948 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXII. No. 835 



terested, and remember the advice given 

 you in making your reports to the class, 

 never to read them. I would like now to 

 add to that advice the recommendation 

 that when you do read a report, as I have 

 this, you introduce into it something 

 gTiaranteed to prevent drowsiness on the 

 part of your audience. 



E. R. Le Count 

 RtrsH Medical College, affiliated 

 with ' the University of Chicago 



NOTES RELATIVE TO TEE INVENTORS 

 GUILD 



In the early part of 1910, several men who 

 had done work along the line of invention, 

 and who, in developing and patenting their 

 inventions, had come to realize the difficulties 

 and disadvantages under which the inventor 

 labors, instituted a movement for the forma- 

 tion of a society looking toward the better- 

 ment of these conditions. The result of this 

 movement was the formation and incorpora- 

 tion in New York City of the Inventors Guild, 

 the object of which is briefly outlined in the 

 following quotation from the Constitution of 

 the society: 



The object of the Guild is to advance the appli- 

 cation of the useful arts and sciences, to further 

 the interests and secure full acknowledgment 

 and protection for the rights of inventors, to 

 foster social relations among those who have made 

 notable advances in the application of the useful 

 arts and sciences. 



Some of the handicaps to which the in- 

 ventor is subject, other than the proverbial 

 one of never having any money, are the delays 

 in the Patent Office and the ineffectiveness of 

 its work, due to over-crowding and lack of 

 proper facilities; the expense and tardiness of 

 litigation, and the possibility under which a 

 rich corporation may, by delaying and pro- 

 longing a suit, increase the expenses to a point 

 which makes such suits prohibitive for a poor 

 inventor; the disadvantage to which the 

 American inventor is subject in foreign patent 

 offices, as compared with the liberality of the 



American Patent Office toward the foreign in- 

 ventor; and many other conditions militating 

 against the American inventor which should 

 be remedied. 



The mOlnbership of the Inventors Guild is 

 limited to fifty. The idea of limiting the 

 membership is that with a small society of this 

 sort it is easier to accomplish real results than 

 with a larger organization, hampered as it 

 must be by unwieldiness and red tape. 

 Further, with a small organization each man 

 will feel that he is a working unit, and that 

 he will be depended upon to do real work, 

 whereas in a large organization the general 

 feeling is that there will be plenty of other 

 men to do the work, and that lack of assist- 

 ance from any particular member will make 

 little, if any, difference. The result is that 

 in the large organization the work, if any, is 

 usually done by even a smaller number of 

 members than that provided for in the In- 

 ventors guild. 



It is proposed to select the membership of 

 the guild carefully, and to this end a member 

 must be formally proposed by a member of 

 the guild, must be personally known to five 

 members of the guild, must pass the mem- 

 bership committee and board of governors, and 

 finally must be voted upon by the whole mem- 

 bership, four per cent, of the votes cast being 

 sufficient to reject a candidate. The object of 

 such discrimination is to include amongst the 

 members of the guild men who not only have 

 made inventions, but who have achieved some 

 measure of success therewith, and who will 

 therefore be capable of exerting some influ- 

 ence; and also that no one shall be admitted 

 who will not be congenial to practically the 

 entire membership. 



The officers of the Inventors Guild are as 

 follows : President, Ealph D. Mershon ; First 

 Vice-president, Chas. W. Hunt; Second Vice- 

 president, Chas. S. Bradley; Secretary, 

 Thomas Robins; Treasurer, Henry L. 

 Doherty. 



The Board of Governors are: Ralph D. 

 Mershon, Leo H. Baekeland, Chas. W. Hunt, 

 Chas. S. Bradley, Michael I. Pupin, Peter 

 Cooper Hewitt. 



