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Constitution, where it says, "Congi-ess 

 shall have power to promote the pro- 

 gress of science and useful arts, bj' 

 securing for limited time to authors or 

 inventors the exclusive i-ight to their 

 respective writings and discoveries." 



COPrKIGHT AND PATENT LAWS. 



And would we now tear down that 

 defense surrounding book-writing, in- 

 ventions and the like, which our fore- 

 fathers built up and fostered, by throw- 

 ing a wall of protection around nearly 

 a hundred years ago ? In 1790 a law 

 was enacted, giving to authors the ex- 

 clusive right to their writings for 14 

 years, with the liberty of making a re- 

 newal for a like period. In 1831, the 

 term was made 28 years, with the 

 right to renew for 14 years longer, 

 thus making at its extreme limit for a 

 copyright 42 years. 



In 1790 Congress made provision for 

 giving to inventors the exclusive right 

 to their inventions or discoveries, and 

 from that time up to the present day, 

 the number of inventions have been 

 accruing annually. Originally 14 years 

 was the time for which a patent was 

 valid, but in 1870, 17 years was made 

 the limit. 



Of course, there are some firms who 

 take advantage of the copyright and 

 patent laws, by leaving the patent on 

 their invention run until its time is 

 nearly expired, when, through some 

 nevv device on the machine, another 

 patent is obtained, giving to them the 

 exclusive right for 17 years longer. 

 Whether this be a manifest injustice to 

 the people at large, absonant or con- 

 sonant with the Constitution of the 

 United States, it is nevertheless done ; 

 and this only shows the immense im- 

 portance of the patent-right itself. 



It is not incongruous here to ask 

 how our count!-}' under its copyright 

 and patent laws has prospered ; and to 

 that intent I will now apply myself. 



Over 600,000 applications have been 

 filed for patents since the year 1836, 

 and about 400,000 patents have been 

 granted, while the books that have 

 been issued are too numerous to men- 

 tion. Inventiveness seems to have be- 

 come a national trait, even seen in the 

 small child to the hoar)'-headed man, 

 and almost every branch of business. 



The United States issues four times 

 as many patents as her maternal coun- 

 try, albeit Great Britain started the 

 great wheel of civilization and progress 

 to revolve hundreds of years ago. 

 There was given, some years ago, at 

 the Electrical Exposition in Paris, five 

 gold medals as rewards for the greatest 

 inventions and discoveries of the age. 

 Well, how many do you think Uncle 

 Sam took ? Just fii:e. 



Therefore I ask, should the apiarists 

 of America have tliat prerogative of 



patenting — which has built up our pur- 

 suit and made it recognized by our 

 Government — taken away because a 

 few persons who are not in favor of 

 adhering to the ways of our forefathers, 

 or else are goaded on by jealousy, or 

 with the thought that the very same 

 idea was in their mind years ago, or 

 that they may have machinated the 

 invention, but did not get it patented ? 

 I answer no, most emphatically, no ! 



If tliese men let procrastination rule 

 over their ideas, which might have 

 generated an invention, it serves them 

 just right to lose it. Let them remem- 

 ber that. 



The mill will never ffrind again. 

 With the water that nas passed. 



When they made the invention or 

 discovery which, if patented, would 

 have made them the legal inventors, 

 they desired to be the inventors, but 

 through lack of energy or persever- 

 ance, let the goal slip from their 

 fingers ; and now, when somebody 

 else has — without the knowledge of 

 any such thing having been made be- 

 fore — made an invention, and after 

 having procured a patent-right for the 

 same, brings it before the public, he 

 kicks up a racket, and lays claim to 

 the inventorship. 



COURAGEOUS INVENTORS OF THE VAST. 



