Inventors & Inventions
By
Henry Robinson
Illustrations by
T. M. Fleming
[Illustration]
Published by Henry Robinson
41 West 33d Street
New York, N. Y.
1911
COPYRIGHT, 1911
BY
H. ROBINSON
41 WEST 33D STREET
NEW YORK, N. Y.
Contents
CHAPTER 1
SUCCESSFUL INVENTION
CHAPTER 2
MACHINE DESIGNING
CHAPTER 3
FINANCING A NEW INVENTION
CHAPTER 4
MARKETING A NEW INVENTION
CHAPTER 5
DETERMINING THE SELLING PRICE OF A NEWLY INVENTED ARTICLE
CHAPTER 6
OFFICE MANAGEMENT AND BUSINESS POLICIES
CHAPTER 7
DIVERS WAYS OF EXPLOITING AN INVENTION
CHAPTER 8
USEFUL POINTERS ON SUCCESSFUL MANUFACTURING
CHAPTER 9
WARNING TO PROSPECTIVE INVENTORS
CHAPTER 10
ADVICE TO INVENTORS ON INVENTIONS
CHAPTER 11
GENERAL DEFINITION AND CLASSIFICATION OF INVENTIONS
CHAPTER 12
THE GLORY OF INVENTION AND PICTURES OF CELEBRATED INVENTORS AND
SCIENTISTS
CHAPTER 13
HOW TO INVENT
CHAPTER 14
HOW TO MAKE SKETCHES AND SPECIFICATIONS
CHAPTER 15
THE NECESSITY OF COMPETENT ENGINEERING FOR SUCCESSFUL INVENTION
CHAPTER 16
PERT POINTERS FOR PROSPECTIVE INVENTORS THAT WILL BE FOUND HELPFUL
CHAPTER 17
PROTECTION OF AN INVENTION
CHAPTER 18
VARIOUS WAYS EMPLOYED TO CHEAT AND ROB INVENTORS
CHAPTER 19
GOVERNMENT CONNIVANCE AT THE DESPOILING OF A POOR INVENTOR
CHAPTER 20
OLD AND COMMON TRICKS EMPLOYED TO "DO" AN INEXPERIENCED INVENTOR
CHAPTER 21
THE ROOT OF THE EVIL
CHAPTER 22
COMPARATIVE LEGAL PROTECTION AFFORDED TO MENTAL AND PHYSICAL
PROPERTY
CHAPTER 23
THE UTTER HELPLESSNESS OF A POOR INVENTOR TO OBTAIN JUSTICE
CHAPTER 24
PUBLIC ATTITUDE TOWARDS HIM WHO STEALS PHYSICAL AND TO THE ONE WHO
STEALS MENTAL PROPERTY
CHAPTER 25
PRESENT AVAILABLE MEANS OF PROTECTING AN INVENTION
CHAPTER 26
COMPARATIVE GOVERNMENT TREATMENT--A BOUNTY FOR RAISING "SUGAR
BEETS," BUT A TAX ON INVENTIONS
CHAPTER 27
SOCIETY'S DEBT TO THE INVENTOR
CHAPTER 28
COMPARATIVE PROTECTION GIVEN BY THE GOVERNMENT
CHAPTER 29
THE LAW'S DEFINITION OF PROPERTY--AND PUBLIC POLICY
CHAPTER 30
THE SUCCESSFUL INVENTOR
CHAPTER 31
COMPARATIVE TREATMENT THE WORLD ACCORDS TO THEM, AND SUMMARY
Illustrations
BY HENRY ROBINSON ENGINEER AND INVENTOR 5
A. G. ARNOLD, Esq. 7
THE SUCCESSFUL INVENTOR THE UNSUCCESSFUL INVENTOR 12
THE STEPS BY WHICH HE IS REQUIRED TO CLIMB AND MOUNT THAT
DESIRED EMINENCE. 14
INVENTORS SELDOM HAVE ANYTHING OUTSIDE OF THEIR ASPIRATIONS
AND PROSPECTS. 16
FINANCE MINISTERS. 17
VISION SUFFICIENTLY PENETRATING TO DETECT THE NIGGER IN THE
WOODPILE. 21
"NO ONE POOR ENOUGH TO DO HIS INVENTION REVERENCE." 21
"A BIRD IN THE HAND IS WORTH TWO IN THE BUSH." 27
THE GOOD WILL AND WELL WISHES OF THOSE WHO HELPED CREATE IT. 29
NUMEROUS AND DEEP ARE THE PITFALLS THAT THE
WOULD-BE-SUCCESSFUL INVENTOR MUST AVOID. 31
VICTIMS CONSTANTLY THROWN UP BY THE WAVES OF PASSION AND
FOLLY, ON THE STERILE SHORE OF HUMAN INDIFFERENCE. 35
SHORT AND EASY CUT TO OPULENCE AND EASE. 35
WHO CAN FATHOM OR SET A LIMIT TO THE INGENUITY OF THAT
