“ye Z e i; TORE F4, IED mVENTOS ~ OA URE on ae ERE e aie. A PNG seh WS ALEVE RH. aS Brea ears Pawns Ke er BS 2B 4 Fs = eer iIBRARY OF of Illinois. Books are not to be taken from the Library Room. ee “met ¥ 4 ¢ wy ’ Return this book on or before the Latest Date stamped below. A charge is made on all overdue books. U. of I. Library “ CEA Bee te YY. Eee Ye 2! Pir nae .. wa LIPS TO INVENTORS: TELLING WHAT INVENTIONS ARE NEEDED, AND HOW TO PERFECT AND DEVELOP NEW IDEAS IN ANY LINES. ge 4 + ; ee NY : | ; ‘ de L/L? Ve f 8) \ ROBERT GRIMSHAW, Ph.D., M.E., Author of ‘Steam Engine Catechism,” ‘‘ Pump Catechism,” ‘** Boiler Catechism,”’ ‘*Engine Runners’: Catechism,” ‘* Practical Catechism,’ ‘* Preparing for Indication,’’ “* Hints to Power Users,”’ ‘* Hints on House Building,”’ and numerous other Practical Works. NEW YORK: THE PRACTICAL PUBLISHING COMPANY, 21 Park Row. 1892. ANE Tas L \ re ie } aes . DEDICATION TO SOHN EF. SW RET, Formerly Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Cornell University; Ex-President American Society of Mechanical Engineers, AS A HIGH TYPE OF THE PATIENT, PERSISTENT, SYSTEMATIC, PRACTICAL INVENTOR, AND IN SLIGHT RECOGNITION OF HIS _ESTIMABLE PERSONAL, QUALITIES. B2449 Copyright, 1892, RoserT GRIMSHAW. ; Ses8 , : ate ay A tee > 4 F e - - ® pias vy —_ ss ee CHAPTER HEADINGS. os Chapter Headings. PAGE, ce TAI Sy gaa in angie i eC eee 13 Meet rar hemical WaAVs.v. 2. se ewes wy ee 17 fee Wretallurgical .5.5 cies ease ee es Ee 24 MELOY sc tig sh Rl tne ar rs oh eles so Soe ie Ne 27 Memedeiaiway Lines-:.°,2% 0.05 . seb sed wee ce 30 2g eS Nr a OO 33 eite—-Our Common Roads.......2600. 002s. 35 ESE RSE ES SS a mye feeeetieatine and Lighting.................. 39 fee icine’ and Printing’... 0.2. eee 41 BT ISCOI AN COUS ds a 0s GS cece Selec se es 44 11.—Perfecting and Developing.............. 50 Meee cling Patents 2.2)... e.. be ee ee 61 6 LIPS: LOIN VEN TCR: TIPS TO INVENTORS, List of Topics. Electricity direct from Coal Primary Battery Storage Battery for Ve- hicles Storing the Lightning Electro-deposition Electric Cooking Electric Transmission of Power Incandescent Light Insulating Material Telephone Exchange Telephone Attachment Long Distance Telephone Telephoning at Sea Electric Welding ContinuousFractional Dis- tillation Vulcanizing Mineral Hy- drocarbons Recovering Vulcanized Rubber Bond for Emery Wheels Leather Russia Leather Scotch Gauge Glasses Aniline Black Indelible Cancelling Ink Black Copyable Typewri- ter Inks Black Writing Fluid Metallic Sheen in Dyes Permanent Aniline Dyes LIST COR es ed ed OS, | ae Artificial Diamonds and ~ Pearls Artificial Mica Special Foods for Various Organs Cures for Consumption and Cancer Artificial Coffee and Tea Flavors De-nicotinizing Tobacco Sorghum Sugar Sugar from Starch Fusees Cream of Tartar Explosives Projecting Dynamite Shells Photographic Prints”’ Photography in Colors vital og Eek Purifying River Water Deodorizing Kerosene Deodorizing Carbon Bi- sulphide Cementing Metal to Glass Siccative for Cotton Seed Oil Preserving Eggs Ice Machine Refracting Material for Lenses Oxygen-making Process New Alkaloids Tough Thin Flexible Paper Wood Paper Pulp Red Lead Pencil Bleaching Material Antiseptic Isolating Aluminium Aluminium Solder Extracting Silver Low Ores Hardening Copper Gold from Clay Tin from Recovering from Scraps Casting Iron under Pres- SUC; 8 TIPS TO INVENTORS. Direct Iron Making Pro- cess Russia Iron New Steels Automatic Stoker Bagasse Burner Smoke Consumer Safety Boiler Substitute for Fly-Wheel Instantaneous Engine Stop Rotary Engine with Cut Off Motor for Balloons Gas Engines Oil Engine Steam Road Wagon Storage of Power Train Brake Train Stopper Car Heater Station Indicator Rail Joint Ee Iron and Steel Railway Tie Railway Snow Plow Platform Weighing Ma- chine Car Starter Cable Railway Grip Boat Model Screw Propeller Feathering Paddle Wheel Jet Propulsion Naphtha Launches Storm Anchor Boat Disengaging Hook Life Boat Harbor Dredge Screw Propeller Horse Shoe Roadway Monolithic Pavement Wagon Wheel Street Sweeper LEST ROR -TOPICS, > Cactus Fibre Cleaner Umbrella in One Piece Seamless Stocking Sail Strengthener Fire Proof and Proof Compound for Textiles Water Oil Stove Oil Range Attachment Household Gas Machine Gas Main Joint Gas Burner Gas Regulator Safety Lamp Superheated Steam Oven Fountain Pen Manifolding Process Typewriter Printing Types Typesetting Machines Half Tone Printing Ink Distributing Roller Color Printing at one Im- pression Printing on Sheet Metal Printing Surface Power Plate Printing Case Binding Brick Machine Unglazed Colored Bricks Glazing without Putty Platform Weighing Ma- chine for Moving Trains. Bran Baler Cotton Bale Fastener Cotton Picker Household Filter Flexible Glass Window Balance Button Sewing Machine Box Nailing Machine Intestine Cleaning Ma- chine Breech Loading Cannon Navigable Balloon Air Gun Coal Cutting Machine Slate Separator 10 TIPS. FO1AVVENTORS: Mica Separator Cremation Furnace Well Tool Grapple Head Covering [ron Moulding Machine Bone Disintegrator Automatic Janitor Anemometer Self-acting Barber Household Emery Wheel Sensitive Cornet Pyrometer —— Ball Bearing Perfecting and Developing Patella Splint Selling Patents of 12. pw INTRODUCTION. 11 INTRODUCTION. This volume is to some extent a republication of articles of mine, some of which appeared in the Suzday World, and others in the Practical Mechanic, which were intended to do inventors a two-fold service : first, to warn them away from fields in which remuneration was not likely to come from inventions, either because the art was so weil advanced, or because there would not be sufficient demand for even a perfect invention; second, to point out lines in which inventions are greatly needed, and in many cases loudly demanded. In the publications named I gave quite a number of hints which presented themselves to me in the course ot my perambulations and thinking fits; and since then there have come up about as many more, wnich it would be well for him (and her also) of ingenious mind and practical training to produce. In looking over the broud field of industry the intelli- gent observer is struck with two things: First, the high degree of pecuniary reward which has been attained by 12 TIPS FO INVENTORS. those inventors who have gone to work to supply something that the world needed; and second, the great number of lines in which there is still opportun- ity for inventors to achieve success. ? The mere fact that there is already a successful . machine or process in use need not deter an inventor from going ahead and making a better one. The his- tory of the sewing machine, of the typewriter, of the mower and reaper, and of a dozen or a hundred other inventions, will show that when people are once aroused to the desirability of having a thing done better than before, they are greedy for still more and further progress. Every one cannot or will not be the. one which is brought out first. The rest have a good show, and sometimes a better one, by reason of what has been done by the pioneer. Keep on inventing, only be sure that you get up things which are needed, and do not waste your time in converting people to the idea that what you have invented is what they want. If they do not know that they want a thing, and do not call for it, never mind about getting it up, as long as so many things which they do want, and know that they want, and keep on calling for, are still unfurnished. 21 Park Row, N. Y. OEE elt AL , 13 CHAP T Eined ELECTRICAL. Of course the first lines in which there appear to be opportunities for successful inveation are those in which electricity and its myriad appliances are made to do man’s bidding. One of the greatest of all electrical problems that is just now offered for solution is the production of elec- tricity direct from coal without the intervention of a steam boiler and engine; without the incidental pro- duction of light and heat. Whoever does this success- fully should become ‘rich beyond the dreams of avarice.” This may call forthe production of a primary battery which shall use ordinary coal as one of its elec- trodes ; oxidizing this perfectly to carbonic acid, with- out the production of heat—and all at a cost which will render such production of electrical current a com- mercial rival with the present method of using the coal in a furnace to produce steam with which to run an engine by which to turn a “dynamo” which shall evolve the current. 14 TIPS TO INVENTORS. The storage battery or secondary battery—particu- larly for vehicles—is far too heavy, complicated, costly, and liable to deterioration, and gives off fumes which do not commend it to popular approval. There is ample opportunity for inventors to do good and pay.- ing work here. If some scientist, or any one, in fact, will invent a way of storing up lightning and using it when and where it is needed, he will make for himself more than a mere name. Electro-deposition needs looking into. There are several metals which as yet cannot very well be de-— posited by the galvanic current; and theart of deposit- ing alloys has- as yet but very limited practical application. Electric cooking has been but little more than sug- gested. In many houses now having electric lights, a good device for cooking by electricity taken from the same wires which supply the light could very readily be introduced. : The problem of electric transmission of power has been solved by several methods, more or less (gen- erally less) satisfactory. This field is a wide one, and the incentive to effort very great. Can you make a better filament for the incandescent ELECTRICAL. 15 —s —— -ae electric light than those which you see? Or can you even make as good a one? If so, you can practically dictate your own terms for the sale of your patent. There is a big demand all over the country for an insulating material for wires which would be light, cheap, easily handled and not readily altered or attacked by heat, cold, dampness, acids, alkalies, coal gas or sewer gas, and which would also-resist.abrasion. A telephone exchange in which each. subscriber could catch and hold any other in the system, without, resort to ‘Central,’ is not so im! ossible of yori gee \ as might at first seem. . : have found out after much effort that there was no one there, would feel better if there was on the market something which would at once, when a box was rung up, give a signal stating that there was no one to re- ceive a message and would not be until a time which would be stated by the attachment. Long distance telephoning is only in its infancy. There i is need of greater certainty of working and of greater ‘clearness of sound. Telephoning and telegraphing at sea | may seem wild. So did sending a message along through a wire with- 16 TIPS TO INVENTORS. out pulling the wire. There are people now living who will send a telegraph from one vessel at sea to another ; or to port. How long will it be before the stern posts of great steamships will be made by electric welding ? = DOr » Sa IN A CHEMICAL WAY. 17 CHAPTER II. IN A CHEMICAL WAY. The problem of the continuous fractional distillation of petroleum has often been offered to all those who should be most interested in its accomplishment asa very desirable one to solve. At present, a still is filled and made to yield so much of one compound, then so much of another, and so on until it is empty, when it must be cooled and re-charged. What is wanted isa still or apparatus which will work as a flour-mill does— receive constant feed of raw material and deliver con- stant streams of the various products and by-products. Thereare many mineral hydro-carbons which it would pay to “vulcanize” as India rubber and gutta-percha are now. What is not known about “ vulcanizing ” India rub- ber, gutta percha, and other similar substances, would filla large volume. Get up a process for recovering India rubber out of old vulcanized articles, and an- 18 IIPS TO INVENTORS. other for vulcanizing the material so that it will not get soft by heat or brittle by cold. In the manufacture of emery wheels, a bond is de- sirable which will possess the advantages both of India rubber and of silicate. Can you make leather which shall be as pliable as ordinary leather and shall wear as well as raw-hide? If so you can borrow money on the process. We cannot yet imitate Russia leather cheaply sic well. Inventors take note. The secret of making Scotch gauge glasses seems to be too much of a monopoly. There is as yet no decent aniline black color. There are blacks which show through them a green or a brown or a blue color, and others which are even bronzed when the light falls upon them a certain way ; but the real “ black black” is not on the market, nor even on the road to the market. A good indelible canceling ink for postage stamps has been the aim of inventors and the desire of the post-office authorities for many years, but has not as yet made its appearance. When it comes it will: not have to create a demand ; the demand is already