Rensselaer Republican, Volume 15, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 May 1883 — The Tables Tarned on the Drive-Well Men. [ARTICLE]

The Tables Tarned on the Drive-Well Men.

Two or three weeks since The Republican republished from the Indianapolis Times an editorial containing the statement that Green, the owner of the drive-well patents had been victorious in his suits in regard to them, and that there was not alternative but that owners of drive-wells should have to pay the royalty. A case was decided in the United States Circuit Court at Des Moines, lowa on 9th inst. which puts an intirely different aspect upon the matter. The court there decided, upon grounds, upon which we need not enter at length, that both the patent and the reissue of the J same were invalid. On the strength of this decision our advice to every owner of a drive-well who reads this paper is that if anyone calls upon them with a demand for a royalty upon their wells, to treat them as rogues and swindlers and if they persist in their demands to kick them off their premises. The following editorial from The Chicago Inter-Ocean, will be worth reading in this connection. “The -drive-well fraud has at least received its death-warrant. This will be a great relief to a large class of farmers and villagers, too, throughout the Northwest. The idea of substutiting an iron tube for the oldfashioned wells was a happy one, and the inventor was entitled to liberal compensation for it; but it has long been used for purposes Of persecution. This well is a very simple affair. The bottom is solid and pointed, and for a foot or so directly above the point the tube is perforated with holes, and the holes generally covered with wire netting, to keep sand from sifting in. The actual expense of such a well is slight. Of course, it is not feasible in a rocky country, nor can it be used in all soils, although nearly every obstacle in the way of clay or quicksand has been overcome. The devise is so simple that the use of these wells spread like wildfire, and for years those claiming to own the patent have pursued a policy which has been little short of blackmail, the owner of the well being uncertain as to the proper party to receive the royalty claimed. It is a great relief to have the whole patent set aside. The reasons are that, first, because the inventer, Green, of New York, allowed it to be used two years before applying for a patent, and, second, the reissue was void. But it matters little what arguments had weight with the judges. The fact itsself will bring a sigh of relief from a vast number of people. Now if some way could be devised to rid the country of the barbed-wire monopoly, another stride in the right direction would be taken.