PATENTa 



703 



their inventions. As the addresses of tho in- 



uiven in ev.iv <a-.. ii i- . .1 \ for tin 



lo write. ortVrin;,' t<> .sell or even t< pur- 



O&ase an invention. The u-uul eour.-e i> \ oflVr 



rotiate a sale for some Mimll consideration 



paid in advance; this payment may be trivial 



and may be a.-ked fur on llie ground of incr-,- 



\pcnditiire in the matter of [x>slagu <>r 



of advertisements. The army ofjjnvcntois i- 



so numerous that small contributions from a 



large percentage of them may easily allonl a 



ieral'le income for an udroit swindler. 



This practice is not. confined to tho United 



Stales, but has been taken up by foreign agents, 



who find too many victims among Americans. 



Patent-office Decisions. March, 1889, in 

 the ca>e of Donovan, on appeal, Mr. Benson J. 

 Hall, a.ssistant Commi.v-ioner of Patents, ex- 

 plained rules 68 and K!!) as meaning that each 

 tribunal of the Patent Ollice is bound to see to 

 it that an inventor shall secure a patent for 

 whatever is patcntable in his invention : this is 

 alike the duty of the examiner-in-chief, of the 

 primary examiner, and of the commissioner. 

 Congress has decided that whenever the essen- 

 tial point has been missed in the issue of papers 

 the inventor may claim a reissue on demonstra- 

 tion of the oversight. 



January, 1890, a patentee may not say in his 

 claim that certain specific elements of his com- 

 bination are not essential to tho combination or 

 invention. 



The Centennial Celebration. Until the 

 date was nearly at hand it did not, apparently, 

 occur to any one that the hundredth year of the 

 United States patent system ought to be cele- 

 brated ns an anniversary occasion. It was then 

 too late toorganize for a suitable ceremony ; t here- 

 fore it was determined to celebrate instead tho 

 beginning of the second century of American 

 patents. The 8th, 9th, and 10th of April were 

 designated early in 1891, and the exercises were 

 held in Lincoln Music Hall, Washington. Presi- 

 dent Harrison opened the proceedings with a 

 brief address, after which the Rev. Dr. Sunder- 

 land asked the divine blessing on the assembly. 

 The regular proceedings were appropriately 

 opened with an address by tho lion. C. L. 

 Mitchell, Commissioner of Patents, on "The 

 Development of the American Patent System." 

 The following named speakers addressed the 

 meetings : The Hon. Carroll D. Wright, Com- 

 missioner of Labor, on " The Relation of Inven- 

 tion to Labor"; Justice Blatchford, of the 

 Supreme Court, on "A Century of Patent Law "; 

 the Hon. Roljert S. Taylor, on "The Epoch- 

 making Inventions of Americans"; Senator 

 Platt, chairman of the Patent Committee, on 

 "The Invention and Advancement of Science' 1 ; 

 Senator John W. Daniell, on " The New South 

 as an Outgrowth of Invention and the American 

 Patent Law"; Ainsworth R.SpolTord. the libra- 

 rian of Congress, on "The Copyright System 

 of the United States." Prof. Thomas Gray, on 

 " The Invention of the Telegraph and Tele- 

 phone"; Col. P. A. Sealy. principal examiner of 

 the Patent Office, on "The International Pro- 

 duction of Industrial Property." Prof. Samuel 

 P. Langley, of the Smithsonian Institution, pre- 

 sided at one day's session, and spoke briefly on 

 M The Progress of Invention." Prof. William B. 



Ti.,ul,ri<!ue. of Columbia Ci.lli-p-. read Mptr 

 <m " The l.i! niiiralSch. i'r, K . 



rest of invention." I'rof. Hobcrt II. Tl.uiMou. 

 instructor in mechanical mxiii'-'-ring in < 

 University, read a pap. r on "The Invii.' 

 the Steam Kiigim-." A pii| er pr. j and by Mujor 



I Mil i. in. I . S. A., was n-j.d in I 

 by Capl. Uinn-y. of the Ordnance I'.i.r. . 

 titled -The Influence of Invention lit on the 

 Implements And Mniti< nsof Modern \\arfnn-." 

 "The Delation of Abstract Scientific Ke^arch 

 to Practical Invention," with special ref, 

 to chemistry and phvsics, was treat, d l.v Pn,f. 

 F. W.Clark, of Ohio, chief chemh-t of the United 

 States Geological Survey. The concluding 

 papers, read on the evening of April 10, I'rof. 

 Alexander Graham Hell pre.-iding, were as fol- 

 low: "The Relation of Invention to ih. 

 munication of Intelligence and tie I>ilTn.-ion of 

 Knowledge by Newspaper and Hook," by \\'iiiim 

 T. Harris, I'nitid States CommiK-ioiier of Kdu- 

 cation. "The Birth of Invention " was consid- 

 ered by Prof. OtisT. Mason, of Virginia, curator 

 of the National Museum, and Dr. John 8. Bil- 

 lings, curatorof the Army and Medical Museum, 

 concluded with a paper on "The American In- 

 ventions and DL-coveries in Medicine, Surgery, 

 and Practical Sanitation." In connection with 

 the proceedings aj, the Music Hail special effort 

 was made to collect in accessible places some of 

 the more notable of the models and machines 

 that have exerted distinguished influence on our 

 commercial progress the press, for instance, 

 at which Benjamin Franklin worked, a model 

 of the plow used by Prof. Morse in laying the 

 lir-t telegraph line, part of one of the first loco- 

 motives ouilt in the United States, mid many 

 other interesting relics. Several meet up- 

 held with a view to a permanent organization 

 among inventors and manufacturers of patci.t. d 

 articles, the design being to secure co-operation 

 in matters looking to the improvement of the 

 patent system, or, to use the words of the pro- 

 spectus, " that organized effort may be made to 

 remedy existing defects and provide against 

 danger in the future." The organization took 

 shape in the election of Dr. Gattling. inventor 

 of the Gattling gun. as president, and Gardner 

 R. Ilubbard, of Washington. Prof. William A. 

 Antony, of the Electrical Engineers, Thomas 

 Shaw, of Philadelphia, and Benjamin Butter- 

 worth, of Ohio, as vice-presidents. 



Inventions in ISOO-'yi. During these two 

 years 46,454 patents and registrations have 



been issued in the United States. Only a very 

 small portion of them can be here enumerated^ 

 In the following list, it is intended mainly to in- 

 clude only the more homely and convenient de- 

 vices that are adapted to the uses of every-day 

 life. Some of these inventions are quite un- 

 known to the general public, and few of them 

 have attained more than a local reputation. 



Boats. An ingenious folding boat has been 

 placed in the market by its inventor. Charles W. 

 Kintr. of Kalamazoo, Mich. The objection to 

 almost all folding boats is that the i-paevs be- 

 tween tho ribs and the longitudinal pieces arc w 

 wide that when placed in the water nnd loaded 

 the external pressure is such as to destroy the 

 lines or model of the boat. In Mr. King's in- 

 vention (Fig. 1) he has employed galvanized 



