Evening star., 1938-07-04
BY WILLIAM NJ. PTNKERTON,

Associated Press stan Writer
The lawyers of Army and Navy are
running 300 secret patents through the
mill to guard from spying eyes the
inventions designed to stifen Amer
ica's defenses
Amid the confusion OF a $1,000
900 900 defense program now getting
under way. these quiet scholars work
TO protect the plans which tomorrow
will be guns and bombs, ships and
planes.
They play a dual role in the national
defense program:
First. they shield from the envious
agents of foreign powers the patented
military secrets" for building new
machines Of war
Second. they protect the latest mill
tary and naval ideas from costly claims
of infringement by private in
ventors.
The patent experts cover with the
defensive weapons of the law work
carried on by military and naval engi-
neers, chemists and tactical experts
in a dozen research laboratories
throughout the country.
Can Patent Each Step.
Unlike the private inventor, the
Government can patent each new
step in the mechanization of warning
weapons without revealing the secret
involved.
When a private inventor gets his
patent, he wins exclusive rights to the
use Of the device, but his brain child
must 90 into the Patent Office files
"nere any one may view it.
The Army and Navy. however. can
patent new triggers. new gun mount
lngs, new gases or new range-finders
without fear of exposing secrets to
alert enemy agents For the secret
patents of the military can be with
held from the public files from 10 to
is years
The men whose labor produces the
constant improvement in the ma
chimes of war have nothing in common
with the long-haired. bulb-headed
bug-eyed geniuses of fiction.
They are officers of the Army and
Navy-graduates of Annapolis or West
Point-assigned to special duty in
such experimental laboratories as
Edgewood tMd.) Arsenal, the Army
airplane design factory in Dayton.
Ohio; the Navy's torpedo station at
Newport. R. l.. or the Signal Corps
laboratory at Monmouth. N. ].
Work in Groups
They work not singly but in groups.
Specialists in a dozen fields may be
brought together to solve one dim
cult problem of defense.
And sometimes the chemists. en-
gineers and designers of private cor
porations are called in.
Their work is more often the solving
Of special problems on existing ma
chimes of war than the production OF
strange new military monsters.
Very few basic patents are coming
out in any national defense matter
now" declared patent expert. Most
of our patents concern the perfection
or correction of military materiel al
ready in use"
Although experience has shown that
military problems generally must be
solved by military men, neither branch
Of the service is missing any bets.
Scans 30 Ideas 4 Day.
A technical assistant to the Secre-
tary of Navy goes over about 30 ideas
a day-inventions submitted hopefully
by individuals outside the service.
In the Army. too the adjutant gen
eral receives the suggestions of al
outsiders, sitting them into the proper
branch of the service for final decision
as to their merit.
1T takes q number of contracts
and experimental trials to perfect .
machine of war, such as q gum" OBJ
served a naval officer. Nowadays
a development OF naval merit cannot
often be made by one man. You must
bring together the experts in all fields
The men who have lived on ship
board and know intimately the prob.
lens of the sea fit the solution to q
mechanical problem into the setting
where it must go. But the lone man
out in Iowa doesn't even know the
nature of our problems"
During the World War, Q special
boaH surveyed 10000 inventions SUBJ
mitted by civilians found only