here. A copyable typewriter ink, that will be black after copying as well as before, is desired. IN A CHE VICAL WAY. 19 A jet-black ink which will be black when written with, will stay black, will not corrode a steel pen and will flow freely is one of the things that everybody wants. The metallic sheen which is seen on liquid aniline colors and which seems at times to be such an objec- tion, should be taken advantage of. Inventors should aim to produce fabrics having various colors and a metallic lustre. The chemist who can make aniline dyes permanent will confer a great boon upon the community and should line his pockets well with bank notes. In the manufacture of artificial precious stones the French have done a good deal; but the diamond and the pearl should be made as successfully as the tur- quoise and the ruby, in order for the inventor to have the right to be proud. The chemist who will produce an artificial mica in large sheets will find buyers waiting for his patent or process. The discovery of special foods for special parts of the body, in like manner as now applied for different crops, is worth seeking. The dread disease, pulmonary consumption, and that other equally fell destroyer, cancer, have never been ‘20 IIPS TO INVENTORS. subdued by specifics, and whoever produces medica- ments which will cure them will deserve well of his fel- low men and should reap a fortune. Some time when you have leisure produce an arti- ficial coffee or tea flavor which shall be as like the real as artificial vanilla is like the flavor which it imitates. Can you take the nicotine out of tobacco without injuring the other flavoring’ principles which it con- tains? If you can you will bea benefactor anyhow, and perhaps a millionaire. Why don’t you invent a good process for making sugar from sorghum or imphee ? Sugar from starch will come some day—when we know how to produce it. Whoever finds out ought to get rich. Making glucose from starch has paid hand- somely—but making sugar from the same substance should enrich inventor and manufacturer. Match-making needs a little impulse. Can you get up a fusee which will not blow out and which will not smell like a drug store on fire ? A cheaper process of making pure cream of tartar than those at present employed should bring wealth to its inventor. | There is always a good: chance for new explosives, IN A CHEMICAL WAY. 21 particularly if they are controllable and make no nox- lous gases. Some one will come along and throw dynamite shells. out of an ordinary cannon witha high explosive to propel it; and then he will most likely be both famous and rich. To make a photographic print with the sharpness of the familiar blue print, and with the same quickness. and ease, but black instead of blue, has been made the aim of photographers for some time. You try it. If whoever invents a process for photographing in colors reaps a reward commensurate with its impor- tance and the eagerness with which it will be welcomed by the public he will be a very rich man. A process by which the water of great rivers may be purified more rapidly than by filtering beds should command attention and a high price. Can you take all the smell out of kerosene oil? If so, you know how to do what many manufacturers have been trying to do for a long time. Deodorize bisulphide of carbon by a cheap process, and several manufacturing chemists will want your ad- dress as soon as they hear of what you have done. The chemist who will make from cotton seed either 22 TIPS TO INVENTORS. a drying or a non-drying oil, should not want for cash if he manages his affairs properly. More cements for fastening metals to glass would find room and sale. No one seems to have been able, as yet, to preserve eggs fresh and sweet for a long time, as fruits are kept. Some one will manage it some day and reap a reward therefor. Inventors should get at the matter of the manufac- ture of artificial ice. What is needed is a machine which will make ice, first, safely; second, cheaply, and third, without using chemicals which have to be im- ported. Find a substitute for glass as a material for tele- scopic and microscopic lenses, having as great a refrac- tive power as the diamond—and name your own price for it. Oxygen making and hydrogen making are not yet easy enough and cheap enough on a large scale. The number of possible new alkaloids would pos- sibly bankrupt one’s arithmetic to compute. It is probably feasible to produce them to order having any desired effect upon the human system. In the manufacture of paper, such matters as strengthening and toughening thin sheets without IN A CHEMICAL WAY. 23 making them stiff and brittle have yet to be looked into. A soft flexible parchment paper is needed. In paper making there is needed a chemical process for making wood pulp which will destroy the fibre less than the present. The good red lead-pencil is not yet. There is room fora domestic bleaching powder or fluid, which shall not corrode the ordinary textile fab- rics. To supply some solution which will have the general effect of creosote in preserving wood from rot, but shall not be dissolvable out of the wood, if the latter is immersed in water, is a great thing to try for. ee ee ES 24 TIPS TO INVENTORS. CHAPTER ah: METALLURGICAL. Every now and then someone claims (or someone else claims for him) that he has discovereda process by which to isolate aluminium at very little cost. Some good starts have been made in this direction, but we are only in the a-b-ab’s of this metallurgical industry. There may be a dozen processes, each of which would pay.well and all of’ which would be as satisfactory as the cnes now being worked. Now that aluminium is so cheap there is a demand for better solders for it than are known at present, even to experts. Metallurgists want a cheap process for extracting silver from very low-grade oresin paying quantities. Hardening copper is an art which, it is said, was once’ possessed by the ancient Egyptians. If they had it they lost it completely; and when they lost it they lost a very valuable art. The re-inventor of the old METALLURGICAL. 25 process, or the discoverer of a new one, should become famous and rich. If you could only extract the gold from ordinary brick clay, in somewhat the same manner as the alum- inum is now taken out of it, you might think Croesus a poor man compared with you. There is enough gold in an ordinary Philadelphia brick to make a piece of gold leaf two inches square. A good way of recovering the tin from scrap tinned iron should pay. Rape | The whole art of making castjgs undlel/ pfessii needs to be learned. It is but inftsinfarcy. -Ther required a casting machine which and brass what the type casting m metal. Direct processes for making iron and st mm the ores should engage the attention of practical metal- lurgists. There would be but little use in an outsider working in this line; there are too many things about it which must be learned by long time observation and experience. There is only about one firm in this country that can make what is known as Russia iron; and the recipe “for doing it is not posted upon its outer walls. In steel making there are ever so many possible com- 26 TIPS TO INVENTORS. pounds of iron with other elements, which would have value for special purposes if they were experimented with. Other steels than carbon, silicon, and chromium compounds should be worked out and experimented with. “oSMULee POWER. 27 CHAPTER EY. POWER. Power users will herald the day which gives them a good automatic stoker for their boilers. The methods employed to burn “ bagasse”’ (the refuse of the sugar cane as delivered from the mill), are crude and should be improved upon. The smoke-consumer which will save fuel and lessen the smoke nuisance in those cities where soft coal is burned is yet in the future; and if it will do what is desired of it and will, in addition, be applicable to loco- motives, there will be in it what the boys on the street call “big money.” And the safety boiler. Has the perfect generator of steam been produced? There are many excellent ones in use and some good ones coming out ; but per- fection is a long way ahead, and the success of those good ones which are already before the public need not keep any one from bringing out still better ones. 28 TIPS T0 INVENTORS. A problem which is worth working at is the produc- tion of a mechanical substitute for the fly-wheel on ordinary steam engines or other motors, particularly those running at slow speed. This problem has been practically solved in pumping machinery by the use of hydraulic auxiliary cylinders, which absorb power and give it out again. Can you get up a good device which will automati- cally and instantly stop the engine and all moving parts connected therewith in case any one gets caught in the machinery ? The rotary engine which will use steam expansively, be durable, and not give trouble from leakage, has not yet been evolved. There is a chance for it yet. | If you can produce a small powerful motor for bal- loons you will find purchasers in short order. There is plenty of room for improvements in gas engines, particularly inthe very small and the very large Sizes. } Yet while the gas engine field is at least fairly well covered, that much cannot be said in the matter of oil engines. There is a great chance for some one to get up, in the size now made of gas engines, an engine which will use as fuel either crude oil or petroleum, and shall be as readily attended to, or not attended to, POWER. 29 as the present gas engine for domestic and light manu- facturing purposes. It is strange that the steam road wagon has been so little developed. Self-propelling steam road rollers are common enough, and some of them act as traction engines also on good roads; but the steam carriage for ordinary roads is of the future. Perhaps the naphtha launch motor idea can be adapted to service in our ordinary streets and highways. The storage of power has been attempted only in a petty way. What we want is to be able to store up the force of a storm of wind, or of a flash of lightning ; to be able to bottle up the force of spring freshets so as to be able to use it when the streams are low or dry. And if, in addition, we can be taught how to store up that power in such a way that it can be carried from place to place, we should reward the inventor. OHHH GED 30 TIP S-TOANV EN TORS. CHAPAI Rava IN RAILWAY LINES. There is a chance for practical inventors to change the whole idea of railway train braking. The brake should be applied to the rail and not to the wheels of the train. Brakes applied to the wheels simply permit the train to skid, and cause flat places on the wheels. Brakes applied to the rails would ease the momentum of the train in friction between it and something not within itself. There is need of a device by which a train can be stopped at any point in its run from any station of a line. This is needed not only in the case of “ wild” engines which have escaped control, but for trains which have gone past a signal, or have not heeded it or are not within signalling range. The problem of car-heating is not yet as well solved as it needs to be and as it will some time in the future, when the deadly car-stove is definitely abolished from off the face of the entire earth. One reason for the obstinate IN RAILWAY LINES, 31 retention of the car-stove is that the ‘‘ powers that be”’ are waiting for the best thing which can be produced to supplant it. The field is still open for intelligent competition of brains. A station indicator which will show what will be the next stopping place and will skip those at which the train does not stop, is loudly called for by the travelling public, and railroad officials and employees would be prejudiced in its favor. Did any one—expert or non-expert—ever see a per- fect rail-joint for steam roads? When we reflect that the joint is the weakest part of the road, and that by reason of its weakness the entire road is just as weak as that weakest part, the importance of the matter will appear. As our timber supply is getting less and less, there is more and more need for a good iron or steel railway tie. There isstill room for another snow plow—one which will cut its way bodily through deep snow and throw the material removed out of the way, where it will not cover the adjoining track. It must be able to throw the material from the right hand track clear over the left hand one and deposit it so it will not come down again. 32 TIPS TO INVENTORS. A platform weighing machine which will record the weight of each car of train passed over it ought to pay. Car starters for street railway lines have not been given enough attention. There must be something which will store up enough power when the car is in motion to start it easily when fully loaded, after it has been brought to rest. If it can be still further de- veloped so as to store up while on down grades a cer- tain amount of power, and give it out again on the up grades in aid of the horses, there will be money in it. The cable railway men have not yet found a perfect grip. The ones that they have are defective, and they know it. Verbum sap. MARINE. 