| Show H LOTTERY OF PATENTS 4 Inventions Like Gold Gohl Mines in inMany ll ii Many Ways 4 ODDS AGAINST INvENTOR t SUCCESS IS DUE D E TO ABILITY OR OB PURE CHANGE e Many amy Great Groat Gre t Fortunes Have Been Style from Patents but Very Pew Few of Them Have Bave Gone Into the Pockets of the Men Who Had the Original Thoughts New York Sun It is common to speak of a patent as asa s sa a R gold gild mine and an toe tie simile is 18 much nearer the truth than many veNOM person suspect The trouble with most moet people is that they the have bave no definite idea Ides of ot the average value of a gold mine There sire are some one gold mines which pan out so sowell sowell sowell well at the first that every one rushes to invest in them but which prove to tobe tobe tobe be good for nothing after the surface is scraped off These are arc very like some ome patents that toot could be named Then there are gold guld mines which in inthe inthe Inthe the opinion of experts should be pay paying paying ing investment but in which it seems impossible to strike the right light vein It has been calculated that if It the output of ot all the gold mines in the world dur during during during ing the past fifty years were put to together gether and divided among those who have worked in these gold field the would not yield more than 8 fI a week Lor fOl or each man iman whereas the aver average average average age income of men of all classes eS in other occupations ts z 14 N a week That Thatis is to say y a man mai is practically ayin odds of ot 14 H to S against himself when he rushes off oft to t the gold fields on ODI the chance of o bettering his hi condition It has also aIso been calculated that if all the money realized by bv inventors were set Bet against the amount spent sJ Ent in pro tec ing and d developing all classes cla Jes of ot patents good od and bad it would be found that the inventors were about out of pocket in the past fifty lifty years Many great fortunes have undoubtedly been made mode on patents pate ts bat bitt I comparatively few of or them by the original inal thai Inventors Enormous aims have haven been n realized re from monopolies and nd roy I ai ties out but they are not equal eqUi to the fortunes that have been spent in pat patenting patenting enting and experimenting with worth worthless worthless less Jess inventions It is said aid by b those fa familiar with such things s that quite as much money is spent before the patent is applied for tor ae ao is ia spent pent Afterward and that out of every ten inventions which have enlisted capital for their development one or two ever get far farenough farenough farenough enough to be considered worth patent patenting patenting ing A well k kown own firm of patent at attorneys attorneys attorneys in Washington in on who divide an ani income i ome of or a year alter after paying 2 for fot expenses s said once that they did not oot believe that during the twenty years they had been in the business busine busin all their customers put together had made as aa much profit out of the patents them themselves selves as the firm had made out of ot the fees for applying plying for tor them One of the firm m in n running over the indexes of ot otSO some seine SO old ledgers said he was wao frequent frequently ly struck by the small number DUmber of pat patents patents patents that ever came to anything Of applied for tor during one period of six months not a single one ever er reach reached re ch ed d the market while hile during another period of eix oix months three very valuable valuablE valuable able patents were secured two tw of or which are now no world famous famon Patents and gold mines resemble each other very much in one respect there th e are no infallible signs siS 6 by which one may recognize recognise the bonanzas No matter what the p prospectors end assay aa ay may say eay the mine mu must t be worked before its it value can ean be km It is i very difficult to what hat are the elements which go to make a patent successful There is a great greet deal of luck in it in the first place and nd there is a great deal dellimore more in iD the ay the patent is handled handle in the second sec nd place pl The little rubber TUbber stopper with the Wire lire I lever attached to it which is ia now w used ed edon on every beer bottle is a good gOX ex example example e ample of fine business bustness s management in inthe inthe Inthe the handling of an apparently a r invention The endless endle 8 difficulties and disappointments of the Holland HoIland torpedo boat people veoPle are a good example of hard hardluck hardluck luck Some very valuable Inventions through li bad management chiefly have been sold for tor a mere song BOng Every Everyone one knows the hacked eye which ie Is now nw universal uni on boots boote and shoes The man that invented it found that none of the hoe companies would take the thing up unless it had a monopoly of It U and andt that hat t they regarded it largely as a freak idea Which It would take siv si sive ve e machinery to make even for e a test and if it it did not 30 ro said Id they the would have on hand not only this ma machinery machinery machinery chinery but a lot Jot of boots and shoes The inventor finally Mally told a promoter to set get t what he could for it