DIVINE CREATION, THE HUMAN BRAIN? NONE BUT ITS CREATOR. 37
OUR ORDINARY EVERYDAY MECHANICAL UTILITIES WOULD BE
CONSIDERED MAGIC BY HIM WHO WROTE--"THERE'S NOTHING
NEW UNDER THE SUN." 37
NEWTON. 57
HERSCHEL. 57
S. F. B. MORSE. 57
ROBERT FULTON, INVENTOR OF THE STEAMBOAT. 57
BENJ. FRANKLIN. 57
ELIAS HOWE. 57
JAS. WATT. 57
LORD KELVIN. 57
THOS. A. EDISON. 57
SIG. MARCONI. 57
SIR H. BESSEMER. 57
C. H. MC CORMICK. 57
PROFESSOR HUXLEY. 57
HUMBOLDT. 57
CHAS. DARWIN. 57
SEYMOUR M. BONSALL. 57
AN INTELLIGENT AND PRUDENT INVENTOR WILL CAREFULLY NOTE
HIS OWN CAPACITY. 61
OBSERVE EVERYTHING CAREFULLY. TRY TO REMEMBER EVERYTHING
YOU SEE. REASON LOGICALLY. DO NOT OVERLOOK DETAILS. 63
DON'T IMAGINE YOURSELF A SOLOMON. 63
"THE EAGLE AND THE JACKDAW." DON'T BITE OFF MORE THAN YOU
CAN SWALLOW. 63
DON'T SET YOURSELF A QUIXOTIC TASK. 63
DON'T GO ABOUT WITH A FACE AS SOLEMN AND ANXIOUS AS THOUGH
YOU WERE ATLAS. 63
SHE WANTS TO BE SHOWN. 63
SHE WILL NOT BE SLOW IN HANDING YOU UP THE SUGAR LUMPS. 63
TO CAST ASIDE WHEN YOU BECOME SUCCESSFUL THE SHARER OF YOUR
EARLY POVERTY AND STRUGGLES. 63
YOU WILL BE GREATER BY NOT FOLLOWING ANYBODY'S EXAMPLE IN
THAT RESPECT. 63
ONLY A TEMPERATE ABSTEMIOUS REGIME OF LIFE CAN GIVE THE
HEALTHY BRAIN. 63
DON'T FORGET THE PEOPLE YOU KNEW. 63
THE SWIPEING MFG. CO. HAVE STOLEN MY INVENTION. 80
WE MUST HAVE 1000 DOLLARS AS A RETAINING FEE. 80
DEFENDED IN COURT * * * * ON TECHNICALITIES. 80
THE EXPLOITERS OF HIS INVENTION CAN ENJOY THEIR ILL-GOTTEN
GAINS WITH IMPUNITY. 80
WHY, OH WHY, IS THE STEALING OF ONE KIND OF PROPERTY A
CRIMINAL OFFENSE, ANOTHER ONLY A CIVIL TORT? 85
BUT IS IT DIFFERENT OH! NOW! IF THE STOLEN PROPERTY IS A
MENTAL INSTEAD OF A HAND PRODUCT? 86
THE WORLD IS USUALLY MORE MINDFUL OF THE MAN WITH THE
"BIG STICK," THAN WITH THE "BIG GRIEVANCE." 88
DIFFERENCE IN THE TREATMENT METED OUT BY OUR GOVERNMENT TO
HIM WHO RENDERS SERVICES TO SOCIETY, BY DIGGING IN THE
DIRT, AND TO HIM WHO USES THE BRAIN. 90
HAS NOT THE INGENUITY OF THE INVENTOR ENABLED EVEN THE
FARMER * * * TO GET GREATER RETURNS FOR HIS
LABOR? * * * HAS HE NOT MADE HIS WORK LIGHTER AND HAS
HE NOT ENABLED HIM TO GET MORE OF THE GOOD THINGS OF
THIS WORLD? 92
THROUGH THE INVENTOR'S INGENUITY AND INDUSTRY THIS COUNTRY
HAS ATTAINED ITS MIGHTY POTENCY IN WAR. 93
Inventors and Inventions
[Illustration
BY
HENRY ROBINSON
ENGINEER AND INVENTOR
1911]
DEDICATED
TO MY FRIEND AND BENEFACTOR
A. G. ARNOLD, ESQ.
[Illustration: A. G. ARNOLD. ESQ.]
Preface
The object of publishing this pamphlet is to awaken the public
conscience to the great injustice continually being done to a
numerous and worthy class of intellectual toilers, and the evil
resulting from the same to the general public.
If perchance this will help to remedy the wrong to any extent, the
author will feel amply repaid for the trouble and expense incurred in
pointing it out to the public.
Respectfully yours
THE AUTHOR
H. Robinson
CHAPTER 1