33 Crete bie V1. MARINE. The perfect boat model has not yet made its appear- ance. The perfect screw propeller is not yet in metal and probably is not yet on paper. Here is a wonderful chance for those who are “up” in the mysteries of pro- pulsion to produce something which will benefit man- kind and also make the inventor rich, if he handles his invention properly. Hydraulic ballast for large ocean steamers is not yet as perfectly applied as is desirable. Here is your chance. Can you make a better feathering paddle-wheel than those which are in use? If so, do not hide your light under a bushel. Jet propulsion of vessels is being tried, but there is plenty of room at the top in this line, and there is cash at the top for those who get there. Something better than the present naphtha launches would be snapped up greedily by those who love the water and have no knowledge of engine running. 34 LIPS TOINVENTLORS, The great storm at Samoa should convince any one that there is need of a better anchor than those which failed to hold the ill-fated vessels in that notable harbor. There is also need of a better boat-disengaging hook than is used in our (or any other) navy. The life-boat offers an excellent opportunity for in- vention in a line which should be at once profitable and humanitarian. There is no boat which will stand a heavy sea without capsizing or being stove in. Any one who looks at the cumbersome methods em- ployed in dredging out our harbors (and even they are far in advance of those used in other countries) will admit on sight that there is need of better. The correct way to make a screw propeller is by some other method than those which have been tried. up to date. ee OUR COMMON ROADS. 85 Crier dene LL, OUR COMMON ROADS. The horseshoe of the present is an abomination. There needs to be something which will save the hoof from undue wear and breakage, while at the same time permitting elasticity of movement when the weight of the body is alternately borne upon and taken from it. The present system of shoeing is not humane, nor is it economical. An improved roadway is needed in this climate ; something that will wear as well as stone, be as easy to pull on as asphalt and give the horses’ feet a good grip so that they will not slip even in rainy weather. A good enough monolithic street pavement has not yet been laid. Cobble-stones would vanish if we had something perfect and in one piece to take their place ; something which would give the horses’ feet a good grip while allowing the wheels of vehicles to run smoothly without great resistance or noise. The horseshoe and the perfect roadway for the horse’s foot to travel upon having been provided, there 36 TIPS LOIN VAN Can should be produced a better wagon-wheel than at pres- ent exists. While American wheels are the best in the world, American roads are in the same ora greater proportion the worst; and there is needed a wheel which will have a strong yet elastic tire and be then less easily buckled than those which we have at present. And the street-sweeper. Cannot some bright Ameri- can bring forward a machine which shall do more than simply brush the dirt to one side or the other and leave thin wind-rows? There is demanded something which will take the dirt up bodily and put it into a box to be carried with it until the machine has reached the end of the route or the box is full. “Sie” LIEN TIL J: 3t CHAR VER VII eis The cactus and other Mexican fibre-bearing plants have not yet been made to yield up their fibre for tex- tile purposes, at a cost low enough to make it worth while to work them. When an umbrella woven in one piece as corsets are now produced is put on the market, the inventor will find the market waiting for it. And while the skilled inventor of textile machinery is about it why not producea stocking all woven in one piece, without any seam, and with double toes and heels, and extra strong knees for little folks ? If you can strengthen the sails of vessels by some composition which will not stiffen the fabric you can get rich. The chemical philanthropist who produces a com- pound which will fire-proof and water-proof textile fabrics at a low cost and without changing their ap- pearance or feel, ought to be a millionaire before his invention has been long on the market. If this can 38 LIPS LOIN FINO hes be done without making the fabric air-proof as well, so much the better. Garments which will shed the rain, and boots which will exclude snow, while. permitting of the passage of air through their pores, would be very desirable. aS HEATING AND LIGHTING. 39 CHAPTER IX. HEATING AND LIGHTING. An oil stove which will permit of broiling, can be used in the open air or where there are heavy draughts, and which may be kept burning ten hours at a time, should find hundreds of thousands of purchasers. There is need for the invention and manufacture of an appliance to put in an ordinary stove or kitchen range, by which petroleum may be burned without an offensive smell, right in the grate used at other times for coal. Those who have grumbled at excessive gas bills, think that there is room for a good household gas machine, which will make real illuminating gas, instead of carburetted air. In default of this let us have a good meter which will truly measure the gas which we buy. And while getting up a meter, get up three of them and enable the world to see that there is not only a good gas meter, but one which will satisfactorily measure steam and another which will properly register electric currents. Is there such a thing as a good joint for gas mains? 40 TIPS TO INVENTORS. If so, it doesn’t appear to have been either made or patented. | By reason of the great competition of electric light with gas there is a great demand on the part of gas companies for some form of gas-burner which shall pro- duce from a given quantity of gas per hour more light and less heat than is got by means of the present jets. Despite all the money that has been made in gas regulators, there are still needed improvements in that line. The ordinary glass lamp for burning petroleum is breakable, hence dangerous if upset. The metal lamps for the same purpose heat the petroleum, if they are kept burning a long time. A lamp which would not heat its contents by conduction, and which would be practically non-breakable if it fell from a table to the floor, would sell itself. The superheated steam oven is an invention which should pay to develop into practical form for every-day use by ordinary baking establishments. The idea of baking by steam has been tried and found very suc- cessful in large institutions. Who will give the baker around the corner, at a reasonable price, an oven which will run by steam only and give better satisfaction than the present coal-heated or wood-heated affairs ? WRITING AND PRINTING. 41 CHAT GER WRITING AND PRINTING. Although there are plenty of stylographic and fount- ain pens in the market, there is yet chance for some- body to bring out one that is much better than they are, as many of them are better than the ordinary nib, which requires to be dipped. There are many good processes by which manu- script or other copy may be manifolded, but none fill the bill perfectly. Here is a chance, and a good one, for nearly all processes which have been brought out have paid, from the very fact that in hopes of get- ting a good one at the last, people were willing to try everything which came along. Get up a typewriter which will be as good as the best of those in the market, and will permit of every letter being seen as soon as it is made upon the paper. Then thank me for suggesting it to you. There is room for some one to produce printing types having a hard face, and a body which is not so slippery that the letters will hardly stand on their feet. Perfection in typesetting machines, which would 42 TIPS TO INVENTORS. make books cheaper and lessen the cost of all printed matter, is far from being reached. Machines which will set up a page direct, and do the justifying at the time the line is set up, ought to bring fame and fortune. Half-tone printing needs the inventor’s aid. As it is now, ordinary presses for printing from type forms must have engraved blocks, the printing surfaces of which are either type-high or below that, and print from only those portions which are type high, losing the half-tone effect. Are you able to invent an ink-distributing roller for printing presses, superior to those now employed ? It might seem impossible to print several colors at one impression, or at one passage through a printing press, but many things are being done now which were at one time considered impossible, or at least imprac- ticable, and perhaps this will prove to be one of those things. Printing on sheet metal has not been so thoroughly developed as it should be. There is plenty of room here. The process should preferably be not litho- graphic, but from relief surfaces. Can you make printing surfaces out of some material which shall be as light as celluloid, and as easily moulded, without being inflammable? WRITING AND PRINTING. 43 Who will be the Moses of the art of copper-plate and steel-plate printing by machinery, in a manner commensurate in speed and cheapness with that em- ployed in ordinary book-printing from relief plates ? Any one who has ever lamented the miserable method of case-binding in vogue will confirm the state- ment that there is room for a better system, which will permit books to be opened out flat like an Oxford Bible and allow the entire page to be laid open to view. It must, of course, be as cheap as the present system. 44 TIPS TO INVENTORS. CHARTERSXL MISCELLANEOUS. Although hundreds of brick machines have been produced, and brick machines are demanded by manu- facturers, there is none which has been very generally adopted. Verbum sap. Fancy-colored (not glazed) bricks are demanded and not produced. Which of my readers will bring them out? Some day somebody will produce a system of glazing without putty, and will receive the thanks of all of us and the dollars of many of us. A platform weighing machine which will record the weight of each of a train of cars passed over it, ought ; to pay. No one yet has been able to bale bran. Whoever succeeds in doing with this material what is now being done with cotton, will find himself able to dictate terms ~ to capitalists. This is one of the things that are called for, not seldom, but often; not faintly, but loudly; not by outsiders, but by those who could use the machine. MISCELLANEOUS. 45 Ties for cotton bales cost too much money. Some other way of fastening the bales is needed; and who- ever gets it should name his own price for it. There is more money ina good cotton picker than there has been in the cotton gin, and that is saying a good deal. It is about time now for someone to get ready to pro- duce a household filter for drinking water; something that will not clog up; that is easily cleansed or renewed, and will have capacity for rapid passage of the water. Is flexible glass too chimerical for American invent- ive genius? . The sash-cord and pulley method of holding windows at any height is very crude, and inventors might as well profit by that fact and bring out something which will be better. Machines for sewing on buttons seem to be justa little beyond our reach so far. When they come, if they do the work properly, rapidly and cheaply, they should be a pecuniary success. A box-nailing machine would be a good thing to get up, particularly if it could work on boxes of all sizes without much or any special adjustment. 46 TIPS LTOAN VENDORS. The present machines for cleaning intestines for the use of sausage makers, do not do their work so well as they should. Better machines should sell well. Those who take an interest in matters warlike will find in the breech-loading cannon opportunity for them to try their mettle and their metal, too. Navigable balloons and aéroplanes for military and other purposes are not beyond the reach of human capabilities. Some very successful attempts have been made. There are details which need to be worked at. Whoever gets them down to a practical shape need have but little difficulty in sailing the air, and in going where he pleases. The air-gun as a weapon in regular warfare has not yet been given the attention which the possibilities of the case would seem to call for. Being smokeless and practically silent it should be a very useful weapon. We see what it can do in the way of throwing dy- namite. A good coal-cutting machine would bring buyers from all over this country, to say nothing of the world at large. Coal is too high. It should be got out of the mines more cheaply, so that no poor person need either freeze or shiver from one end of our broad land to the other. MISCELLANEOUS. 