Hide Article Text (OCR)
THE LNVEXTOU'S LIFE.J eopplt;*r t'H*s had to pay a royalty, whichenriched the originator of the idea. An Immense amount of money wan u.ult;i« ft la Not an Existence of Unal- | by William 1). Ewart out of an iraloyod Joy and Profit,fh#« Oreit Majority Kart Their I»r«rou rtr Noi»bl« I i« fptbirii-lurtQBM In LlttKt Tiling* All i imxiitifYi Atltier.InjSp^olai Washington T^tt'?r.)Experienced examiners in the paten t office my that there in more woe than j**v in the life of an inventor. Very few of the men of i leas who have enriched the world with their disecv-erien have benefited themselves financially. Nevertheless, the well-knownwfact that invent »rs have Incomemillionaires stimu kite*other delrer* inthe field of invention.One of the examiners in the patent Office who was in a reminiscent ralt;hm1 recently recalled the names of someof the successful discoveries thiscountry The man who invented W**xlen j** *s for shoes was It. F Mur-tevant The idea Drought him tnillioni of dollars He lived near Boston, andwent eraxy later on. The barb wire fence was wort h more than f 1,000,OOt In royalties to its originator. Formerly many eggs got broken on their way to market by rail. A countryman conceived the plan of packing them in trays of pasteboard. with a separate Compartment in which each egg mightstand upright. The happy thought was worth a fortune, and such tray s are now universally u^d. The student of patents knows these facts. He permitshis imagination to picture his future as | that of a Monto ( risto, and dreams his life away in the building of air castles, j It is no wonder that for years and years the patent office has been infested with cranks. The story of Sir Henry lk*sMmer alone is an incentive j to the p »or and ambitions young menproved attachment for machine harvesters called a “driving chain/* The ulea of making metal plates for the heels and soles of *hoes was very sim-wpie, and yet the device brought the in* eentor over 91,500,000.Did you know that the man who in* vented the gusset fur reinforcing pock* eta became very rich by that discovery? He was a Chinatnan named Fbeang Quan Wo, and was doing laundry work in Nan Francisco when the idea was evolved.U1 course every reader of the dailypapers know that nearly all inventors are subjected to the wiles and wickedness of swindlers. While it is truethat quite a number of men have accumulated fortunes out of the product of thei*’ brains, the majority of inventors remain very poor, and go to their:graves in the bitterness of disappointment. The very poor inventors, theywho are struggling for a livelihood upon the farm or in the workshop, are subjected to confidence games unlexa they are very wary. There are some slick and smooth swindlers here in Washington who study the weekly (•asette. issued by the patent office for the sole purpose of ascertaining the names and addresses of poor inventors to whom patents have been granted. Then they write to each one, saying: “We see that you have got a good thing. We know certain parties who will put it on the market, supplying the necessary capital. Send twenty dollars to cover the cost of negotiations.” The inventor perhaps borrows the money und forwards it by mail. Subsequently he is informed that fifteen dollars more will be required, and in this way he is worked until nothing more can be got out of him. Inventors everywhere should beware of thesetffIrttiIi|tf1I\\rtv ho believe that thev poHhess inventive *xs indlers. 1 he regular attorneys who* i I . A A k a . f t m A \genius. lie came to London a poor boy from a country village. In two years he was persuing a method of his own invention fr taking copies of antique and modern bas-r- lief- in a manner that enabled him to stamp them on cardboard, thus turning out an infinite numlier of embossed copies, of the highest works of urt ut small cost. This process, if made known to the unscrupulous, would have opened a wide dlt;*r to fraud; for by its means there was not a government stamp nor puper aeal of a corporate body which any common clerk could not flt; rge in a fewmoments to absolute perfection. The disclosure of it at that time would have shattered the whole system of the British stamp office. The secret has been carefully guarded to this day. At the period referred to it was reckoned j that the Iiritish government lost 9500,-OX) annually by the transfer of old stamps to new deeds and other legal papers, the tax being thus evaded.Bessemer invented a new system,which was adopted by the government, but he never got even thanks for it. But so much wealth and so muny great honors were showered upon him that he