Democratic Sentinel, Volume 6, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 January 1883 — An Old Novelty. [ARTICLE]

An Old Novelty.

The officials of the old German Patent Office are adepts at discovering that inventions for which patents were sought were old. Here is a case which would have delighted them, if they had the opportunity to refuse to recognize the invention. Not long ago a patent was obtained in the United States for a tack-hammer, in which the tack was attached to the hammer and driven in at one blow. It appears that in one of the manuscripts of Leonardo da Vinci, he observes that, if you give a nail a great many blows with a hammer to drive it into a board, the operation will be long and somewhat difficult (alluding possibly (o the tendency of novices to drive it to one side); but, if you attach the nail to the hammer with wax, you may drive it in with one blow. The observation is scientifically and absolutely true, and she American inventor of the tack-hammer was obviously anticipated centuries ago 1 The Boston Pilot says: St. Jacobs Oil stands without an equal.*