[Illustration: PATENT GRANTED TO THE AUTHOR]
INVENTING
FOR BOYS
BY
A. FREDERICK COLLINS
INVENTOR OF THE WIRELESS TELEPHONE
_WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS AND
DIAGRAMS_
[Illustration]
NEW YORK
FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY
PUBLISHERS
_Copyright, 1916, by_
FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY
_All rights reserved_
TO
JOHN ROLLER COLLINS
A THINKER OF THOUGHTS
NEW AND NOVEL
A WORD TO THE BOY
Every boy is a born inventor.
And since you are a boy it follows as the night the day that you have
your share of inventive ability and you ought to make good use of it.
To find out some new way of making or doing a thing--for this is what
inventing means--is the most fascinating game that I know of to take up
a fellow’s time and thought and energy.
You may say how about wireless, or star-gazing, or baseball, or
shooting, or chess, or any one of a dozen other pastimes and sports and
I shall be bound to admit that all of them are highly entertaining and
some of them instructive but inventing is all that the others are and
besides it is _constructive_ while they are not.
By constructive I mean that you take an idea that had its origin in
your brain and this vague, intangible conception, which takes up no
space, has no weight and is not bound by time, you build up step by
step of wood and steel and like materials until at last you have
created something out of nothing, or as nearly as it can be done.
To watch your invention grow, especially if you build it with your own
hands, from the time you make the first rough sketch of your idea
until it stands completed and in working order, gives you a wonderful
feeling of pride and satisfaction for you are the _creator_ of it and
this means that you are more than a mere boy, greater than an ordinary
man--that you are in very truth a _demi-god_.
These are the real pleasures of inventing but to make a success of it
you have to drop back to earth again and take up the mean, the sordid
part, and that is to try to make money out of it. And if you have an
invention of merit you will have to forget that you are a demi-god and
become a hard and fast mortal again or it will not be long before some
other body owns it lock, barrel and stock; and then you will have a
chance to start another idea rolling and to build up another invention.
In this book I have tried to point out to you not only how to invent,
but how to make money out of your invention as well, and so, I say unto
you, from the moment the big idea strikes you be as gentle as a dove
and as wise as a serpent, to the end that your days as an inventor may
be long and that any profits which may accrue from your invention will
be yours instead of some one’s else. And now may peace be with you.
A. FREDERICK COLLINS.
Lyndon Arms,
524 Riverside Drive,
New York City.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
PREFACE vii
I. GETTING AN IDEA 1
HOW TO GET AN IDEA
The First Raw Idea.--Accidental Discoveries.--Thought
out Ideas.--Reading up Your Subject.--Working
out Ideas by Experiment.--Ideas for
Inventions in General.--Ideas for Mechanical
Inventions.--Ideas for Electrical Inventions.--Ideas
for Electro-Mechanical Inventions.--Ideas
for Chemical Inventions.--Ideas for Electro-Chemical
Inventions.
PROTECTING YOUR RAW IDEAS
II. WORKING IT OUT ON PAPER 19
TOOLS FOR MAKING SIMPLE DRAWINGS
HOW TO MAKE SIMPLE WORKING DRAWINGS
A SIMPLE WAY TO DRAW IN PERSPECTIVE
How to Make Isometric Paper.--Drawing Tools
you Need.
HOW TO DRAW ISOMETRIC ELLIPSES
An Easy, Rough Way and a Hard, Accurate Way.
HOW TO SHADE DRAWINGS
HOW TO MAKE ELECTRICAL SYMBOLS
HOW TO READ ELECTRICAL DIAGRAMS
SOME AIDS TO DRAWING
MAKING CARDBOARD MODELS
III. THE STATE OF THE ART 45
WHAT IS MEANT BY THE STATE OF THE ART
USE OF THE STATE OF THE ART
HOW TO LEARN THE STATE OF THE ART
HAVING A PATENT ATTORNEY LOOK IT UP
HOW TO LOOK IT UP YOURSELF
WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU FIND
(a) There are no other improvements like yours.--(b)
That there is a resemblance to yours.--(c)
When others are exactly like yours.
IV. HOW TO EXPERIMENT 58
HOW TO EXPERIMENT WITH MACHINES
Work, Energy and Power.--Work Against Friction.--Forms
of Energy.
MACHINES AND THE PRINCIPLES OF MACHINERY
THE USES OF MACHINES
THE SIX MECHANICAL POWERS
COMPOUND MACHINES.--BOOKS
HOW TO EXPERIMENT WITH ELECTRICITY
FORMS OF ELECTRICITY
Static Electricity.--Current Electricity.--Magnetism.--Radiation.
YOUR ELECTRICAL EQUIPMENT.--BOOKS
HOW TO EXPERIMENT WITH CHEMISTRY
YOUR CHEMICAL EQUIPMENT.--BOOKS
HOW TO EXPERIMENT WITH ELECTRO-CHEMISTRY
V. MAKING A MODEL 91
KINDS OF MODELS
Rough Models.--Scale Models.--Working
Models.
