558 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



be said to have been adequate. The second important consideration is 

 that of the methods of procedure of the patentees, for it appears that 

 very few of them had studied what had been suggested or done before 

 by others before taking out their own patent. We are also struck by 

 the number of really important advances that have been suggested and 

 have failed to fructify, either from want of funds or other causes, to 

 be forgotten for the time and to be re-invented later on by subsequent 

 workers. 



What a waste of time, expense and disappointment would be avoided 

 if we in England helped the patentee to find out easily what had been 

 done previously, on the lines adopted by the United States and Ger- 

 man Patent Offices, who advise the patentee after the receipt of his 

 provisional specification of the chief anticipatory patents, dead or 

 alive ! And ought we in England to rest content to see our patentees 

 awaiting the report of the United States and German Patent Offices 

 on their foreign equivalent specifications before filing their English 

 patent claims? Ought not our Patent Office to give more facilities 

 and assistance to the patentee? 



Before proceeding further to discuss some of the possible improve- 

 ments for the encouragement and protection of research and invention, 

 I ask you to further consider the position of the inventor — the man 

 anxious to achieve success where others have hitherto failed. To be 

 successful he must be something of an enthusiast; and usually he is a 

 poor man, or a man of moderate means, and dependent on others for 

 financial assistance. Generally the problem to be attacked involves a 

 considerable expenditure of money; some problems require great expen- 

 diture before any return can thereby accrue, even under the most favor- 

 able circumstances. In the very few cases where the inventor has 

 some means of his own they are generally insufficient to carry him 

 through, and there have unfortunately been many who have lost every- 

 thing in the attempt. In nearly all cases the inventor has to coop- 

 erate with capital : the capitalist may be a sleeping partner, or the cap- 

 ital may be held by a firm or syndicate, the inventor in such cases being 

 a partner — a junior partner — or a member of the staff. The com- 

 bination may be successful and lasting, but unfortunately the best 

 inventors are often bad men of business. The elements of the com- 

 bination are often unstable, and the disturbing forces are many and 

 active; especially is this so when the problem to be attacked is one of 

 difficulty, necessitating various and successive schemes involving con- 

 siderable expenditure, generally many times greater than that fore- 

 shadowed at the commencement of the undertaking. Under such 

 circumstances, unless the capitalist or senior partner or board be in 

 entire sympathy with the inventor or exercise great forbearance, stim- 

 ulated by the hope of ultimate success and adequate returns, the case 



