21G STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



is more tlian one way to skin a cat" — more than one metlioJ of producing the 

 same result. In such cases patented machines cotne into competition with 

 each other, or with maciiines not patented. Tlie result often is that the pat- 

 ented and better machine is the cheaper of the two. The case of the Ameri- 

 can watch is exactly as described. Although the patented machine may cost 

 much more than the cost of manufacturing, yet this much is true : that if that 

 machine have a permanent market, its products must be either cheaper or 

 better than those produced in the old way. Thus with the sewing machine; 

 "we could afford to pay three times their cost rather than be without them. In 

 the mowing machine and the reaping machine the same thing is true in a 

 less degree. We feel we must have them, although it is probably true that 

 they save us more time than money, if such a thing is possible. 



PATENTS THAT CAN PAY NO ROYALTY. 



There is another class of patented articles that will not sell if any royalty 

 whatever is added to the cost of manufacturing. This class forms the most 

 dangerous class we have, especially when the article is easy to manufacture, 

 for the reason that the patentee, finding it impossible to realize any money 

 from his invention lets it lie dormant. In a few years, perhaps, it goes into 

 general use. Then he finds collecting royalty a profitable business, even 

 though it may be a thankless one. This was especially true in regard to the 

 inventions known as the ''slide gate" and the "drive-well." Though we were 

 successful in defeating the patents on the slide gate, we were equally unsuc- 

 cessful in regard to the drive-well. Neither of these inventions will stand a 

 royalty. Their merit is not much greater than those articles previously in use, 

 and which they to some extent superseded. This class of inventions is the one 

 which most frequently lays us open for infringement. 



PATENTS ON INSIGNIFICANT INVENTIONS. 



No one can deny that many of the inventions, perhaps all true inventions, 

 confer upon the world much benefit; and in most instances, despite the royalty 

 to be paid to the owners of the patents, it is not economy to be without them. 

 This is certainly true in regard to the mowing machine, the sewing machine, 

 and a great many other inventions with which this last century has been blessed. 

 The question which is before us to-day is one which deals with all classes of 

 patents — not merely those great inventions which have revolutionized the prac- 

 tice of the Avhole world, but rather with that multitude of devices which, under 

 the name of inventions, make up the principal patent business of to-day. The 

 great mass of the patents are granted for new applications of old devices. In. 

 some cases the application is so novel and striking as to be worthy the name of 

 an invention, as when the idea of cutting grass with a tool shaped like the 

 saw, which had been in use for years for cutting timber, was suggested and 

 carried out in practice by Ogle of Scotland. But such an application is not 

 any more patentable than that of transferring the filter made of solid brick 

 from the cistern where it had long been in use, to a well where it is made to 

 serve the same purpose. There is hardly a person here who would call that 

 last an invention. It hardly merits the name of an idea. Yet it is a fact that 

 within ten years, a patent has been granted to a person — a resident of this 

 State — for the api)lication of the common brick filter to wells. As the case 

 now stands, if you build a cistern and construct around the pipe from your 

 pump a brick filter you will not be molested, but if you put exactly the same 