SUCCESSFUL INVENTION
A very large number of people in and out of the mechanical
profession are intensely eager to know how to become successful
inventors. Wealth, honor and glory are the reward of the successful.
Disappointment, drudgery, oblivion, and poverty are often the portion
of the less fortunate ones.
Many of the latter foolishly attribute the greater measure of success
to their fellow-workers in the same chosen field of usefulness to
luck, which is far from the truth, and to that fallacious belief they
often owe their own less favored condition. It is also an injustice
to those who have reached the summit; as there is one, and only one
road that leads to it, and which they all have to take, and its name
is "Endeavor."
There are numerous fictitious definitions of the successful inventor,
and yet there is but one true gauge and test of merit that entitles
one to membership in the none-too-numerous and select fraternity.
This test is the ability of producing a commercially successful
invention.
That "Ability" is but the concentrated name for the possession of
numerous requirements, comprising a vast and varied knowledge,
theoretical, scientific, and practical, not only of the various
mechanical branches necessary for successful machine designing, but
of the art and conditions for the manipulation of that product for
which a machine is designed, with or without that machine, and the
newly designed machine's economic relation to the same.
Then securing the necessary co-operation of financial means must
be attended to; introducing the newly hatched-out novelty into the
market, compelling its adoption and general use, for its purpose,
and organizing the proper fabric for its production efficiently and
economically.
[Illustration: THE SUCCESSFUL INVENTOR
THE UNSUCCESSFUL INVENTOR]
Last, but not least, there must be secured the possession of a fair
share of its benefits to its originator, and to those "financial
interests" necessary in the production and marketing of a successful
invention.
All of these accomplishments are the necessary elements and
attributes of the successful inventor, and are the steps by which he
is required to climb and mount that desired eminence and through the
skipping or missing of any one of those steps, many aspiring climbers
have been hurled headlong to the bottom of the abyss just as they
were within reach of the goal.
No matter how naturally favored one may be, never has nature
so favored any individual as to bestow on him those necessary
accomplishments gratis.
It is one of the greatest anomalies of human nature, that the
performance of most difficult tasks, requiring for their consummation
numerous and rare attainments, are continually undertaken by those
who are least qualified to perform them. Lured by the glittering
reward of the few successful ones, they try to gain by chance what
can only be gained by work.