298 



Patent Rights. 



Vol. V. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 



Patent Rights. 



Mr. Editor, — 1 have heard that there are 

 at the present time about thirty newly in- 

 vented drills, for planting corn, grain, and 

 seeds, awaiting to be patented at Washing- 

 ton. What a pity it is, that when men are 

 seized with the spirit of invention, they 

 would not lay their case before some of their 

 clear-headed neighbours for advice — they 

 might thus be relieved from a deal of expense 

 and suffering and mortification, and \.\\e moun- 

 tain would oftentimes be saved the labour of 

 going to Washington to be delivered of a 

 mouse. It is really curious to witness the 

 frivolous pretensions to invention wliich per- 

 sons will sometimes contrive to hang a pa- 

 tent upon : the hope of selling a sufficient 

 number of state or county rights to pay ex- 

 penses, is the great incentive, and is certainly 

 a safe way of doing business ; for in case of 

 infringement, the purchaser and not the pa- 

 tentee has to prosecute. One of the most 

 intelligent men in society, and who has ex- 

 pendecl more than a million of dollars in the 

 invention and fabrication of machinery in his 

 own business, and who has never patented 

 but one of his inventions, told me he was 

 Hometime since requested to call and see a 

 most beautiful model of machinery, which 

 was then in the city on its way to Washing- 

 ton to obtain a patent : he found it some six 

 or eight feet in length, and set in motion by a 

 stream of water falling from a cistern placed 

 above, which was made, in the first place, to 

 operate upon a pair of most elegant brass 

 Ibrce-pumps, which set various wheels and 

 drums in motion all along the board, until the 

 whole was brought to bear on a grindstone, 

 which, it must be confessed, it did set most 

 tremendously at work ! The spectators were 

 astonished at the beautiful complexity of the 

 machinery, and declared it to be the acme, 

 with no fear of infringement ; but the gen- 

 tleman, whom I have mentioned, spoiled all, 

 by asking what would be the result, if the 

 whole of the apparatus were to be removed, 

 and tiic stream of water be made to fall at 

 once on a common water-wheel, by which 

 might be obtained a primary mover, to any 

 extent and power demanded 1 The inventor 

 packed up his box and returned straight home, 

 without seeing Washington, or incurring fur- 

 ther expense. 



Now, how very small do many of the in- 

 ventions of the present day appear, when 

 compared to that of Watts in the manufac- 

 ture of patent shot — which was founded upon 

 a principle of nature, which can never be in- 

 fringed. But the discovery was due to the 

 wife of Watts, and who, therefore, ought to 

 have the honour ; and although the particu- 



lars have already appeared in print, they are 

 60 remarkable that I think they deserve to 

 be repeated. I was myself present on the 

 occasion of their being related by the son of 

 Watts, in Bristol, in the year 1819, and who 

 was then on the point of emigrating to this 

 country with the mere wreck of a large for- 

 tune. 



He thus began his narrative. " My father 

 was a plumber in Bristol, and had for many 

 years entertained the idea of making round 

 shot; numberless experiments had failed, but 

 still round shot ran in his head from morning 

 till night. I was at that time a child in ray 

 mother's arms, when, one night, my mother 

 awoke my father by giving him a terrible 

 thump in the back, exclaiming, ' I have found 

 out how to make round shot.' She said, 'I 

 dreamt that I went into a store to buy the 

 child (meaning myself) a hat, and while there, 

 I heard a curious hissing noise which pro- 

 ceeded from an adjoining room ; upon inquir 

 ry, I was told they were making round shot, 

 and was invited to see the method ; on enter- 

 ing the room, I looked up, and saw men pour- 

 ing melted lead through a sieve from a great 

 height, which fell into a tub of water at my 

 feet ; upon taking some in my hand, I found 

 they were perfectly round shot.' My father 

 leaped up in ecstasy, exclaiming, ' that 's it, 

 you have indeed found it out,' and instantly set- 

 ting the melting pot at work, he poured the 

 melted lead from the top of the garret stairs 

 into a tub of water, and found that the shot 

 were much rounder than any that he had be- 

 fore made; he next poured lead from the top 

 of a tower in the city — and lastly, down the 

 shaft of a coal-pit in the neighbourhood, and 

 found that he obtained the shot perfectly 

 round ! The thing was complete in itself, nei- 

 ther requiring or admitting of improvement 

 in any way." 



I was present at a late lecture by Profes- 

 sor Millington, "on the pressure of the at- 

 mosphere," — in which he took occasion to 

 say, the discovery how to make round shot 

 was made by a set of philosophers, who, on 

 perceiving that the pressure of the atmos- 

 phere was equal on all sides, soon applied the 

 principle to the making of round shot, by 

 permitting it to operate upon a stream of 

 melted lead falling through a sieve from a 

 great height, by which each globule, being 

 pressed upon equally on all sides, at the same 

 instant, by the atmosphere, must of course, 

 and in the nature of things, be compressed 

 into a perfect sphere ; and from hence the 

 Lecturer took occasion to remind his audi- 

 ence how much they were indebted to a class 

 of men, who, by means of their superior wis- 

 dom and attainments, are thus able to en- 

 lighten and benefit society, sometimes at the 

 cost of their own brains ! Now, the fact ie 



