Rensselaer Republican, Volume 21, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 May 1889 — Getting Rich by Small Inventions. [ARTICLE]

Getting Rich by Small Inventions.

Philadelphia Press. The New Jersey man who hit upon the idea of attaching a rubber erasing tip to the end of lead pencils is worth $200,000. The miner who invented a metal rive or eyelet at each end of the mouth of coat and trousers pockets, to resist the etrain caused by the carriage of pieces of ore ahd heavy tools, has made more money from his letters patent than he would have made had he struck a good veih of gold-bearing quartz. Every one has seen the metal Dlates that are used to protect the heels and soles of rough shoes, hut every one doesn’t know that within ten years the man who bit on the idea has made $250,000. As large a sum as was ever for any invention was enjoyed by the Yankee who invented the invoiced glass bell to hang over gas jets to protect ceilings from being blackened by the smoke. The inventor of the roller skate has made $1,000,000, notwithstanding the fact that his patent had nearly expired before the value of it was ascertained in the craze for roller skating that spread over the country a few years ago. The gimlet pointed screw has produced more wealth than most silver mines, and the Connecticut man who first thought of putting copper tips on the toes of children’s shoes is as well off asif he bad inherited $1,003,000, for that’s the amount his idea has realized for him in cold, clammy coin. The man who invented the most recent popular toy, ‘ Pigs in Clover,” will be rich before the leaves turn this autumn. He was poor last November.