cheerfully donated the latter product of his brain to his country.are permitted to practice before the interior department are reliable men. The inventor who receives letters, offering put his device upon the market, should refer such letters to somereputable attorney. Under no circumstances should money be sent to j strangers.The greatest fortune known to have been accumulated by an inventor in j this country was made by Cyrus Mc-; Corraick, inventor of the machine harvester. He was worth over 920,-000,000 when he died. That sum has never been approximated by the Bell telephone, the Westinghouse air brake, nor by all of the wonders of the wizzard who lias given us the phonograph and the eloctric marvels of the i century.“If you have any intention of becoming an inventor,” said the patent office examiner, “you should inventtoys for children* They invariablyt\rtieIIThe patent office library contains thehistories of successful inventors, andthese books are handled and thumbedby the cranks who see in these stories *the reflection of the anticipated fruition of the hopes of their daily lives. But the number of these monomaniacs about the patent offi* and library is appreciably diminishing every year. The attorneys through whom they make their applications try to shut 1 them off. No other inventors value their ideas so highly as they do. Commonly they are afraid to reveal theirplan-, lest they be stolen. The per-petual-motion lunatic is always around the great building at Ninth an F streets. If the words “perpetual mu-tiou” are mentioned in his papers his!Crr\rldnaIatkctaevVrhcrIj;I)Llt;thtuciiEAao quAX wo.bring a harvest, great or moderate, to the inventor; or his attorney.” He then referred to the return ball, out of which half a million dollars wereoney is sent back to him and his ap* drawn; also the pigs in clover, thepeal is firmly declined. To get around this difficulty he usually calls his machine a “motor.” The final resort for getting rid of him is to demand a working model as a condition necessary be-planchette, the fifteen, fourteen, sixteen puzzle, and numerous inventions of a similar character, as the best money-making patents granted of late years. There are hundreds of improve-!fore his claim can be further conSid- I nients patented for photographingered. That silences him every time. But while the working model cannot be produced, the wheels continue to revolve in the lunatic’s head, and heremains of the same perpetual motion opinion still; but he ceases to annoy the examiners and other officials.There are some scrap books down in the patent office basement which tell wonderful stories of the great fortunes which have grown out of small ideas. There are undeveloped gold mines in the brains of men, if they could only strike the proper “lead” in their prospecting. The scrap books tell us that a little metal paper fastener made wealth for Mr. McGill who invented it in 1807. The rubber pencil tip was devised by a Philadelphia man, llymen F. Liptnan, in 1858. It earned 9100,000 for him. It was in the same year that George A. Mitchell got a patent for the metallic shoe tip. His application for exclusive rights covered shoe tips of eilver and all other metals, but copper was preferred. From that time on •vex/ boot maker who sold shoes with ^stereotyping and for electric appliances. It is stated that the Bell Telephone company has bought up every improvement which has ever been patented for the telephone; and all of these improvements are kept under guard, in order to prevent thepublic from using them. That is tosay that, if the patented improvementsupon telephony were in popular use, the service would be greatly improved, but it would cost considerable money to equip the telephone service of the country, and the people mustget along with what they have; at least for the time being. It is easier to pay 91,000 to 95,000 to a poor inventor for his invention, than it would be to spend thousands of dollars inmanufacturing an improvement which the people can get along without. Nevertheless, it does seem as though humanitarian instincts would prompt the telephone people to make it easier for us to say “hello,” without painful diaphragmatic contortions of inhalation *8»d expansion. Sxuxs D. Fax.bhas;tt:act:tlt;uehrIfigIsAfir1(os1clt;efiatee% 4
Newspaper Details
Freeborn County Standard
Albert Lea, Minnesota, US
Wed, Sep 19, 1894
Page 3
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
GB 09 Feb 2023
Other Publications Near Albert Lea, Minnesota
Albert Lea the Evening Tribune Farm Tab
Albert Lea Evening Tribune Farm Tab
Farm and Home Magazine
Albert Lea Sunday Tribune
Standard