WAYS TO MAKE A MODEL
Making a Model Yourself.--Having a Model
Maker Make It.
THE TOOLS YOU NEED
The Vernier.--The Micrometer.--A and S Wire
Gage.--Drill Press.--Screw Cutting Lathe.
BUYING MATERIALS
ABOUT MAKING PATTERNS
CASTING IN BRASS AND IRON
VI. HOW TO PATENT YOUR INVENTION 112
WHAT A PATENT IS
CHOOSING A PATENT ATTORNEY
APPLYING FOR A PATENT YOURSELF
APPLYING FOR A PATENT THROUGH A PATENT ATTORNEY
WHAT YOU MAY PATENT
LOOKING AHEAD
WHAT A PATENT CONSISTS OF
The Petition.--The Drawings.--The Specifications.--The
Claims.--The Oath.
WHILE YOUR PATENT IS PENDING
INTERFERENCE
WHEN YOUR PATENT IS GRANTED
ABOUT PAPER PATENTS
VII. MAKING YOUR INVENTION PAY 131
HOW TO RAISE THE INITIAL FUNDS
ABOUT AN INTEREST IN A PATENT
Royalties, Shop Rights, etc.
FORMING A PARTNERSHIP
WHERE THE PROMOTER COMES IN
WHAT A STOCK COMPANY IS
HOW A STOCK COMPANY IS ORGANIZED
The Fees of the State.--Outfit Needed.
HOW A STOCK COMPANY IS OPERATED
ABOUT RETAINING A LAWYER
VIII. SOME HINTS OF MANUFACTURING 146
PROBLEMS OF MANUFACTURING
Farming out the Work.--Starting Your Own
Shop.--Buying Machine Tools.--Buying the
Stock.--Organizing a Shop Force.--The Stock
Room.--The Finished Product.--Overhead
Charges.
WHERE YOUR PROFITS COME IN
IX. PUTTING IT ON THE MARKET 166
HOW BEST TO DO IT
Agents Wanted.--The Mail Order Business.--A
Series of Follow-Up Letters.--Selling Through
Sales Agents.--Selling Direct from Factory to
Consumer.--Selling Through the Trade.
GETTING PUBLICITY
ADVERTISING
X. THINGS FOR YOU TO INVENT 180
SOME LITTLE THINGS NEEDED
For the Person.--For the House.--For the
Farm.--For the Office.--For Fun.
SOME BIG INVENTIONS NEEDED
Safety First.--Automobiles.--Aviation.--Chemistry.--
Electricity.--Electro-Chemistry.--Building.--Mining
and Metallurgy.--Printing.--Moving Pictures.
WHAT NOT TO INVENT
XI. WHAT SOME INVENTIONS HAVE PAID 200
A TOUR OF THE INVENTIVE WORLD
LITTLE INVENTIONS
SIMPLE INVENTIONS
REAL INVENTIONS
GREAT INVENTIONS
The Steam Engine, Locomotive, and Steamboat.--The
Telegraph.--The Perfecting Press.--The
Sewing Machine.--The Ice Machine.--The
Steel Process.--The Gas Engine.--The Dynamo
and Motor.--The Air Brake.--The Telephone.--The
Typewriter.--The Phonograph.--The Storage
Battery.--The Snap-shot Camera.--The
Steam Turbine.--The Automobile.--The Incandescent
Light.--The Trolley Car.--The Electric
Locomotive.--The Linotype.--Moving Pictures.--The
Wireless Telegraph.--The Wireless
Telephone.--The Aeroplane.
XII. PROFITABLE INFORMATION 216
DESIGN PATENTS
ASSIGNMENTS
CAVEATS
PATENT OFFICE FEES
TRADE MARKS
COPYRIGHTS
GOVERNMENT FEES FOR PATENTS AND LEAST CHARGES
OF PATENT ATTORNEYS
FOREIGN PATENTS
APPENDICES 229-252
SOME WORDS AND TERMS USED IN THIS BOOK 253-260
INDEX 261-270
ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
Patent granted to the author _Frontispiece_
A popular idea of an inventive genius 2
Where the big idea really originates 3
A model self-inking printing press 9
A velocipede scroll saw with boring attachment 10
A standard single cylinder air pump 11
A horizontal steam engine 12
A fireless cooker 13
A loud speaking telephone largely used on ship-board 14
A common electric bell 15
An ordinary telegraph sounder 16
A telautograph 17
The gyro compass of a ship 18
A twelve inch rule 19
A pair of cheap compasses 19
An isometric perspective drawing of a box 20
Top, side and end view of same 20
Cross-section of same; drawing of hook 21
Side view of a steam engine 22
End view of same 23
Top view of same 24
Cross-section of same 24
The side valve shown in detail 25
An isometric perspective drawing of a steam engine 25
A sheet of isometric drawing paper 26
First step in isometric perspective drawing 27
The next step in isometric perspective drawing 27
A crank shaft drawn on isometric paper 28
A drawing board; a triangular scale 29
A set of inexpensive drawing instruments; a protractor 30
The position of the protractor on paper 31
The proportion of an isometric ellipse 32
How ellipses stand out in relief 33
How an isometric ellipse is drawn 34
Shading and lettering chart for drawings 35
Chart of electrical symbols 37, 38
A simple wiring diagram 39
Aids to drawing a manikin; proportions drawn on cross-section
paper; trial positions of manikin 40-42
Cardboard model of a gyro engine 44
The Official Gazette; Patent specifications; Index to Patents 53
A lever of the first class; a pair of pliers 63
A lever of the second class; wire splicing clamps 63
A lever of the third class; a pair of sugar tongs 64
A bent lever 65
A compound lever 65
Wheel and axle 66
A train of wheels or wheel works 66
A fixed pulley 67
An incline plane and one of its uses 67