47 _ Some one should get up a machine for sorting the slate out of coal—a ‘“‘dry”’ process preferred. Noone has yet produced a machine which would separate mica and graphite. If some one would go out in the oil region with a good “grapple” for well-boring tools he would have a mob of purchasers about him in short order. Moulding machines for iron foundries are not in gen- eral use because there are few, if any, that are good for anything. All that is wanted isa better one. The sale will come promptly. | Bone is avery difficult material to crush or grind. The machines at present used to effect this operation are very unsatisfactory. There is no good instrument for measuring the velocity of the wind or of a current of air. A good one could be used not only in scientific observations, but in the industrial arts. | Something in the way of an emery wheel machine for household use should sell well. The old-fashioned grindstone is too slow and rough, but there is nothing better offered for domestic purposes. The pyrometers which are on the market give at best but crude guesses at the temperatures which they are supposed to indicate. A good one would pay. 48 LIPS LTOANV ENT ORS. Strange as it may seem, there has not yet been _put upon the market a good ball bearing or roller bearing for engine shafts and machinery generally. The manu- facturers of bicycles seem to have got what is wanted, but in larger sizes the field is yet open. Inventors of a surgical turn of mind might find it profitable to devote their attention to producing a good appliance for holding the patella or knee-cap when it is fractured. At present it is practically impossible in nearly every case. Cremation would be more rapidly introduced if there ° were a little more science and a little more common sense in the furnaces which have been proposed and tried for effecting it. A man may be willing to risk spoiling the making of a batch of steel by an imper- fectly made furnace, but no one wishes to try—even upon his mother-in-law—an imperfectly working cre- ‘matory. The man or the woman who will get up something better in the way of dress attire for the sterner sex than the present high hat will deserve well of his or her countrymen. All the foregoing are possible things to produce. There are many things for which we would all devoutly pray if we thought they could be produced; as, for MISCELLANEOUS. 49 instance, an automatic janitor who would not steal coal and would not read our papers in the morning before sending them up; a self-acting mechanical barber who would not eat onions or garlic and would not smoke bad cigars nor tell you how sick he was the day before. These are consummations devoutly to be wished, but there is little or no hope that they will ever appear. A sensitive cornet which would blow the player so full of flour, if he played falsely, that he could not play again for a week, would be a great boon to a suffering community; as would a machine which would pick the bones out of shad. I have enumerated many lines which offer substantial reward for practical inventive skill; but have not named them all, nor nearly all. Space would not permit this, Those who are interested in such subjects and are on the alert for “ tips’ concerning good directions in which to apply their talents, should keep their eyes and ears open and their mouths shut. 50 TIPS TOLMNP ENG OR CHAPTER XE PERFECTING AND DEVELOPING. A few disinterested words about perfecting and developing your invention may not come amiss. Perfect your invention before you try to patent it. By “‘perfect”’ I mean get it into a practicable shape. Then you will not have to be constantly taking out patents at the same expense as the original one; will arrive at a working result just as quickly, and will not be giving other people the hint to work up the same line with yourself. Patent your invention before you put it into practical operation on a large scale. It is all very well to have right on your side, but an interference suit is a very unpleasant thing to have. Where it is possible, see that your process or machine is all right in every way - before you make your application for protection on it. It may turn out not to be worth protecting. It may be so valuable that it would be very bad policy to set any one else on the same hunt. Put your invention in practice before you try to sell PERFECTING AND DEVELOPING. 51 it. This may to someseem very like saying, ‘‘ Don’t get in the water until you can swim ;’’ but what I mean is, do not make any serious attempts to interest capital for working your invention on a large scale before you have something tangible and practical to offer. It is all very well to interest some one with you in the prelim- inaries to help you make your first instrument, and to get your invention patented ; but when you come down to asking for money by the hundred thousand or even by the ten thousand dollars, you had better have a better bait than an undeveloped invention. In this connection let me caution you against show- ing imperfect models and sketches. Whenever you have anything to show to anybody else, anything to sell, see that you havea good sample or a good bait. A model ordrawing for which you have to apologize or which will fail you just when you want it to appear at its best, will not even draw money well for prelim- inaries; and as a bait for large capitalists, it is like a piece of watermelon rind for trout. Do not expect too much. It is all very well to say, “the higher you aim the further you shoot ;’’ but there are some distances at which no one could hit anything. You might aim straight up in the air and not be able to hit the moon. Don’t expect that millionaires are 52 DiPos LOLI VICI Dae going to come around to your house evenings to in- terest themselves in your invention; or that they are going to drop their business and give you hour after hour, much less day after day, looking up what you have: millionaires do not make their millions that way. If vou get a presentable showing ready, understand it well, and are able to explain it promptly and without egotism or braggadocio, and to respond to all ques- tions which may be put to you on the subject, you need have little trouble in getting a long enough audi- ence—always supposing that your idea is in a line where invention is needed, and that all other condi- tions are favorable. You must not expect patents to be any more salable, nor salable under more adverse conditions, than merchandise. Don’t think that the whole country is lying awake of nights in the vain hope of having just such an inven- tion as you have produced, or think that you have produced. The country at large, and manufacturers and others in particular, will probably welcome your invention as soon as you have showed that it is an in- vention, that it isin aline in which invention is needed ; and that it will work. In getting it patented, avoid, as the devil does holy water, the “no patent, no pay” solicitors; and those PERFECTING AND DEVELOPING. 53 who offer to get you full protection for about half the regular fee. The first are like quack doctors, the sec- ond like shoddy dealers. Get your patent through rep- utable solicitors, who will charge a good, living price and give you something that the next comer cannot drive a circus wagon through, band and all. Avoid shark patent-selling agents, particularly the kind who charge you for examining and advertising. Very few firms which sell patents will insist on such a fee. It is of course desirable that any one undertaking to sell a patent shall have, before he undertakes it, some idea of two things; first, that it is a good thing, and second, that the patent papers are well drawn. But there are many cases where the inventor can show the agent more plainly than he could find out for him- self, that the invention is a good one; and the name of the firm which has procured the papers should be the guarantee that they are well drawn. There are of course exceptions to most rules, and there are to this. But whether you pay an advance fee or not, see that the firm to which you offer the negotiation of your patent is well connected and well recommended, and has before successfully done business on a cash basis for other inventors. Avoid, on the one hand, too great haste in getting 54 TIPS TO INVENTORS. rid of your invention; but avoid also, on the other hand, too great delay. Do not let the sense of the importance of your invention keep it on your hands for three or four years after it is patented. Remember that a patent is not like realestate; it never gets more valuable with years. Before you spend any considerable amount of money —either your own or any one’s else, be sure: I. That it will work. 2. That no one else has patented it. 3. That there is an opportunity for its sale. 4. That there is not too much competition. Many a man starts off and orders a fancy nickel- plated model, and applies for his patent, only to find that the idea will not work even the least little bit. In this matter the advice of some one well up in the theory, and of some one else well up in the practice, would be valuable. Many an application done up in all the bravery of type-writing, notarial seal and all that, has been re- jected like a bad penny, for the very simple reason that some one else had before patented the idea, or something enough like it to bar out the new comer. It is cheaper to have the ground gone over first by a pre- PERFECTING AND DEVELOPING. 5) ‘liminary search made by a competent person, before the application is even written out. There are many good things which are very ingeni- ous, and perfectly novel and patentable, but which are in lines in which there would not be enough sale in ten years to pay the inventor the expense of getting out patents. Yet there are plenty of such things patented almost every week in this country. Sometimes there could be but one customer—say the Government, or some great corporation—and there may be reasons which are obvious, and others not so plain on the sur- face, that you could not even make them a present of your invention. There are some lines in which competition is so fierce that there would not be any use in coming into the field. If the Marquis of Worcester, Watt, Fulton and Morse, Whitney and Howe, Edison and McCormick, and a dozen more of the great inventors of the world, past and present, were to put their heads together, and get up a new car coupler, the chances are that they could not get thirty cents for the patent. The thing is over-done. You must bear some of the burden of the introduc- tion yourself. A capitalist may be willing to bet his hard dollars that your idea will work, if you have 56 TIPS TO INVENTORS. secured a patent; or he may be induced to bet that it is patentable, if you show him that it will work; but moneyed men who will bet that your invention is both patentable and practicable, are few and far between. If they make such a bet it will be with very heavy odds against the inventor. Don’t be unduly suspicious. Don’t fear that every man who takes more than a passing interest is going to steal it. All business is based more or less on trust. You trust some one every day. So does everyone else. There is no use in your showing every Tom, Dick and Harry what you have or expect to have; but if you show a man anything at all, do it with trust. If he is not trustworthy, do not show him or tell him anything. Don't take out a caveat. To do that simply offers a premium on some one letting you have the luxury of an interference suit. You pay ten dollars Government fee for a caveat, and your paper is filed. If some one else puts in an application for a patent, which inter- feres with your caveat, and the clerk who filed the caveat happens to remember your idea, you are then notified that it is your special privilege to defend your property. Fight shy of patent-selling bureaus, the proprietors PERFECTING AND DEVELOPING.. 