and take half balf for his hI trouble It is ia said saM that U was WH the sum realized by the inventor while the profits to the man manufacturers manufacturers manufacturers have run into the hundreds of thousands every year yearS S Some me inventions drag along for years jears without getting to a paying state stage sta e and anti then suddenly make fortunes fortune for tor their owners when the patent ia la almost run rim out The typewriter ty i er is if an of this thin thing There Then men who be ved in it had many reasons reasone rea on for giving up all hope ho e of or its ib ultimate success The T e man wh W nho h had the general agency a y for the thew w whole hole south n 1877 sold only orli four ma machines machines machines chines in a year three of them in one town Huntsville Ala It wae was not until the most meet valuable part of the patents p had hd expired that iny one made any money on the typewriter Bell Ben offered to sell a half interest in his telephone tel one onet to t his n next door neighbor for 1000 and the neighbor laughed at the absurdity of paying such a price for tor an interest In a freak tre k scientific toy Speaking of Bells telephone it tt is not generally known that he be came very near losing Io tug all his 1118 English patent rights and would have done dioDe so 00 o but for a most remarkable piece of luck At the time of the telephones telePhone invention i Lord Kel Kelwin Kelwin win vm was waa in lIt this country and he took back with him ium to Scotland one ore of the rude crude instruments which Bell BeU had made mode intending to exhibit it to his col colle college letre lege le t clates aa a an American m rican curiosity At t that time the transmitter hal a spiral spring wring on the th upper side Bide and while hile the model del wa wan knocking about among the tb baggage in its journey across the ocean this thit spring somehow got bent upward When Lcd Ld L d dt Kelwin t lwin came 8 1 to give ghe the prom promised promised promised exhibition the thing would not work ork because the spring rIng was bent up too much It is lB almost St Impossible to be believe here lieve e but it is nevertheless n a fact that it never occurred to the t giant intellect of this great scientist to press pre that spring down agate and he had to apol apologize gize to his hi audience for the failure of ot the much advertised A publication previous to application for forA A patent is a bar in England and when the great trial to settle the val validity valIdity Mit of the Bell BeH patents came up over there thue it war ax g sought to prove this pre pro previous publication a aDd ad d this lecture was wasa a case caS ca in point but it was conclusively proved that Chat there ther had bad been no Jf n puli publication publication cation in this lecture because the model would not work Had Lord LOr Kel lCd Kelwin Kelwin win pressed down that little spring and those th Scotch laddies IK bow ll W the telephone worked it would have cost the Bell Belt company co ny many nany million of dol dollars dollars dollars lars and made telephones very ery cheap in inEn England En 1 and The reason for tor failure in n patents is 18 very ery curious in some cases Sometimes Sol eUmes the defect def t is in the invention itself sometimes in the management after ater i the patent to Is issued The trouble with many h is that they have no scientific training trailing and the machines mac that they put iut on paper are simply J f 1 I dreams dr eams ms and they spend their lives in inthe inthe inthe the pursuit of which any well tr trained machinist could tell teU them were illusions Perpetual P lal moti motion n air ships anti ADd ad things of o that kind seem Seem to have c Co special attraction for unbalanced unbalance minds In ln all air compressing compe ing machines endless time and money monty has been wasted by men who did not know enough about the subject to be aware that it heats air to tD compress it and that when it expands again it is cold Most inventors are men m who Vho have bave been brought u 1 In connection connection tion tio with the business to which their invention ia uS to be applied or have at least lea t made themselves familiar w th the laws governing the processes which wirich they seek nek s k to improve There here are cases In which inventors have discovered new laws or new applications of old ones on in chemical Lie ISie T e Bessemer converter is ia So a ex cx example x ample The Tb cyanide cy de process pro of washing go god d and the manufacture of or acetylene ga t are others Some S me inventors have had courage courne enough h to dispute the es established facts of science as In the case c e of some recent re ent experiments in fog signaling in which the inventor used a principle which was denied by such eminent authorities as iw Tyndall T and Professor Henry The funny funn part of It was that the inventor was wu right The Themo mo mt t learned men sometimes make very curious mistakes years ago when the curved ball was waa intro introduced Introduce Introduced duce into it was US pronounced by scientists as an optical illusion muston The writer was present when hen three poets were driven into imo the diamond on the ball grounds at Cincinnati tl and anda a ball pitched round the middle post to cot con convince