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Show I ' When tha Income tax collector comes around next time there will be a new name on the Income tax rolls. The name Is Albert S. Janin inventoi of i lie hydroaeroplane 3 Perhaps you thought Glenn H. Curtis Cur-tis was the Inventor of the hydroaeroplane hydro-aeroplane hut the men down in the patent office say you are wrong A few weeks ago they handed down tL decision at the patent officio of Washington Baying the first model for a hydroaeroplnno was made by Janin, and if any other makers of the machines wanted to construct them they would have to pay a royalty roy-alty on each machine to Janin, These royalties will not begin from some future date after higher courts have deliberated long over the case, but all persons who have built flying machines using Janin's method will have to pay royalties on all machines they ever have made. That means a big sum of money was due Janin the day the decision was handed down, and the chief Job Janin now has on his hands Is that of a collcclor. When the news was brought io Janin he was making a kitchen cabinet In a factory. He has be n making cabinets for fourteen year working right hours a day m Rose-iank, Rose-iank, Staten Island "When his work was over he went home to his private shop where he worked on a machine for flying over the water and which could light on the waves like a duck- "VA hen the Wrights were Bill! working with their eliding machines. ma-chines. Janin was working on his type of flyer Having spent his childhood on the seashore, Janin did not care so much about (lying on land. He wanted to sail over the water. He wanted to look down on the ships and gulls and that Is one reason he specialized on the water living machine. There was still another reason. Janin had no long, sandy beach to fly over as the Wrights had. He had to hustle for his wife and family and when a man is making only $5 a day he hasn't time to go on a long vacation. The Wright brothers broth-ers were bachelors nnd had nothing noth-ing to hold them back. As Janin expressed it, he Is a married man with seven children and had something to spur him on. Without a long sandy beach to fly over Janin began to experiment on flying over the sea. The sea was near enough to his house to be ready of access at all times for trial flights, and ao Janin Just tried and tried, "He's a nut," his neighbors said He cared nothing for the ordinary ordi-nary social activities of Rosebank. When his work was over for the man who paid him 55 a day he went to work for Janin, and the result was he developed a machine which ultimately was good enough to patent. pat-ent. Thinking that his discoveries were secure undr the patent laws. Janin took no precautions to guard the secret of his Invention. The ma.hine was built much like Wright's aeroplane. It was not a eopy of the Wright machine, but grew up with Wrlghl'e aeroplane. Janin read all about the discoveries nnd experiments of the Wrights He also read all about the discoveries discov-eries and Inventions of the Frenchmen French-men ami Germans. Then came the great success of the Wright brothers broth-ers before Janin was ready to make bis flight NEIGHBORS C AM, TO BCOFI AT INVENTOR. As Wright won success after suc-ccss suc-ccss the neighbors called to scoff at Janin, who was only abb: to glide out over the bay for a short distance and wait for a boat to tow him home. But Janin was proceeding proceed-ing with safety While an aeroplane aero-plane has to rise high enough to pet above the trees and has to sweep over deep valleys and gulleys and always Is running In danger of coming against a barb vviro fence, Janin could skim over the water like a gull, and if his engine went dead, he could drop to the waves easily. His plan was not unlike the Wright plan. The machine was equipped with wings like an aeroplane. aero-plane. An automobile engine was used to propel the machine through the air at a high rale of speed. Two pontoons wero so placed under the machine that it would float on the water. The machine was so equipped that it could make headway while floating on the pontoons pon-toons or it could leave the water and soar through the nlr "You will never make s co of it " one of the neighbors told the carpenter car-penter of the cabinet shop. ' Man wasn't made to fly until his Heavenly Heaven-ly Father calls him up yonder and gves him a pair of angel's wings, or kick him down :ronder, and gives him a pair of bat's wings. Birds arid insect? can fly on this side of the grave, hut no one else over can.' "I'm busy tonight and can t talk to you," said . anin. The next Sunday Sun-day he was cut getting lucked In the bay while he was trying to make his machine keep ui In the nlr. Neighbors at first tame in crowds to see the fiver's failures, but they got over It In time because there was nothing new to sec It was the same old story of failure rdm "Nut " To kdmeTax tap Patent Office Decision Declaring A. S. Janin the Real Inventor of the Hydro -Aeroplane, Changes i while Wright, who had flown only over the land, was flying before thu President. Then c3me s day when Jnnln flew out over the water and came i.ak to his landing. The machine was i success, but the neighbors would not admit It In fact, few of them saw the successful flight The machine had proven Itself to be good In two ways. It had proven It could sustain itself on the water and had proven It could come back to land. Then It was that makers of other flying craft began to make hydro- aeroplam s The neighbors sympathized as follOws: Huh, I knew they'd steal your patent Look what happened tO the inventor of the cotton gin and all the rest of the big inventions. The.v never give you what you earn. You are too mall to be an inventor." inven-tor." Janin went to the makers of hydro-aeroplanes and insisted tln-y had infringed on his patent rights. The manufacturers were polite but firm. They said they had invented the machines themselves. The) had never hoard "f the obscure carpenter, car-penter, and what if he did invent a machine which would fly over the water, they had invented machine! to fly over both water and land and light anywhere. They told him it was Indeed a strange coincidence they should have invented a machine ma-chine like Janin. but it couldn't be helped. They wouldn't pay any royalties. They were not making any too much money themselves Janin hadn't lime to argue out the matter With the manufacturers. He went back to Rosebank and ki pt at work earning 15 a day making cabinets. He hated to see his big chance slip away from him after eleven years of incessant work, but he guessed It couldn't be helped. FOUGHT POVERTY FOR MANY YI ARS. Janin had fought poverty all his life and was used to It He had fought poverty when he went to school with the girl who became his wife. He was lighting poverty when the first child, Antoinette, UPPER lett Albert S. Janin. Upper ri&ht Glenn Curtiss, flying over the breakers in a hydroaeroplane. hydro-aeroplane. Below Hydroaeroplanes Hydro-aeroplanes in action. was born fourteen years ago, and kept on lighting It a.