57 of which profess to be “very near” this, that and the other great head of a corporation or of a Government department. Any man who has a good thing to sell. and is of business habits and good address, could get. near enough to anyone who wants to know of new and good things, to be able to show what you have, and for the person addressed to be able to reject it if it is not good. Men with a “pull” are as a general thing to be avoided, particularly if they brag of that pull. There are of course men who havea pull; they have it be-. cause they deserve it. But all the pulls in the world would not pull invention from the slough of worth- lessness to the high ground of merit; and men who - have a really good pull with really great men, are not going to risk spoiling their pull by showing them poor things, and as a general thing the men witha pull are harder to get at than the people with whom they have the pull. In most cases the best way for the inventor is to license others to use his patent, paying either so much per thousand articles made, or so much for the right to make in a certain State, or so much for the right to apply the invention to certain things. Thus, if it is an invention in the line of machine made shoes, so much per thousand pairs; if a driving 58 ; TIPS TV LNVENTORS. — wheel or something that once applied cannot be moved, so much per State or per county (based on the popula- tion); if it isa compound like celluloid, so much for the right to make combs, so much for the right to make collars and cuffs, etc. What patents are worth is a question often asked. There is no answering it. The inventor very seldom places his estimate too low. Some men have made millions out of a single patent; others have lost all that they could make and borrow. There has been about as much made in some lines, on royalties paid by infringers, as by the inventor himself—sometimes more. An invention in the hands of some men might realize a hundred thousand dollars profit; worked by others, one thousand. No one can look upon a block of land and say how much could be made out of it by a skillful real estate boomer, The range in values of patents is even greater than in the case of land. An invention which is based upon a patent and owned by some one else, might not be worth the match that it would take to set it on fire. While, of course, those who have inventions of their own are glad to have them made as valuable as possible, there are cases where a thing already patented is so good and has cost so much to get it on the market that the maker doesn’t PERFECTING AND DEVELOPING. 59 want to bother with any improvements. If a thing is twice as good as its rivals, and has the field to itself to the extent of the maker’s ability to manufacture it, there is very little inducement for him to get up new designs, patterns and plans for the sake of making it a little better. The only time for him to do that is ‘when his rivals have got somewhere near him. _ There may be those who think that in these pages I discourage invention. I don’t. But I think that it is criminal to encourage people who have poor things or good things that would not be practicable to work up, in spending their time and money in inventing and patenting. There are very few inventions which can be well worked up and worked out without the aid of drawings; and too few inventors can make mechanical drawings, no matter how crude, which will show their ideas so well that they can be worked from by pattern-maker or other mechanic. Another thing which is very important in this connec- tion: it is very much easier to alter a thing on paper than in wood or metal. Proper mechanical drawings of most inventions can be made, and will reveal weak- nesses or excellences which would not at first strike the mind. If you do make a drawing be sure that it is a sensible and practical one; that is, that it truly—even 60 LLP Sil OLIN LAV 2 Oa if crudely—represents the object. A drawing which shows the front and two sides and part of the back of a machine or article is apt to be misleading—to be worse than no drawing at all. If you find that you cannot work out the details of what you want, call in outside help. There are plenty of wise heads engaged in just that business—criticising and developing crude ideas. Where an inventor may not be exactly able to draw or even to suggest just what he wants, the professional adviser or any other good sound practical man who Is posted, may fill in the blank at once, or what is of equal importance prevent the adoption of something which would not work well Ordtrai: SELLING PATENTS. 61 CHAPTER XIII. SELLING PATENTS. PAPER READ BEFORE THE POLYTECHNIC SECTION OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE, MAY 24TH, 1888. BY ROBERT GRIMSHAW, PRESIDENT. In undertaking to sell a patent for an inventor, the “ promoter” or whatever other name may be given to the person who undertakes the task of turning the in- ventor’s brains into money, often (and it may be said generally) encounters several obstacles which are in fact of such frequent occurrence as to be considered almost inseparable from such transactions. It might be interesting to recall some of the difficulties which are met, with a view perhaps to aiding some who have in- ventions of which they wish to dispose, to place their invention upon the market. In the first place the most difficult thing to persuade an inventor is that an invention has little value of itself; that its value is what it may be made to produce by intelligent work at the right time, in the right place, by the right people, and among the right class of pur- chasers and users. There are few if any inventions which anybody is lying awake at night in the expec- 62 LIP ST OCIN VENDORS, tation of getting. People of the present day are very comfortable, very well satisfied with most things that they have. So with their fathers, so with their grand- fathers before them. Nobody really needs anything. Nearly all of our actual wants and necessities are grati- fied. Our present wants are largely artificial; and while they are increasing, and while we are willing to pay for the gratification, we are not uncomfortable on account of the lack of any single invention as yet unproduced. Now if this be true of an invention, that it has little value of itself, it is still more so of a patent, which is simply the title deed to an idea, and which title deed may or may not be valid or valuable. I hope that it will be pardoned me if I make the re- mark that the average inventor is so ingrained in con- ceit as to stand very much in his own light. He is bright and has individuality, although he may not pos- sess originality; but that fact has no bearing whatever upon the value of his patent. The brilliancy, or popu- larity, or wealth of a man owning a house of which he wishes to dispose has no bearing whatever upon the selling value of that property. All that the purchaser wishes to know is whether the property has any value, whether that value is at least equal to the selling price, and whether the title is clear and can be properly trans- SLLLING AEA TENT S. 63 ferred in payment of the purchase money. But the in- ventor’s conceit very often steps in between him and the buyer; and at times with such offensiveness as to render the completion or negotiation absolutely im- possible, if the purchaser has any self-respect, which is generally the case. Another thing which very often comes up when an inventor is fixing a value upon his invention or upon his patent is that he generally claims to have spent years of labor in the development and accomplishment of the idea. Now the purchaser does not care a sow marqué for that, any more than the purchaser of a house cares to know how many years it took the builder to save up money to erect it. It might have taken that inventor ten years to accomplish a certain result at which another would have arrived in ten months or ten weeks. It may be the inventor's fault or it may not that the attainment of a result consumed a large amount of time or extended through a long period. But whether it is his fault or his misfortune has no bearing upon the market value of the inven- tion; in fact, the statement that an invention has taken years of labor to accomplish might more truly be taken as an indication of the inventor’s incapacity and of the probability that if any improvement is de- 64 LIPS TOVINVENT ORS sired it will take several years more to effect it, instead of its being producible upon short notice. There is another thing which very often interferes with the sale of patents, and perhaps more so with realizing on those which come more nearly to being demanded by the public than with any others. Those people who have the power to treat for the purchase of inventions in such lines have such frequent applica- tions made to them by inventors more or less com- petent, having inventions more or less practicable, and secured by patents more or less valuable, that they are tired of being bored with offers of any kind of patent; and an invention has to be not only unusually good, but backed by considerable personal influence in order to secure even the most hasty consideration. One of the first questions which is asked when the negotiation of a patent iscommenced is generally—* Is the invention practical? Willit work? Will it keep on working? Will it save time? Or money? Or trouble? Or risk?’”? One more important query in this connection is as to practicability. “Has it been tried? If so, when? Where? By whom? And under what practical working conditions?” If the inventor only has the idea, or a little five-cent model, or perhaps only the ghost of the idea that he is going SELLING PATENTS. 65 to have an invention, it is rather hard to induce any one to advance money upon this immaterial article of property. I think it was Oscar Wilde who referred ’ most esthetically to “unkissed kisses.’’ One would imagine that they would have very little value; but they are just as valuable and just as tangible as the unthought thought; the thought that the inventor thinks that he is going to think, and thinks that no one else has thought before him. Some of these ideas or ghosts of ideas against which the inventor wishes the capitalist to plank down his hard dollars, have about as much substance as a piece of wind tied up with a string: and the title deed to such aérial property will probably be difficult to record, establish, or sell. Apropos of title deeds, it must be remembered that a patent paper is simply a record descriptive of the property, and certifying that the landmarks and boundary lines were established and laid down, and handed in to the Office of Record onacertain date, by acertain person who made the statement (based either on imagination or on strong presumption), that he was the discoverer or originator of the property to which the description and boundary lines refer. The mere possession of a piece of paper issued by the U.S. Patent Office and having a handsome title page with a 66 TIPS TO INVENTORS. - ————s blue ribbon and a red seal, dues not mean anything in particular. The Patent Office officials and employees are fallible, like other men. Pieces of property worth millions of dollars have been taken away from those who have been in actual possession, by some one who has proved that the title deeds were imperfect. If this is the case with realty which has always existed, and of which the certainty of title increases with age, how much more is it likely to be so with the title to an idea! But asa general thing the inventor considers his possession of a little piece of paper with a red seal to be beyond the possibility of any doubt; and objects to paying the expenses of having this title searched. Another question which is most natural is, “ Has the invention been perfected? Or is still crude, and will it demand the delays and expenses of frequent and radi- cal changes, and the issue of more patents upon these improvements?” The evolution of an idea is as in- teresting as that of man from the monkey. It often undergoes more changes. It very seldom emerges full blown from the inventor's brain, and often the third or the fourth stage of evolution bears very much less resemblance to the original than man does to the pri- meval monkey from which he is said to have descended (although perhaps ascended may be the better word). SELLING PATENTS. 67 Another question which is a proper one for the intend- ing investor to ask is this:—‘‘ Is the man who offers to sell the invention the owner of it? Is his title clear? Or has he mortgaged a quarter interest to one person and one-eighth to another, and so on for the purpose of raising money to develop it, so that there are either recorded or unrecorded claims against it which might make it difficult for the purchaser to do anything with it?’’ Still another question :—“ Does the value of the invention covered by or referred to in the patent depend: upon some other patent to which it is attached in per- fection?” If this is the case, it can readily be imag- ined that such a patent could have a value very much. like that of a plot of ground which is entirely sur-. rounded by other pieces of property through which the owner of the central plot has no right of way. One of the very hardest things of which to persuade an inventor is that no one can afford to invest money in a patent which is not yet allowed. There are a great many reasons why (although the inventor may act in good faith)the issue might be absolutely im- possible. There are very many cases where the application after having laid in the Patent Office for two or three years, has been thrown out; and out of the whole number of Hee gi, 68 LIPS TO INVENTORS. applications made, not one-third is covered by papers issued. The mere fact that there may be nothing in the patent records which in the judgment of the inventor or of a competent title searcher may conflict with his idea, is no proof that there may not be something in everyday use that is not patented, and which is in fact so old as to be absolutely unpatentable. Or there may ‘be something now in process of examination in the Patent Office which may be identical with the idea, to- wards the patenting of which the inventor wishes money to be advanced. Again, as regards the issue of patents. The Patent Office may be “cranky.” It may take a notion not to patent a certain idea; and whether that idea is reason- able or unreasonable, has very little bearing on the subject; but the only way to compel the issue of such case is a most tedious and expensive one. One thing which tends to lessen the value of a patent in its very earliest stages is that there may be very few customers for the idea, sometimes only one, as in the case of ordnance; and naturally the value of an idea which is only saleable to two or three people is very much less than that of one which will suit millions direct. SHLLIVG PATENTS: 69 Then again, there may be inthe market some other thing, patented or unpatented, which is just as good as. the invention offered, if not better; or which may be just as good and very much cheaper, or which may be controlled by the only person to whom the patent which is offered for sale may be saleable. A patent may be most excellent in itself, but the country may be already supplied with some other invention and it may be impossible to make a change. For instance: In the matter of continuous air brakes for railway trains—if you were to have a patent fora very much better invention than the existing one which is used on all the great trunk lines, you would find it perhaps difficult or perhaps impossible to intro- duce it on any one line, because the present continuous lines are already equipped with a particularly satisfac- tory system, and all roads wishing to do business with connecting lines, must be equipped similarly with those other lines, and it will be found impossible to change on any one line without making the same change on all the others, which would involve throwing away the present appliances and replacing them with the new. It is of the utmost importance for a patent to be properly taken out. The old saying that he who con- 10 TIPS TO INVENTORS, = = — _ ——__—_—_—_—_—— — as — ducts his own case in court has a fool for a client, applies with even greater force to the amateur patent solicitor. The chances are that such patent will have no value asa title deed. It is curious enough that the man who would not prepare the title deeds to a piece of property worth $2,000 or $3,000, will attend to his own patent soliciting in taking out the papers for an invention which he himself deems worth $40,000 or $50,000. | The inventor must bear in mind that no one is going to be so interested in any patent as to go to more trouble and expense than the inventor himself is will- ing to undergo, to look into the matter under negotia- tion. The inventor must present the case fully and freely ; supply all necessary documents, models, draw- ings, specifications, testimonials and statements, and he must not expect an intending purchaser to put him- self out even to the expense of a postage stamp in order to find out anything about the invention offered for sale. The suspicion which so often characterizes the in- ventor isa great bar to his progress. He too often considers that the whole world is leagued against him in order to prevent the introduction of his patent, or that whoever looks into it for the purpose of buying, is SELLING PATENTS. 71 merely endeavoring to get points from it so as to enable him to steal the idea. Asa matter of fact the world out- side cares very little one way or another about the inventor; he is to the world at large either a nonentity oracrank. The world at large cares neither for him nor for his idea, nor for the patent onit. It simply regards him as some one who intends to exploit the community for as large a sum as possible; and expects to be bored concerning the invention, and in some few cases individuals hope to receive profit in return for this boring and for the money which they advance. There is another thing which the inventor should write in capital letters in his mind—that apologies are no good. The invention must be ready to work. It must work when shown. There is no use in trying to make the purchaser believe that the industrial world will have to be reorganized in order to suit the imper- fect work of a new invention. It must do work that people call for. The purchaser of an invention has enough to do to perfect and embody the thing mechan- ically and introduce it commercially, without under- taking a missionary enterprise, converting people in general to the inventor’s theory as to what should be produced or how it should be used. A word of caution may be given even to the most ~J to LIPS TOINVEN TORS, suspicious inventor; transact no business in refer- ence to either taking out or selling patents except with persons whose integrity is unquestionable. Having found such persons, do not be suspicious of them. It is a bad plan to ask capitalists to advance money upon an invention for the purpose of patenting it, for two reasons. First, there is considerable risk in the matter—much more than the inventor thinks; and sec- ond, such a course shows either poverty or lack of faith upon the part of the inventor in his own invention. In either case he will get less for his patent than if he raises the money to perfect his title deeds in another quarter than the one where he expects to sell the invention. A word as to caveats. The U.S. Patent Office is in most respects very liberal to inventors, and extends a helping hand to them in every way, particularly in the matter of giving them six months between the allowing of a patent and its final formal issue; but in the caveat the office lays a trap into which many an inventor stumbles. A caveat is simply a piece of paper for which the Government fee is ten dollars, certifying that on a particular day the inventor lodged in the Patent Office a paper descriptive of his invention. If at some time after the issuing of the caveat and during the one SELLING PATENTS. 73 year’s period of so-called protection, some one else lodges in the Patent Office an application which con- flicts with the one which is the subject of the caveat, and if the clerk who filed away the application fur- nished by the caveat happens to be still in the service of the said office, and happens to remember that he filed away such an application, then the inventor is. notified by the Government that he has the right to commence an interference suit—one of the most ex- pensive things in which an inventor or his backers can indulge. The first government fee upon the application for a patent is but five dollars more than that for the caveat, and gives the inventor a status and arecord. There are very few caveats which have been issued that are worth the paper upon which they are printed. So Blow 76 TIPS TO INVENTORS. STATISTICS OF THE PRINCIPAL —_— mere CounTRIES. Population. | Square Miles. Capitals. Dritish “Win pire 2-000: gave one z | 827,645,000 9,043,577 | London. BING ics one area Ae ee 803,241,969 4,468,750 | Peking. Russian Boamplreico 27 age ese 108,787,244 8,457,289 § St. Petersburg. France.and Colonies ....2- 2. ...-. | 65,894,242 1,167,239 | Paris. MIANOC ea ctesecce cs oe eee 38,218,903 204107), See Colonies Ga ibute tea oe cannes 27,675,339 963,062\.|. 2 ee ae inited Stateg sir. s. 6 i, ore eames 62,622,250 3,602,990 | Washington, German Minpites: #.-sa.0 te aoel oe 46,855,704 211,168 | Berlin. Prissiate 2 on eee eens 28,313,833 134,467 Berlin. Wavatia 22 t. 2 cee edne Pa ae ee 5,416,180 29,291 | Munich. WMO cae oreo oanien st ae eee 3,129,168 5,789 | Dresden. Wiuxrtemb erp seer sso rere sate 1,994,849 7,531 | Stuttgart. Badensast oe ac cone Sees oes 1,600,839 5,803 Karlsruhe. Alsace. Lorraine: seas. se eree 1,563,145 5,602 |- 22S Hesse tes on te a eee renene 956,170 2,965 | Darmstadt. \ Mecklenburg-Schwerin --_.-.- 575,140 | 5,137 | Schwerin, Hamburg bee wsace 12tece Saree 518,712 | 158' | (soos Brunswick ‘ex cco. wes esaeeenene 372,580 1,425 | Brunswick. Oldenburg =. 20.03". c sarees ee 341,250 2,479 | Oldenburg. Saxe: Weimar snp cnsacha eae 313,668 1,387 | Weimar. Anhaltt.s 23h: wap tee aoerenoe 247,603 | 906 Dessau. Saxe-Meini gen_......-.-..-- 214,697 953 | Meiningen. Saxe-Coburg Gotha. _--..._._- 198,717 760 | Gotha, Bremény-= cease ease eee 166,392 99. |) 2 SaseAltenbure <222 <6 ca. ccne 161,129 511 | Altenburg. LipP¢ 2 Jane eee eer 123,250 472 | Detmold. Reuss (younger line)----..... 112,118 319 | Gera. Mecklenburg-Strelitz --.--.--- 98,371 1,181 | Neu Strelitz. Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt--..-- 83,939 363 | Rudolstadt. Schwarzburg-Sondershausen -- 73,623 333 | Sondershausen. Gaubeck Sosa peo aae anaes 67,658 115 |) 2 2 ee Waldeck 2055 iA. Becta cee oes 56,565 453 | Arolsen. Reuss (elder line) .....-.----- 53,787 122 | Greiz. Schaumburg Lippe ...-------- 7 204 131 | Buckeburg. Austro-Hungarian Empire-.-.-.---- 41,827,700 201,591 | Vieuna. Napant =o ooo nee on eae ee oe 39,607 234 147,669 | Tokio. Netherlands and Colonies ..---.-- 33,042,238 778,187 | The Hague. arkishEapiress.. - eee ee eee 32,000,000 1,731.280 | Constantinople. Italy, 28 See eee 29,699,785 110,665 | Rome. Spain and Colonies 3.--2- 2-22 =. - 24,873,621 361,953 | Madrid. Brazilyaes ae eee eee ee 14,000,000 3,219,000 | Rio ce Janeiro. Mexico? 22-2 oper eek ae 11,520,041 751,700 | Mexico. Corea G2 ia esa ee ae eee 10,519,000 85,000 | Seul. * Also enumerated with the Turkish Empires wt ASL OLIC OS. COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD. CouNTRIES. | Population. | Square Miles. - | we nt tS. Bonee OS | 8,000,000 | 802,000 1 he 2S SSeS ee anaes | 7,653,600 636,000 Donicel Audi Colonies .5..25-% 2.5. 7,249,050 240. 691 ORAM "ot i Se eee | 6,806,381 | 494.000 Sweden and Norway ----...------ | 6,774,409 298,974 URS Locate. a rr 6,500,000 314,000 elstnmeeseses.-- 6 2... = 3. 6,030,043 11,373 SOY O00) oe 6,000,000 106,300 “SU en nO ee ah a en ee 5,700,000 280,550 LE Kev ub a2 ais] Sa 5 ple I op ae 5,376,000 46,314 Argentine Republic --......-...-.- 4,200,000 1,095,013 OG TEM OV Git v3 5 a en Sa a ae 4,000,000 331,420 mtrhamstamoees.cs 6.25. -th525 55... 4,000,000 279,000 OS eS ee ee 3,500,000 280,000 PUDVASIIA Motes ance use m e gan Sete ce 3,000,000 129,000 ID S3U Ae 2,970,000 405,040 ie galsegcrd era) el ee ne 2,933,334 15,981 “ONIN 3380 =a 2,665,926 256,860 Shiv odes a 2,300,000 472,000 Eqasge <2... er ee 2,187,208 24.977 Den rei g ie Bs Si ae ee a ea eee 2,172,205 14,789 Mente mileliete se. as ee oe 2,121,988 566,159 S)niph! (aS Ssc. tk TS ee ae oe 2,096,043 | 18,757 LAVOE NS DRG yee SA ae oer | 2,007,919 24,700 INKS E SS ee 2,000,000 56,800 Cochin nina fess. Stee cece oe 1,642,182 22,958 (UNDE SSe Ra BO oe 1,600,000 81,000 “CrUM TET ty SS Oo Se ae 1,427,116 46,774 Mintive ar memes wks ot) Des 1,146,000 144,000 j Ls WOPSYIS Yes gee 1,050,000 14,000 (ep oll a ae rr ee 800,000 110; 193 UG EN 335 700,000 72,112 [Nae oe a er re 700,000 | 22,320 Sauber | ss Soa eee a 651,130 7,228 [RICK tis 5 a 550,000 | 29,830 Peat Ao Atee sen fee = aa ae os 476 000 145,000 TU a6 beste Soh 2 ea A I a ee 431,917 42,658 Mearariadis 225.) 2sce S22 400,000 51,660 Dpminican Republic --. 2.2.2.2. 350,000 20,596 MinreneerO. on. cess (522.22. 2- 245,380 3,486 CEQERES JIT) SS ei ee an a, ee 213,785 19,985 Orauce Pree State. ....2.- <2 22225] 133,518 41 484 TRL ERICA 55) lel eh Sa a il | 86,647 6,587 Capitals. Cairo. Stockholm. Fez. Brussels. Hue, Bangkok. Bucharest. Buenos Ayres, Bogota. Cabul. Anton'narivo. Santiago, La Paz. Athens. Copenhagen. Caracas. Belgrade. Sofia. Khatmandu., Saigon. Muscat. N. Guatemala, Quito. Monrovia. Pretoria. Montevideo. Khiva. San Salvador. Port au Prince. Asuncion. Tegucigalpa. Managua. San Domingo. Cetigno. San Jose. Bloemfontein. Honolulu. + Also enumerated with the Colonies of France. TIP SOTO IN VENT Of: sez" (PT 869" got 608°99T 91Z'OLT OFS: OLT £945 OLE OIF Tat £68°E2T ZEC'G2T QES‘9LT 8LG'TST @E0'EST L8G" 98T Lg" 98T GLB. 88T 269° 08T COL 261 193'861 002661 000°002 “U0T]R] -ndog ween nee aeee stpodesuul yy SEE‘OFS ee ee awe a “-"-- uswiai1g | Z09‘°6FZ ers (000° SLI *4S59) eee .L 000‘0SZ Soo SSasrise eissny ‘Hoary | Lor PSs oan eee eeeee----- BizdiaT | OFS‘ 19% Pave ehanscenseee eIoUsTeA | 186196 o------- vissny ‘yoxreyy 6g¢' £96 Sp eNa es mene mmr ee TYP | SF9'0L2 pci hg pe eissny ‘esry | [SP Zle £77 Ceto' goa. 389) PsOHTES | 89 62 we mwes meee =“). ‘yIeMoN 809 18 “ (gaotgea “is9) puosperdy | BL2'T8E -- Coo0'egs ‘389) Teanuoy | 006‘98z (BIB'Zes *3S9) weysUTVION | S7G'e6s wens SS wee --- +--+ STILT | 608°966 Gotta aeeee ae Sueusg | 066'26% saenen ennnenee Wep19}}0Y €68" 866 Pg ae ee AS Soe * eUvARTT 000° FE Soea tees Geaccr ee soleuag 069° SOE orceseneoos-sosngseumec, | BT L'6OR "SALLI ae ween ween en nnne “>> UOgsT'y wenn onehae SS spas eTTGN CT weer cree e-ee e210¢d *[No0sS we een eee eee --- yorun jy Sane tan eee oWIOY “77 (266268182) PIPWEYyS eee tease ---- MOUXYON'T weer en cern eenn---- UeIIW ween - ne ----- TyeuUuToUrZ errr re csere ooslouel yy ues aa ence reer ene --- nejsag ween en nner ne nee anseig 2-------------- sinq ue Fy *SHILID BOS'OLF | L88T 000°009 | “389 C8t'8ES | 688T 80S'ees | T88T 60'FL9 | I88T 69F'ESL | F88T 96T'SLL | ISBT | F6'ES8 | OBST | FONTS | ISBT G9S'828 | S88T 608,816. | 888T 468° FF0'T | 06ST 919°860'T | 0681 8FO'SOL'T | L881 {82°GT8'T | S88T 000°0S8'T | 688T 000'009'T | “38° STLOTL'T | 0681 OLS'FFE'S | 988T EgP'918's | T88T : “IEDR uot} -endog | S"S wreeen cess soe-="-> prpey “ttenenesea-emny “Sunpeg Gas iiss soisy soueng --7(g9q't09 382) Toods9ary wren teen eee ---- eynoled aoe-------- a[dourjuejsu0; eoee-------- B1Nnqgsis33ag “3S ie eT erydyaperiyd anne nn -2----2----- oseory) se -e-- (Tos‘6ee ‘389) jorstag IS8L Tah ica? & es A ek ee yWeTIIG S881 ot eet eS ee eLIPUuUeXx OV *"ySsa |---- crore visiog ‘ueiayay, era gl Mant atop obec Take diamjuy TSB |"~~ Cogg' ge “"389) AoupAg Oiep (sts Jsoreyong ot pone uoJSuLYysE A ISSr ales ae [nent eeesceee ULIn Ty, BOST. [azehce tase or WITSqOHS TSS SONS ot ne mig oa ysinquipy CEU N es oe Hid). .s2enues O68T -- —=-= eee 1,767,518 Alabama _222:. . <.