It is a good thing that the world has 

 some men who dare to bring their in- 

 ventions before the public gaze ; inven- 

 tions which they know in time will 

 revolutionize certain pursuits, sciences, 

 etc. ; as Ericson's iron-clad, the "Moni- 

 tor," did that of naval warfare. You 

 may remember what Themistocles said 

 to the Greeks, when the Selphian oracle 

 told them to seek safety behind wooden 

 walls ; he said, their ship ; but in a 

 naval contest hodiernal, there is not 

 the least shadow of a show behind 

 wooden walls, when one bomb, loaded 

 with dynamite, is able at a single ex- 

 plosion to blow a whole ship to 

 mammocks. 



Let us take Galileo as another ex- 

 ample of those men who dare to bring 

 their discoveries before the public. In 

 the night-time of Jan. 7, 1610, he es- 

 pied three minute stars in a straight 

 line, and a few evenings following, a 

 fourth around the planet Jupiter. 

 From the first satellite, by means of its 

 eclipse, Roemer was able to .solve that 

 great problem — the velocity of light, 

 which was found to be 185,410.33 

 miles per second, taking the mean dis- 

 tance of the earth from the sun at 91} 

 millions of miles. 



This, of course, gave more confirma- 

 tion to Galileo in his belief of the 

 heliocentric theory, which recognizes 

 the sun as the centre of the Solar Sys- 

 tem, around which all the other 

 planets revolve. This, as will be seen, 

 I was in accordance with the Copernician 



theory, both of which were vis-a-i*is to 

 the geocentric theory,the theory which 

 the church recognized at that time, 

 namely, that the earth was the centre 

 and around it the sun revolved. 

 Picture the earth, by its force of gravi- 

 tation, making the sun circle around 

 it, when, if jou will, mete out four 

 bushels of wheat, and then take out 

 but 07ie grain, you have the relative 

 size of the earth as compared with 

 that of the sun. 



THE ADVANTAGES OF MODERN TIMES. 



In those days, how different it was 

 from this land of liberty of ours ! The 

 church tried to settle all the great 

 questions of astronomy by the Bible, 

 but we know that book is not the place 

 to go to settle questions of astronomy 

 or apiculture, but religion. Accord- 

 ingly they accused Galileo of impos- 

 ture, heresy and blasphemy. They 

 summoned him to appear before the 

 Holy Inquisition, on an accusation of 

 having taught the heliocentric theory ; 

 and having commanded him to re- 

 nounce his belief as a heresy, on pain 

 of incarceration, the church had 

 pretty quiet rest for about 16 years. 

 But in 1632 Galileo published his work, 

 appellated the " System of the World," 

 by which he tried to show the truth of 

 Copernician theory. 



On account of this, he was sum- 

 moned to appear before the Inquisition 

 of Rome, and on his knees commanded 

 to curse his doctrine of the earth mov- 

 ing around the sun ; yet, it is related, 

 that when he arose from his knees, he 

 stamped his foot on the earth, and in 

 an undertone said, •■ E pur si muore " — 

 and yet it moves. 



If it had not been for Daniel Boone,, 

 in his persistent efforts toward civiliza- 

 tion, who, at one time, was the onli/ 

 white man in Kentucky, where would 

 our mighty West have been to-day ? 



If it had not been for Roemer, in 

 discovering the rapidity of light, how 

 would we have been able to tell the 

 length of time it takes the light to 

 travel from the nearest star — a Cen- 

 tauri — to reach us ? But having the 

 rapidity of light from Roemer, and the 

 parallax of that star having been de- 

 termined (from it the distance), we 

 were then able to determine the time, 

 which is 3.6 years ; it being 20,832,000 

 millions of miles from us, or, in other 

 words, twenty trillion, eight hundred 

 thirty-two billions of miles away. 



If it had not been for Langstroth, 

 who by his persistent efforts brought 

 into practical use the movable-frame 

 hive, where would our pursuit have 

 been to-day ? It would have been as 

 yet in the days of the honey-comb 

 shambles, when comb, larvw, farina 

 and honey were squeezed together tc 

 1 get that delicious liquid — honey. It 