- the other children chil-dren arrived. He was used to It and was a good lighter. The fighl against poverty had lirsi turned hie thoughts to Invention. He thought !f he ould inv ent a flying craft which could rest on the water he would have enough money to educate edu-cate Antoinette and the rest f the brood, Hut when the other fellow? went ahead and made machine! Him From a Cabinet Maker Into a Man With -Gobs" of Coin Jnnln Just kepi on lighting poverty. He first consulted witn i lawyer nnd the lawyer offered 'o tjk? the rase if a retainer's fee was pa.'1 Janin needed the fee money for groceries, so he went back to the cabinet shop. The neighbors advised ad-vised him again to forget It. They explained there are no short cuts to weaPh, A man has to work to get rl h. they said. But I worked.' said Janin The carpenter went before the Aeronautical Society of America and told his story. He showed the dates of his patents and contended he. was the first Inventor of the machine. He wanted the patent right?. He had worked for years on the invention, and offer he had gotten it to flying other companies not only had made a similar machine, ma-chine, but had patented it and were making monev out of it. "I could beat these fellows in the courts if I had a chance,-' said Janin. Curtlss was Interviewed on the matter. He said he was wflhln his rights In making hi3 machine. Four years ago Thomas Hill, a patent lawyer of Broadway took the case into the patent courts for Janin. Hill was president of the Aeronautical Society of America and that is how he came to be Interested In-terested in the rase lie did not B'l '-opt any pay for bis services. Hill went to Washington and began a fight, wliich was won the other day after four years. To understand the difficulties of lb" inventor one must know something some-thing a)out the patent office. Instead In-stead of a great big beneficient institution in-stitution helping the poor, struggling strug-gling inventors, it is onlv a bookkeeping book-keeping and recording institution. So many new patents come Into the i fflce every dav and so man appll-'.ition? appll-'.ition? for patents come into the office every day that the clerks there do little more than tabulate them; and it takes a long time to make the awards. Patent lawyers do a thriving business helping men gel patents they deserve and helping help-ing other men keep their right to patents. The Job Hill undertook was to get Janin's rights, Hill won the case and Janin has resigned re-signed hl,s Job. When Janin left the shop the foreman wrung his hand and his fellow workmen crowded around him, their faces beaming. "Congratulations. Al," said the foreman simply From somewhere In the crowd spoke one of Janin'. Intimates. "The Hug' has made good." "Welt," rejoined Janin good-naturedly, "It no longer will be Janin the cabinet maker, or Janin the Bug, the dreamer. I guess the handle han-dle to my name has been pretty (irmly established as 'Jan, inventor of the hydro-aeroplane. " Then the inodost little fi.c-rouvn flat at 7X Clifton avenu'. overlooking overlook-ing the broad sweep of the lower bay, was the scene of an evening elebratlon, the like of which had never been seen at Kosebank. Most enthusiastic of the guests were men who, for the lat ten years, have coifed at the strange-looking winged craft In the Janin back yard, Which lh( poor carpenter persisted, would some dav be recognised hy the Talent Offlcc ai the first flying Just how It feels for a struggling workman, whose $5 a day Is barely enough to provide the necessaries of life fyr ;i wife and seven children, chil-dren, to suddenly find himself famous, fa-mous, and a fortune within hi grasp, Janin tried to explain. He Is still a little dazed over his good . hi. k. and In his hour of triumph thinks only of the eood things In store f"r his wife and the now bright futures of the seven little Janins, blonde-haired voungsters ranting from 3 to H years of age. ""We put it over, didn't we, mother"" moth-er"" Janin beamed, affectionately patting hi' wife. "If it hadn't been that she stuck to me believed in me, when ajl the rest were poking fun and scoffing 1 never would have made it." "And if it hadn't been." Mrs. Janin interrupted, 'that afier your bard day's work for almost every nigh in the last ten or fifteen years you burned the oil at your work bench until long after midnight, you never would have made It." The bfst part of this invention Is ihat, unlike a whole lot of others. l( It's golnsr to bring us money gobs of it." Janin broke In. "What Will 1 do with the money? The first thing will he to get a home of our own with plenty of ground around It for the kids to play. No more of these flats for us. But we are oing to stay risht here m Rose-hank, Rose-hank, where my Wife and I were born and brought up. You know, we were sweethearts, even at old P. S. No. 13. around the corner. Most of the kids are now going to that same school. The oblest girl, Antoinette, who Is now 14. an realize her amhifion to go to normal nor-mal school and take up teaching, If she wants to but she don't have to now " A Favorite LittU: Girl My father suys he has often seen you act Pleased Actress What did he say , he saw me act in. dear .' i Little Girl j: the seventies. |
