR combating the submarines. Pat
ents had been taken out on depth
bombs years before this war broke out,
but not until the submarine menace
became grave was the lash can" as II
IS lovingly called, really taken up, de-
yeloped and given a chance to show
what 1t could do.
All Were Failures.
Then there have been patents grant
ed for aerial ~torpedoes. Sad to say,
none of them has turned out to be
practical, but there is no doubt that a
successful aerial torpedo will be a
reality before very long. The patent
HAMMERS do not doubt 1t. They have
seen so many inventions perfected
which at first sight looked impossible,
that they hesitate to laugh at any
freak" idea. Another aerial problem
for which men have tried to find the
solution is a device which would al
low an aeroplane to remain station
lry In the air. The advantage of such
an achievement in connection with
bombing expeditions can easily be i'm.
lgined.
Naturally, since the war began,
there has been a steady stream of freak
IDEAS into the old gray building at
Seventh and G streets in Washington,
which houses the patent Office. Many
If them are of no value and never will
oe; others. as mentioned before. may
have the germ Of a long forward step
in the science Of war making. In the
case of impractical ideas, a polite let
ter Is usually written to the inventor,
skiing him to furnish a working model
# his machine or contrivance, and
that settles 1t. He cannot furnish a
working model. because II won't work.
This is the invariable method followed
n connection with experimentation
machines, those wonderful conceptions
nat are expected to run forever with.
ut any power other than their own.
Use Enemy Patents.
Possibly the most interesting phase
II The relations between the war and