vince vice people of the truth of what is isnow isnow isnow now regarded as a very common phen phenomenon phenomenon Inventors sometimes make absurd mistakes but it i not often that one takes a refusal properly stamped by the patent office for a patent A man walked into the office of a patent law lawyer lawyer lawyer yer in Washington and set get upon the floor a rough model mode of ot o a 8 churn for which he wanted a patent Upon be being beIng ing big asked what he had Invented about it that was Wag new he s 4 He know that tha there was wa a new mw about it out but as he was going g to sell patent rights he had to have a patent and was willing to pay for it It was for the lawyer to explain that patents were granted only for new In Inventions inventions Inventions The countryman insisted and finally laid down as a retainer and left his name and address saying he had been told he could get a patent if he went to a 8 good man The lawyer took the money and tried hard to tomake make out a claim for something some but it was useless w e S and the grant was waa refused He sent his client the official notice from the patent tent office without comment and thought no more about it About a year Yer afterward In walked the same man his face all smil ml s You it done it I knew you could he be sale said i 1 was told you was the best Dest in inthe inthe Inthe the business and it was wes cheap at a hundred The lawyer was completely taken aback and asked what he meant Why that ere patent said the coun countryman countryman countryman tryman The minute I got my eyes on that patent and the th seal on it all allo o 0 k Ic I cut a stencil with the date on onit onit onIt it and marked the models patent and since then Ive sold rights in eighteen counties for tor 0 It ia la well known that there is very little Ii tUe money in surface washing or placer pacer mining for gold and andi that all the big profits pro are made out of long and patient developments of deep d ep mines The same is true of or patents There is ia very little profit la in it inventions which can be realized upon almost im immediately immediately Immediately mediately hoy hey are mere surface washings All AU the th big things hive have taken taa n time and patience to bring to perfection and any Inventor who finds himself marking making quick profits may ma be sure tire they will be bei short abort lIved although he may have a good thing while it lasts like the puzzle Confidence tenacity of purpose ose and capital are the requisites for building up big fortunes on the foundation of a patent tent the thing Itself must nuit mu have in intrinsic IntrInsic merit te to begin with or it must fall faU before long There are a great many worthless inventions out of which money has been made but it will usually be found that It was not the invention but the shrewd business ability and advertis advertising advertising ing lug back of it which made the money mone moneA A group of business bustnes men were dish cussing this subject in a cigar store in Washington one day and one of ot them insisted insi teil that no Invention with without without out absolute merit of ot some seine kind would ever pay Another noted for his skill in advertising contended that the most absurd thing if properly pU h l would be a money maker and he offered to bet that If he had capital he could take an absolutely worthless invention and make a B for fortune fortune fortune tune out of or it if it was a thing that could be advertised in a catchy way The business man agreed to find the capital c if the other could produce proe the invention invent n that fit the n a few days d he got out oat a am m d for t a patent It a small mall cylinder with a astr airing str ng to It and he proposed to pretend that tb t if th t the e cylinder was soaked ed in a basin bun of water and the string tied round a persons wrist or ankle that some mysterious electrical currents would Impart new life and energy and cure all manner of or dis diseases diseases diseases eases The absurdity of the whole thinS thing especially the pretense that a string and not a wire would convey electrical currents compelled the man of capital to draw his offer even at the ex cx expense pense pen e of losing his bet but the ad insisted that It was part of the bargain that the invention was to tobe tobe tobe be unquestionably worthless and after talking it over for two or three days davs he finally prevailed on the capitalist to tt togo togo go into it The TIle was immedi immediately immediately drawn upon for advertising and testimonials te were obtained In n the usual way from rom people whose credulity was even eyen greater than their prominence and nd long before the capital was used UD up the profits proMs began to too pour in These I two worthies made so 80 much mu ch money out of ot their alleged invention that theY j quarreled out it tt and separated al although although although though bot bo made enough ugh to be inde ide independent I pendent pendant for foz life Ufe The elements of a successful Invert invention ton tion are Je very simple Utility aim sim simplicity and commercial practicability being the things to be considered A great many ingenious things fail f I be because because cause they are attempts atte to create a instead of 0 f filling one that |
