Show I 1 COUNTLESS PATENTS tile the remarkable record of the united states patent office is commented upon by a writer who has been through the archives in washington in ili approximate approximately lynne one hundred years which is the period that marked the existence of the united states patent office about patents have been issued this vast aggregation ranges from a method for rendering pearl ashes down to patent numbered granted august 10 1908 and which 19 an improved means for atta ebing automobile tires this long list comprises every conceivable concel vable construction of divers arti articles clos from frying pans to fiddles and from locomotives to flying machines the lay day of the accidental the occasional and the freak invention however howey pr Is rapidly passing as the opportunities port unities for securing patents on gim cracks and yankee ideas are gradually lessening as such inventions no longer possess tile the properties of being new and useful which are the essential elements necessary to secure a patent the general trend of professional inventing today IF ia largely confined to the newer industries in support of this statement it is well to consider the relation of invention and manufacturing during tho the past twenty years rears 11 in 1889 tho the bicycle fad began bega io to d develop and with it bicycle manufacturers sprang up like mushrooms over the I 1 entire country the Invent inventive ivo genius was so prolific during the next ten years that bicycle patents numbered u upward into the thousands hsands and soon the bicycle was made perfect by c constant n aud and rapid improvements devised by scores of inventors in 1900 the bicycle trade began to wane and about the samo same time the automobile saw its birth coincident with tho the appear appearance alim of the an examination of patent office records reveals tho the ac tidily of scores of tile the former bicycle their profession to the improvement of the auto which was merely an innovation bearing many of the earmarks 0 of the bicycle the an tonj obile industry developed with marked strides of progress which of course Is directly attributed to thle the wave of inventive genius turned in i this direction and which brought the crude automobile into almost perfect types of self belf propelled vehicles vehicle F s at a single stroke |