Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 October 1896 — MORE INVENTIONS NEEDED. [ARTICLE]

MORE INVENTIONS NEEDED.

The Possibilities of the Brain are Richer Than a Gold Mine. If one should learn the location of a hidden treasure he would steal out at midnight, working hard and fast to secure it before its whereabouts became known to another, says an exchange. But one is absolutely indifferent to the great wealth that lies beneath one's very nose, as it were, in the need of inventions. This is not only a progressive age, but it is an age that likes to be amused, if the amusement is tinctured with a modicum of appeal to what we call our astuteness. When the inventor of “Pigs in Clover” patented his clever little scheme of inducing the wiseacres as well as the foolish to a trial of nerve, he had no idea that his happy thought would net SIOO,OOO. Yet such is the fact. The wooden return-ball that has delighted every child earned $50,000 for the inventor iu one year. The little tube inserted in rubber toys which, when pressed, gives forth a sound supposed to represent the cry of an animal in whose body it is lodged yields thousands of dollars yearly. There isn’t a man who sees one of these simple inventions who doesn’t feel an inner consciousness that he could have done the thing himself and he scolds himself mentally because he was not the first one to think the happy thought. By no means has everything been invented. The need of “happy thoughts” increases as the world advances. Thousands of dollars lie in wait for the man who will invent any improvement on the bicycle. Each manufacturer of the silent steed stands with open purse to welcome the inventor of the least betterment that he may outrank his rivals. An invention that will deaden the noise of the typewriter will bring with it a large fortune. If any man can conceive a method of making a bottle which cannot be refilled when emptied, he can soon rank with the millionaires. The largest paper house in the world is begging for a machine to place mourning border on stationery. Every woman in the land is crying out for a cheap, handy scissor sharpener and a cheap device to help teaeh young children to walk would be hailed with delight by thousands of tired mothers. A self-locking hat pin and a good folding baby carriages are other inventions sure to find ready purchasers among women. These are simple things, but it is really the simple things that yield the large incomes. A woman was dressing in a hurry for tlie theatre. As fast as she hooked one part of her waist the other part unhooked. The words with which she gave vent to her annoyance were of the class that appeal rather to the ear than to the eye. Her husband looked up iu surprise. “Humph!” he mildly ejaculated. “You would do better to hump these hooks,” exclaimed the exasperated woman. The hump was put on the hook and the simple invention not only netted an immense revenue, but has proved a blessing in the home. The bent wire by which the cork is held in place in the soda water bottle is a most simple invention, but it was a lucky man who thought of it and patented it and thereby received a princely income. There are other needed inventions that would require something more than merely inventive genius. For example, a bicycle that will turn round in about its own length; an attachment for embroidering machines, jtermitting the needle to take the thread directly from the spool—one of the largest lacemanufacturing houses is asking for this; an apparatus for utilizing wave power; a cheap guard attachable to and detachable from freight cars to keep brakemen from falling off the roof— as there are thousands of accidents yearly from this caqse the inventor would not only make his for tune, but would be instrumental io saving life and limb of his fellow man. A means to make kerosene odorless would be of practical use and would appeal at once to manufacturer and buyer. The list might be extended indefinitely, but if some one will invent a collar button, or any means to fasten a collar that will dispense with the sad loss of patience of the average man struggling with freshly laundered linen and a refractory button, or if he will invent a toothbrush the bristles of which will not come out, or a shoe lace fastener he will erect for himself, like the poet of old, a monument more lasting than brass.—Chicago Record.