- Seem 1,513,017 Mississippi2.._2-- 22 1,289,600 Louisiana 2222. s- 2 -eaee 4, 118, 087 Texas... 2 "235, "523 Indian Territory @ 22222235)) ee Oklahomasi0..4= ee 6 61,834 Arkansas 225... 2-6. eee 1,128,179 Western Division.-..--..-- 3,027,613 Montana.2.45.. 452: anee eee 182,159 Wyoming 2" =. eee 60,705 Colorad0 222k 2se ee 412,198 New: Mexico: 2222-2 eee “153,593 Arizona ~22) 233 eee 59,620 tah-i..-) ek acon 207,905 Nevada ic. ceeeeee eee 45,761 Idaho: .2 3) 84,385 Alaska ¢..00 Sl sencues eet Washington 222225. =. see 349,390 Orevon . J.-..5.2 eee 313,767 California: 2.252. 52 s2esee 208,130 a The number of white persons in the Indian Territory is not included in this table, as the census of Indians and other persons on Indian reservations, which was made a subject of special investigation by law, has not yet been completed. & In- . cluding 5338 persons in Greer County (in Indian Territory), claimed by Texas. c The number of white persons in Alaska is not included in this table, as the census of Alaska, which was made a subject of special investigation by law, has not yet been . completed, SLA LIST IGS. POPULATION OF CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES. Census of 1890.* 81 rew vork City -._-..--.-- “TSifer S200 Ne a oe Pemadeiphia, Pa ...._.....-.. oO) 1 Sr pwis VO)... 2s5-.-<---.- BOSED UMASS. ooo s2-5n5-5-55- Jeeta ltey NY Ke man rancisco, Cal:.._....._.. ieiciniiatt, © 02 ...c-=-----u-- “epyelleiets fel Sa ae Ok TEES 6 ie Wew, Orleatis,) Las is.--.~--.-- [ETE ie cded ob) 2 ee ae rr Washineton, DiC... 2... MBSINGIC NICD eee oi as e5 ce Bisiwaukee, Wis_.--..:---..-- Rewatks Nl. J0so.-------5s-s-> Minneapolis, Minn ~--.------- ema City, NoW)a-2-2-5------ ieaursville, Koy 2°.2.-.----.... BiaatiaweN Gs 22 ~....-~22--- Pere ber NV ew -- =< 5-5. Steere Ninn -..-...----..- ianeeseaty, MO. ....-.<.-..- Prowidences i.) ~--..-.-.-_.. indianapolis ind... 222-222... falembeny bass... ouc2-- 45-5. Wenger Coleeseres 62 52555 PDA Nag e Sees Se es ASoluaninids, 6) sestee eos. EIEAGHSe IN. Vecece-..c2-5~-.. WYiorcester.|IMasso-._-.......<.. RICEANLON tthe yates ~. == Newytaven, Conn... s.-2---.< MAGCHIMN OMG. Viac =~ 25a os ens PPALOESOUS ING Jisca.s2oo2-cscn<= Piece) <8 oo See ne few Vass... ...-..--.-- Nashville. Lenn -..2.—--..2s> albever, Nass). ------.----- Cambridee: Masso 27... 2.---2 INERT (CE a a ee Memphis, Penn -....---.---+- Motand inapids, Mich--2...-22: Warmnimetony Wel. _ 2220/52. Troy, ReAdING beset: eee aan ee Wary Cone) on et eee Seer pe ERREINCOD A ENioy ester na meee Camden Neg yen ctv ep. fe LGV Iie NUASS soe ae oe ote LancolnseNiGp aes. sese Gharlestomsiss |G. ose sete nee tlarttonra, Connie sso. eer pb ORT EOE tows ayes weee Pvansvilley/Ind2os2-- e223. LospAnveless Cale 2s 222 25. 5: Des Momese la seocee eee Bridgeport, Conn. -- 222. 5222. Gakiand Galt ce ta aes ae Ae Portliande.Ore.= ees 2 es SacIUAWs VLC ee eae Maltelbakes Witaiesee ences awrence: WMass® sues e ase. Spline neld iviasss.e es eo Utica, N. Y Manchester, Nc Hie: See Seattle. wwWastte os -- ee a eer PAGUORED "ING. Jue elton PavanMal, Usae - esses ye eOris | Ml ve ante hele ss oe { New bedford, Mass 2-22-2222 Manisburo wba ease ae we. Somerville, Massa.-2 2. 85254 ire, ae ere set eae Bees aye SameAntonio, Lex...) Kansas ity Kane. cece see ALAS Te Cx Ree vee. ae =o ae en PIOUMAUIL Vw Laces sede See Elizabeth, N. J Wakes bane: sbamer oo-ohee oe i Cranalineg Soya lll Spi: a eee es 4 eo SG Mortland.s Wes ss. ees coos pbacomas Washi .o ce 2a. eee Holy okess Masses. eseete Orta Wave: lnGapes nee INGriOlkma Vidoes sere seas cee Binehanitony Ny You-.-....... 14,919 Brookhaven, Miss ..-....---..| 12,572 Rome, New York.......-..-.-- 14,980 Portsinauth. Ola" oes ees ee 12,387 Northampton, Mass..--.-.---- 14,961 PRC SOMA, calles 53g acl 2 12,357 Lc itt Ee ies 14,734 Portsmouth, Vawl-2-25252-55 12,345 Watertown, N. Y2S....--=-2:- 14,733 Breoline, 1 vlassse soe: see 12,076 LATTA ee 14,566 Molines Dla oe tee ss 11,995 Mest Diaes, Golson oo Se 14,508 Superior: Wiss: .2 24 ee ee oe 11,959 MWiiCHEEbex! 2, wcnoooSe0 se 14,425 Pond di Lae. Wisi ees. 8 ou 11,942 bid@geram. Welt... 2... =... -.- 14,418 Middletown, N. Yi los. --.2-- 11,918 EOE Rta seal toe ooo hoses 14,376 More Ocott.) Mathes S02 soee | 11 837 i let ee ir ae 14,369 Appleton, Wisis22. 7362. .1s8~ | 11,825 Sev itee 4) Sa es 14,339 avletonwPaect-soe 2 eee: 11,818 Puleeancriay Vader oon s+. 5s 14,318 Ristland. Vieesuee ese seat ee 11,757 PAPGIESGINNKCAN oR vo oo neon ss 14,222 Pensacola wi lak pees ete tere 11,751 TE eco? Ves dw 2 eae a 14,194 Hagerstown, Md. 32-22... =. 11,698 LSS cil, (Ese a eae 14,185 Gheyenne, Wyo. sso-2 ete se. 11,693 eco sale aes. 25 oz es se 14,075 Ogdensbure IN. eVoose ses .ase ee 11,667 incopee, Mass .-...:.-:----- 14,007 New- Castle bates es 6 eee 11,581 Poeansport, sind... .. 22-3225: 13,998 Leh acd ON; eVees tones oe 11,557 Pe ee. 2s ---'-- 5 13,994 Danville, iil, oo essa. tu 11,557 CO OS S 13,921 Rchiaricite, Nes ee 11,555 Newburyport, Mass....-...-.- 13,914 Datrmetle pWiS? 5005 eis 11,513. elena ilontes .-2.---55. 525 13,834 Bhreveporte: Wace aooeess a eee 11,482 Gloversville, N.Y 2-2-2-..<<-5: 13,796 Nebraska City? Nebs.=.-22- 11,472 Ln 13,793 pridagetan, No ipo. 5.5 5n522.~< 11,471 Marlborough, Mass..-......-.- 13,788 Muscatine, Ja. 22) 2..-.2 Seo 11,432 livstermay: Nw. a <2----525- 13,7¢8 Hilkbart elnd sss ese n eo 11,370 New London, Conn.-..-.....- 13,759 Miureres Ind ess eee soo ee 11,339 Pamala een 2b lc ls. lsc. 13,646 itatedo lex sessed ae 11,313 EOS 22 13,629 BOE SEE PAT ee, So es 11,291 Rocke Istand, Tllo.2-.---< Taste 13,596 NMabaAnOY beeen ast eae A 11.291 US PRS 6 eS 13,542 Jefersonville, Ind. . Surmos Ay neg “3S 008 06% | OF0‘9S “777 >>“ UTSUODST A Sulsue’y] GZS 00% 082° FZ “""BIULSITA 3S9 u0jsog 0&3 OFS Le WOJSUTYSE AM stodeuuy G0G Cor OUP cid Sa BLUISITA eyisnsny CCT 06 c9c'6 ~F2Senns JUOULIO A. asnoy uojeg GFE CLS OL0°FS8 ~-AroysIaT, ye Woyyuesy 0%9 09d CBOs cit ae Sexo], eyadoy, Ost O&F OOO Sk Pai OR sassouus J, Sauloyy sod. ae. - 4. umn 2 o> 1-7 @ | yqnos Se a ol a ee a GIz CES OLS'0E “-eurjored) yNoG stjodeuvipuy 0¢ cg 0Se'T “""" pues] spoyy preysuids OST 008 GIS‘ GF ~~" eruvayAsuuag AWD estog 062 GLE 06006 == ees u0sI10 eqULpy wags ao Be Pe “A139 TL eWOYeLAO VISseyeT[e TL, C0 08% O00: Tht ete glen ake oryQ uoySULYysE MA ame a 4. een 2 (o> 0-7 G | YAO N ADAOC 002 0&¢ Ose‘ ~-eurpored YON piojqieyy arte Oe OL Ghote 410K MON Joauad 06% ocs O89 Zat “"L Orxa yy] MON OJUDUIVAIEG O9T y RIG hk aerate Aasia{ MON YoY 9]930'T CST 06 cog'6 ~ortysdurep] MON x1uay q CSP cI¢ OOS OTL atti uae epeaon exNS G0 CIP ea ae ae VySeIGON ArawI0SyUO IW “SOTTN | “SPT, | ego ar hoes THIN Some yas 7 | wpa tA SHIAOLINUG, de dUIdI} es Sohal anv eee! ersiideD ul BV “xT “XV . “SoTTIN y33 'T owod} “XOT “SOTTIN WP ad aulot} Xo 080°9RT [~~ "77777 BuRjUO;T OTP'60) 1 Sareuers LINOSSTJA[ OIS Op. peat ~ rddtsstsst yy 906° SR. er en - vjosouUlyy S16'S0, 0] tae ee ueSryor, cTS'8 ----syjasnyousse py OLE SUa s hcas pueAreyy OF0 Se Ta ee oureyl OG SP Sas re vuvIsSINnO'T OOF OP ite Se Ayonjusay 080°28 ie a dee CS sesuey 0) 09,4 ee eee eMO]T 069°F9 ~ AIOVLWID T, UEIpuy ORS UG Ao a Ae oe euelpuy OOD OS edi ee oon a sIoul]]] COR FS A Wie aT, ae oyuept TA gS earl aig ate vIs10a4) ORONGs | aa epuoly OL * ~erquinyor) JO “3stq O90 Gee Paes oIeMETICG O68 Fa ere ynonoauu0-y Ge6'80L [77 ope10fo) OOS SEL a "cies erlusojITED O58 GQ.8 {7 ee sae sesueyIy 0Z0°EIT |*At07II9,T, euoZTIy 06E' LLG |° At0VIIO TL, Vysely oce’eg |= [7 > BUeqeTy SOT. *‘SHINOLINAT T, ee CNV SHLVLS “SOILSILVLG TYIOLINYAT, UNV BZLYLS +7) t PracticAL Works FOR PracticAL MEN By ROBERT GRIMSHAW, M. E., Etc. ENGINE RUNNERS’ CATECHISM (1891), How to Set Up, Adjustand Run any Engine, - - . $2.00 HINTS TO POWER USERS ( 891). Practical Suggestions to those who Pay the Bills, - - - $1.00 TIPS TO INVENTORS - . : - - — $1.co0 Telling what Inventions are Needed, and how to Perfect and Develop New Ideas in any Lines, PLUMBING CATECHISM A Complete Course in Modern Plumbing, - - - - $1.00 STEAM ENCINE CATECHISM. : A Practical Book for Engineers (two volumes in one), | - - $2.00 STEAM BOILER CATECHISM. About S00 Answers to about S00 Questions on the Steam Boiler, - $2.00 It is practical, complete and up to date and is undoubtedly the best. “Milling World.’ Should be an enforced study on every boiler keeper. ‘“ 7he Miller.’’ It is the cheapest technical work we have ever seen. ‘U.S. Miller.”’ PUMP CATECHISM. A practical Help to all interested in Pumps of any kind (two volumes in one), - - - - $2.00 PREPARING FOR INDICATION. Practical Hints on the Steam Engine Indicator, - - - $1.00 It gives complete instruction how to get everything in readiness for indicating an Engine. ‘ Electrical Review.”’ Should bein the hands of every engineer in the country. “Fiéreand Fabric.” ENGINEERS’ HOURLY LOG BOOK. Detailed Record of Engine and Boiler Performance, - - $0.50 HINTS ON HOUSE BUILDING, What to do and what not to doin House Building, - - - $0.50 Every builder should have a copy as well as those contemplating building. ** Lumber World.” SQUARE ROOT MADE EASY. Practical Hints for Self-Instruction, - - - - - $0.50 Eminently useful and to some mechanics a necessity. ‘‘/ndustrial World.” PRACTICAL TRAINING. Earnest Words on an Important Subject, - - - - $0.50 Contains valuable information for all who expect to advance in the world. Worth allit costs. ‘‘ Pax Handle Advocate.” SENT POSTPAID ON RECEIPT OF PRICE. PRACTICAL PUBLISHING CO., 21 PARK ROW, NEW YORK. WHY THE “Grimshaw Catechisms’” ARE SO POPULAR. The American Steam Engineer of New York, which is the official organ of the rapidly growing American Order of Steam En- gineers, says in its issue of March 1, 1888: “The peculiar hold which the Grimshaw ‘ Practical Catechisms’ have on the con- stituency for which they are intended is due to these facts: They answer at once any question about any kind of a pump or asteam engine that the author could think of or had ever had asked him; are absolutely scientifically correct; practically useful; written in a clear, plain, popular style; up to date; free from hard words and mathe- matical formulas. Each question is asked by itself and answered in full by itself, thus saving the reader the necessity of wading through a whole book when he only wants to know one thing, but wants to know that 1ight away. The books are plainly printed, liberally illustrated, of a convenient size for the pocket, bound strongly to stand use, and in dark cloth not to show the dirt; are on hard paper to stand thumbing; handy for instant reference; liberally indexed and cross indexed; and ex- planations are concise, yet very complete. Their author is a favorite writer for the scientific papers; is known to be careful, competent, original, practical, abreast of the times, and able to tell what he knows. They can be drawn on for examination ques- tions by examining engineers who are handling candidates for license, and by exam- ination committees testing candidates for admission to engineering societies. They can be used to coach for examinations by those about to be examined for license, or for admission to engineering societies. They enable competent engineers to improve themselves; heip green men out of scrapes without mortification or exposure; prevent accidents and hasten repairs; enable an employer to test a candidate for a job, thus preventing his being imposed upon; and can be used to settle disputes between en- gineers, as to the topics of which they treat. They describe the construction and operation of every kind of pump; tell how to set up, connect, adjust and start every principal pump in the market, supposing all the parts to have been separated and laid on the floor. Most of the matter is copyrighted, and can be found nowhere else, In case of any trouble, they save delay in sending for, or writing to, the maker or agent of the engine or pump. They are marvelously cheap and have long been needed. If there is any practical questions in the lines of which they treat which is not answered in the latest editions, the author answers such questions free by mail, and embodies such question and answer in subsequent editions or volumes, The advantages of this feature, which is original with the author of these popular books, and (up to date) ex- clusive, cannot be overestimated.” Hints to Power Users. PLAIN, PRACTICAL POINTERS, FREE FROM HIGH SCIENCE, AND INTENDED FOR THE MAN WHO PAYS THE BILLS. BY ROBERT GRIMSHAW, M.E., Etc. Author of ‘Steam Engine Catechism,” ‘‘Pump Catechism,” “Botler Catechism,” ‘Preparing for Indication,” ‘‘Engineers Hourly Log Book,” and other Practical Books. 