The Washington times., 1936-12-05

around book i" - NIL
shop, ran across one of these in.
ventors' manuals, not the latest,
but one of a few years back. am
setting down here some of Whats
Wanted" things:
"a coIIapsibIe umbrella for a
mans pocket or a woman's
handbag. An electrically driven
bicycle. Something to prevent
the stale smell, Of tobacco smoke
from permeating a room, or a
device to consume or absorb to.
baccO smoke. A chemical proc
eSS for rendering paper fire
proof, to be used for important
documents, bank notes, ETC., A
household oven in which the
opening of the door automati.
cally draws out the contents to
prevent the burning Of the
hands and use Of cloths.
"a device to record automati.
cally telephone messages when
the person rung up is out. A con
trivance which will attract all
the particles floating in the air,
commonly called dust in the
same manner that a magnet at
tracts steel filings. Bus seats
that will give tickets and indi.
cate when the end of the jour
ney is reached"
LONG ROAD
For all know there may be in
the United States Patent Office in
ventions covering all those items
which concerned our English
cousins. 1t is difficult to think
of anything which is not covered
in the 100000 or more patents
which have been handed out in
Washington since January 81,
1871.
In a single day last month an
IoWan got the exclusive rights for
a mechanical pretzel bender and
a New Yorker received his patent
for a muzzle for lions and tigers, a
device which puts an iron bar be-
tween the teeth Of a savage ami
NAL and keeps it in place by a
paddock.
Inventors know only too well
that in most cases it is a long
and even impossible journey
from the Patent Office to the
manufacturing plant.
The element of timing enters
this field just as it does in golf
or politics: Hitting the market
at the proper mement is of ut.
most Importance. An old saying
has it that necessity is the
mother of invention" This may
be so, but then accident must
be the father.
REWARDS VARY
Daguerre never would have
been the parent of photography
had he not carelessly put a sill
yer spoon upon a plate that hac
been treated with iodine.
When he petulantly removed
the spoon, he found that its
image had been recorded upon
the plate, and he came up with
the idea of the silver-coated
photograph plate.
In similar fashion, a French
scientist in the course of an eX
pertinent accidentally opened the
wrong valve. Before he had rem
edied his mistake. several drops
of moisture had leaked into
glass tube, and that moisture
happened to be liquid oxygen
Nor is it necessarily true thai
the greatest inventions bring the
shortest rewards.
A Spanish inventor passed
through New York a few months
ago displaying check fol
$800,0 900 as part royalties for 6
process Of welding iron and othel
metals by means of invisible rays
He claimed that he had re
ceived a total price of $6,O00,00(
to date. That sum has been ex
ceeded many times in cumulative
profits by men who have invented
new kind of food or a new kline
of drink.
One doesn't need to be a scien
tist to be an inventor. Abraham
Lincoln got a patent on a device
to lift grounded ships.
And the inventor of the auto
matte telephone was a Missouri
undertaken who had a suspicion
that the telephone operator was
in league with his competitors and
was reporting his line busy to
steer away prospective clients