PRIZES ON PATENTS. 



HOW TO GET TWENTY-FIVE HUNDRED 

 DOLLARS FOR NOTHING. 



The Winner has a Clear Grift of a 



Small Fortune, and the Losers 



Have Patents that may 



Bring- them in 



Still More. 



Won d you like to make twenty five hundred 

 kloJlais? If you would, read carefully what fol- 

 lows and yon may see a way to do it. 



The Press Claims Company devotes much at- 

 tention to patents It has handled thousands of 

 applications for inventions, but it would like to 

 handle thousands more. There is plenty of in- 

 ventive talent at large in this country, needing 

 nothing but encouragement to produce practical 

 results That encouragement the Pi ess C aims 

 Company proposes to give. 



NOT SO HARD AS IT SEEMS. 



A patent strikes most people as an appallingly 

 formidable thing. The idea is that an inventor 

 must be a natural genius, like Edison or Bell; 

 that he must devote years to delving in compli- 

 cated mechanical problems and that he must 

 spend a fortune on delicate experiments before 

 V can get a new device to a patentable degree 

 of perfection. This delusion the company de- 

 sires to dispel. It desires to get into the head of 



j 'the public a clear comprehension < f the fact 



'' that it is not the greit, complex, and expensive 

 inventions *hat bring the best returns to their 

 authors, but the liitle, simple, and cheap ones— 

 the things that seem so absurdly trivial that the 

 average citizen would feel somewhat ashamed 

 bf bringing them to the attention of the Patent 

 Office. 

 Edison says ihat the profits he has received 



J from the patents on all his marvelous inventions 

 have not been sufficient to pay the cost of his 

 experiments. Hut the man who conceived the 

 idea of fastening a bit of rubber cord to a child s 



a ball, so that it would come b«ck to the hand 

 when thrown, made a fortune out of his scheme. 

 The modern sewing-machine is a miracle of in- 

 genuity—the product of the toil of hundreds of 

 t>u*y Drains through a hundred and fifty years, 

 >ut the whole bril'iant result res's upon the 



simple device of putting the eye of the needle 

 at the point instead of at the other end. 



THE LITTLE THINGS THE MOST 

 VALUABLE. 



Comparatively few people regard themselves 

 as inventors, but almost everybody has been 

 struck, atone time or another, with ideas that 

 seemed calculated to reduce some of the little 

 frictions of life. Usually such ideas are dis- 

 missed without further thought. 



"v*hy don't the railroad company make its 

 car windows so that they can be slid up and 

 down without breaking the passengers' backs?" 

 exclaims the traveler. "If I were running the 

 road I would make them in such a way." 



"What was the man tnat made this saucepan 

 thinking of?" grumbles the cook. "He never 

 had to work over a stove, or he would have 

 known how it ought to have been fixed." 



"Hang such a collar button!' growls the man 

 who is late for breakfast. "If I were in the 

 business I'd make buttons that would'nt slip 

 out, or break off, or gouge out the back of my 

 neck." 



And then the various sufferers forget about 

 their grievances and begin to think of some- 

 thing else. If they would sit down at the next 

 convenient opportunity, put their ideas about 

 car windows, saucepans, and collar buttons into 

 practical shape, and then apply for patents, they 

 might find themselves as independently wealthy 

 a* the man who invented the iron umbrella 

 ring, or the one who patented the fifteen puzzle 



A TEMPTING OFFER. 



To induce people to keep track of their bright 

 ideas and see what there is in ihem, the Press 

 Claims Company has resolved to offer a prize. 



To the person who submits to it the 

 simplest and most promising inven- 

 tion, Irom a commercial point of 

 view, the companv will give twenty- 

 five hundred dollars in cash, in addi- 

 tion to refunding the fees for secur- 

 ing" the patent. 



It will also advertise the invention 

 free of charge. 



This offer is subject to the folowing condi- 

 tions: 



Every competitor must obtain a patent for his 

 invention through the company. He must first 

 apply for a preliminary search, the cost of 

 which will be five dollars Should this search 

 show his invention to be unpatentable, he can 

 withdraw without further expense. Otherwise 

 he will be expected to complete his application 



