“Tell about the exposure of the Dowe scheme.”
“Some years ago a Hoboken barkeeper and a German tailor went to England
to exploit the soundness of the alleged bullet-proof cloth. A whole
town was placarded, to advertise Dowe’s wonderful bullet-proof cloth,
etc. The invention was shown at the El Cambria Theatre, and a great
many of the old military men of England went to see this wonderful
invention, for the secret of which the supposed inventors demanded two
hundred thousand pounds. The thing actually shown, however, was not
bullet-proof cloth, neither was it a bullet-proof coat, but a little
shield about the size and thickness of a railway cushion, which was
apparently of fibrous material, and would stop a bullet. A target was
marked on a piece of paper, and a piece of paper folded over the gun.
One of these pieces of paper fell into my hands. I saw where the bullet
had entered, and where the flash came out. This was a complete ‘give
away,’ as it showed exactly what was in the plan, viz., that it was a
piece of sharp deception. I then put a notice in the paper that I had
discovered a shield, steel, better than that of Herr Dowe; that his
weighed twelve and one-half pounds to the square foot, and mine only
ten; that he asked two hundred thousand pounds for his secret, whereas
I would sell mine for seven shillings, sixpence. A great crowd of
people came to see my supposed invention, and I showed the exact thing
that Herr Dowe had, except that mine was thinner and lighter. I had
used nickel steel where he had used chrome steel. Many people were very
much disappointed, and many of them blackguarded me in the papers, but
there was truth in all I said. I did exactly what I said I would, and
beat Herr Dowe in the point of weight. This exposed the whole thing,
and, at the end of three days, everybody in London knew that Herr Dowe
and the Hoboken barkeeper had been deceiving the public. In fact, one
of their own men revealed the secret, confessing that it was nothing
more nor less than a piece of steel with a cushion around it. Then the
newspaper men who had been abusing me roundly, because they did not
understand, in the first place, invited me to London to a dinner, and
Herr Dowe and the Hoboken barkeeper disappeared.”
“To what do you attribute your success?”
“I never tried to exploit an invention till I had one to exploit. That
is, I never asked anyone to invest in a theory; and I never allowed my
name to be used to promote worthless properties or projects.”