1 Vol. 16mo, Cloth. Price, $1.00. Under the above title the well-known engineering expert, Mr. Robert Grimshaw, whose catechisms of the Steam Engine, Pump and Boiler, and other practical works, have proved so popular among working engineers, has prepared some meaty non-technical advice to the men who pay the bills. Having proved his ability to put expert engineering knowledge into a style suitable to interest and instruct the men who run engines, pumps and boilers of every description, he has gone further, and prepared for those having no practical knowl- edge whatever of steam-engineering, good sound advice, in good plain English, as to what to do and what not to do in choosing, buying, placing, and operating every part of a power plant. From ash-pit to exhaust-head, from fly-wheel to belt-lace, no item seems to escape him. Nothing seems too insignificant to be neglected ; nothing too complicated to be explained, and to be talked about, in simple phrase. These talks are straightforward and to the point ; and have a direct money value as well as a most undoubted charm of manner. Mr. Grimshaw, knowing these subjects ‘‘ from the ground up,” speaks ‘‘as one having authority.” The book is singularly independent and free from bias, and no power-men should be without it, particularly as its price, post-paid, is but a dollar. CASSELL PUBLISHING COMPANY, 104 & 106 FOURTH AVENUE, NEW YorK, BUYERS 4 DEFERENCE Quarterly Universal Illustrated Descriptive Catalogues, issued simultaneously to Electric Light and Power Plants, Electrical Supply and Construction Companies and Street Railway Companies; for the convenience of Buyers, and with economy and increased effectiveness to Manufacturers and Dealers. All Classified and Arranged Most Conveniently for Ready Reference. To quote a representative Buyer: “A compact, handy volume, full of information of exceptional value to the buyer, not burdened ‘with matter that does not interest him, and most convenient for reference; in fact, just such a book as I would compile and revise periodically, from standard publications, miscellaneous catalogues, etc., were it not for the time, trouble and expense such an undertaking would demand.” A Complete All-Buying Circulation Guaranteed. : mie | bDUYERS REFERENCE § Co. (INCORPORATED), 114 Nassau Street, New York. DopcEe Mra. Co., MISHAWAKA, INDIANA, - MANUFACTURERS OF THE CELEBRATED [DEPENDENCE Wold SPLIP PULLEYS WITH PATENT BUSHING SYSTEM. EVERY PULLEY A SPLIT PULLEY. Best Belt Surface, Lightest, Strongest, best Balanced and most convenient Pulley in the World. 70 per cent. Lighter than Cast Iron, and 50 per cent. Lighter than Wrought Iron or Steel Pulley. The bore of every Pulley can be readily Bushed to fit any sized shaft. Bushings furnished for each Pulley. Guaranteed to give from 30 to 60 per cent. More Power than any Iron Pulley. Strong enough for any power re- quired. Made in any diameter. Every Pulley warranted. PATENT FIRMUS RG ESPECIALLY PREPARED FOR THE TRANSMISSION OF POWER AND FOR HOLSTING PURPOSES Power and lransmission: An Lllustrated Monthly Journal, DEVOTED TO MANUFACTURES, SCIENCE, ARTS AND INVENTION. ESTABLISHED isss. GUARANTEED CIRCULATION OVER 25,000 PER MONTH. Issued the 20th of Each Month. $1.00 PER YEAR. Address: POWER AND TRANSMISSION PUBLISHING C0., Mishawaka, Indiana. ® ® eixie:” ® A Handsomely-Printed, Illustrated Monthly Industrial Journal, T. H. MARTIN, Business Manager. Jj. H. ALLEN, Advertising Manager. JOHN TEMPLE GRAVES, Editor, Published 15th of each Month. Special Issues, ‘‘ Easter,’? April 15th, ‘‘ Christmas,” December 15th. SUBSCRIPTION : 1 Year, postage paid (in advance), Including Special Issues, - - - - - = $1.00 Advertising Rates Furnished on Application. Published by THE ‘‘ DIXIE” COMPANY (Incorporated), ATLANTA, GEORGIA. “KEEP YOUR EYE ON ‘ DIXIE.’” ESTABLISHED IN PHILADELPHIA, 1873. ROBERT GRIMSHAW, Consulting Fingineer and Scientific Fixpert. ENGINES, BOILERS, MACHINERY & MILLS Designed, Tested, Erected and Improved. POWER MEASURED. COAL SAVED ON SHARBS. Investigations. Tests, Confidential Reports. Mr. Grimshaw numbers among his clients and references the Governments of the U. S., France, and New South Wales, and some of the largest establishments and heaviest firms and corporations in the world—including the Standard Oil Co., the American Cotton Oil Co., R. Hoe & Co. (N. Y. C.), Silsby Mfg. Co. (Seneca Falls, N. Y.), Société des Forges et Chantiers de la Méditerranée (Paris, Marseilles and La Seyne), H. B. Rathbun & Sons (Deseronto, Ont.), The New York World, Nescochague Paper Co. (Phila.), Chalmers-Spence Co. (N.Y.), Crosby Steam Gage and Valve Co. (Boston), Hancock Inspirator Co. (Boston), Dixon Crucible Co. (Jersey City), J. A. Fay & Co. (Cincinnati), Asselin Fréres (Paris and St. Denis, France), Hon. Edward Combes, C. M. G., M. L. C. (Sydney and Glanmire, New South Wales), and others. Mr. Grimshaw may be consulted by appointment only. Address : 21 PARK ROW, NEW YORK. BLACK PRINTS. Inventors, Patentees, Engineers, Architects, Manufacturers, _ and others having Drawings of which they wish Reproductions 13ad2, will find my Improved Black Prints (Sharp Black Lines on Dead White Ground) FAR SUPERIOR TO EVEN THE BEST BLUE PRINTS. This improved process of sun-printing from tracings is neat, clean, rapid, and sure, and as simple as blue-printing. Send for samples, and for prices of materials, or of prints made from your own tracings. Highest references and testimonials. FERDINAND PONTRICHET, Sole Proprietor, 270 West 115th Street, NEW YORK. ‘*FIPFTY YEARS HENCE.” Under the above title there is not only a very remarkable series of ingenious prophecies as to the condition of affairs in 1942, by rea- son of improvements, inventions, discoveries and legislative enact- ments, but a most charming story, and all couched in vigorous and graceful English that lends a charm to the whole. The ingenious method by which the details of the prophecy are worked out is very plausible, and the prophesied state of things, while showing a wealth of imagination, is in many if not most items far from improbable, and certainly not impossible. The book (which, by the way, should prove of special interest to Free Masons) speaks of the improve- ments that will exist fifty years hence in both the spoken and the written language, which will then be universal and phonetic; of processes for telegraphing photographs and printing them in the hourly newspapers; and of telegraphing to and from passing trains and vessels. In those days. we are informed by the author (Prof. Robert Grimshaw), houses will be made of artificial stone in one piece; they will have hot, cold, fresh and salt water, pure air, oxy- gen and lighting gas, piped, and electric currents of all kinds laid on, from central sources of supply; life will be doubled in length by reason of discoveries in surgery and medicine; the natural forces will be harnessed to do man’s work; lightning will be not only made safe, but stored up to do useful work; and the improvements in the telephone that are outlined are most marvelous. Plants will be given special fertilizers; aluminum will be in common use, and there will be several new metals; sugar and vinegar will be made from coal oil; all ordinary fabrics will be fire proof; special organs of the body will be fed with special foods to develop them and keep them in good health; there will be new dyes of metallic luster, and many new alkaloids, while diamonds will be made artificially at low cost. Cremation will be the rule, war will be abolished, and clothing made comfortable. The manufactures of paper, leather, iron, flour and bread will be improved, and flexible glass be an every-day material; the cold of winter will be made to run engines, and the power of the wind stored up and made to do work; railway cars will be made of aluminum; there will be several kinds of new steels; the art of hardening copper will have been rediscovered; pneumatic tubes run to every house; air ships will plow the azure above, ocean navigation will be conducted on new principles, and the models of the hulls of vessels will be taken from the pike and other swift fishes; ship canals and transcontinental railways will be numerous; the river bottoms will be paved; plateways will be laid on all streets to lessen the traction of ordinary vehicles; street paving will be of a surface smooth enough to give light traction for wheels, but gritty enough to afford hold for horses where these are used. Arcade rail- ways will run through the principal streets of the great cities, and street vehicles run by storage batteries, or by electricity froin hid- den conductors; rain making will be perfectly feasible, but regulated by a central governmental bureau, lest injustice and partiality be shown one section above another; public exhibitions will be of new and novel characters—as for instance there will be kaleidoscopic ex- hibitions and concerts showing the harmony of perfumes—flower culture will be universal and the results most delightful and sur- prising; there will be a new and improved coinage; emigration will be restricted and pre-employment made a sine qua non for emigrants; tree planting will be conducted with enthusiasm. trial by jury be abol- ished, the laws of marriage and divorce be made uniform through- out the country; and so on through a hundred branches of progre:s, the vivid imagination of the author, backed by wide scientific knowl- eGge. renders the picture of the ideal community of fifty years hence one most interesting and profitable to study. The book will be sent postpaid to any address, on receipt of the: price —one dollar —by the Practical Publishing Co., New York. By the same author:—Steam Engine, Engine Runners’, Pump, Boiler and Lo- comotive Catechisms, $2.00 eachs Practical Catechism, and Record of Scien- tific Progress in 1891, $1.50 eaeh3 Hints to Power Users, Preparing for Indica- tion, Engine Room Chat, and Tips to Invertors, $1.00 eachs Hints on House: Building, 50 Cemts. Mailed to any address on receipt of price. NOTES ON NEW AND PATENTED INVENTIONS. In the great struggle after new methods, processes and imple- ments that characterizes our day, and which is a principal factor in our material progress, there is a constant rule of the “survival of the fittest.” Opposed to this is the claim, sometimes put forward, that the value of a patented invention is not so much in its intrinsic worth as in the method of presenting and introducing it to the world, or to a market. Both propositions are in a sense true, but with this quali- fication, that “ permanent” success always depends upon intrinsic worth, and while a short success may be attained by a plausible but faulty invention, the future is sure to regulate it to the place it be- longs. It is perhaps unnecessary to argue this. HEveryone’s observa- tion will prove it. CASSEIER’S MAGAZINE, an engineering publication, gotten up in the same style and equal in every respect to Harpers’, The Century, and Scribners’, has begun a series of articles about <‘New and Patented Inventions.” Many important things are to be considered in these articies, among them that of ‘added detail.” This might properly come under the head of “operative, conditions,” because it invoives maintenance and attendance, but may be made more plain by quoting a remark once made in England by an experi- enced designer and constructor of machinery. He said: ‘The great art of designing machinery consists in leaving out parts and pieces.” The articles will be written by John Richards, in a popular style such as the ordinary inventor and the busy business man can have time to read and understand. Mr. Richards is President of the Technical Society of the Pa- cific Coast, and editor of the journal “Industry” There are prob- ably few engineers so well known, or so capable of expressing an intelligent opinion. on the various classes of engineering matters, as is Mr. Richards. He has had many years of active and practical ex- perience in the manufacture of machinery. and as a technical writer, and he is known throughout the world by engineers and manufac- turers as a man from whom an honest, conscientious, as well as capa- ble opinion can be obtained. CASSIER’S MAGAZINE—cost, $3.00 per year, 25 cents a copy—can be obtained from newsdealers, or from the publishers, THE CASSIER’S MAGAZINE Co., Potter Building, New York. NMHC 3 0112 0420518