A simple wedge; a printer’s quoin 68
The theory of a screw; a screw clamp 68
Some useful mechanical movements 70-73
A steady direct current; an interrupted direct current; a
pulsating direct current; an alternating current; alternating
current changed into an interrupted direct current;
a periodic oscillating current; a sustained oscillating current 76-78
Some useful electro-mechanical devices 80-81
An ammeter; a voltmeter 82
A resistance box 83
Side and end view of a winding device 84
Making a ruby by chemistry; ruby boules as they come from
the furnace; synthetic rubies after they are cut 85
Some useful chemical apparatus 87
An electric furnace showing parts and in operation 88-89
Rough model of an electric motor drive for a locomotive 92
A scale model of an aeroplane 93
A toy helicopter 94
A working model of a locomotive 95
Some useful jewelers’ and machinists’ tools 101
A small hand drill press 102
A foot power screw-cutting lathe 103
A vernier for accurate measurement 103
A micrometer 105
A standard wire gage 106
Useful stock materials made by automatic machinery 107
A standard for a telegraph sounder 109
Pouring a mould 110
Rules of Practice of the Patent Office 116
A page of drawings 121
Specification of one of Mr. Collins’ patents 123
The Claims of the same patent 123
The U. S. Patent Office, Washington, D. C. 129
Certificate of Incorporation 139
Stock certificate 141
A seal press 142
A gas furnace 150
A grinder and polisher 151
A plain lathe for turning metal with hand tools 152
An engine lathe 153
Pillar type of power drill 154
A planer for surfacing metal work 154
A shaper for shaping up metal work 155
A universal milling machine 156
A jig saw 157
A band saw 158
A time stamp 162
A high frequency machine 163
From manufacturer to canvasser, to consumer 167
From manufacturer to order agent, to consumer 169
From manufacturer to his agent, to consumer 172
Selling direct from factory to consumer 173
Selling through the trade 174
Old style and improved tooth brush 182
The old and the new way in sweeping carpets 183
A labor saving painting machine 184
A quick figuring and bookkeeping machine 185
A rubber dagger 186
Bumping-the-bumps 187
A novel, life-saving gun 188
The Owen magnetic clutch 189
A gyro stabilizer 189
A liquid air machine 190
The cheapest form of light 190
A tube system of electric light 191
The high tension electric generator 192
Cutting steel girders with oxy-acetylene 193
Apparatus for prevention of mine disasters 194
A steel plate engraving machine 195
An attempt to improve the movies 196
Tesla’s tower at Wardencliffe, L. I. 197
A perpetual motion machine 198
Perpetual motion as seen by a patent attorney 199
The first telephone 205
The first typewriter 206
The first phonograph 207
The first incandescent light 210
Collins wireless telephone 214
Design patent 216
A registered trade mark 220
Application blank for copyright of a book 222-223
Cross-section of gear 238
The four chief thermometric scales 251
INVENTING FOR BOYS
CHAPTER I
GETTING AN IDEA
Almost every one has had, at some time or other an _idea_ for a new
_invention_ or of how some old _device_ could be improved.
To get an original idea for an invention is in itself a mark of genius,
but it is not enough to make it a success and if you do not know how to
develop it you are almost certain to give up before you have completed
it.
And to give up a good idea and then find that some one else has thought
of the same thing later, worked it up and made money out of it gives a
fellow a most uncomfortable feeling about what might have been.
Now my purpose is not to tell you _what_ to invent as much as it is to
tell you _how_ to invent and, if when you get an idea that you believe
worth while you will follow it up step by step as I have outlined in
this book you will at least save yourself time, worry and money and you
stand a chance of winning fame, glory, and a bank account.
~How to Get an Idea.--~There is only one way to invent a new thing or
to make an improvement on something that has already been invented and
that is to get an idea.
[Illustration: FIG. 1. A POPULAR IDEA OF AN INVENTIVE GENIUS]
And what, you may wonder, is an idea? It is easy to say that it is a
_notion_ that comes into your head, or a thought that springs into your
mind. But I doubt if even a _psychologist_ could explain just what an
idea is or how one originates in the mind any more than a _biologist_
could tell how the germ of life is retained in a seed and how it grows
when it is planted.
One good thing about an idea, though, is that we don’t have to know
what the mysterious thing is or how it springs into being in the mind.
In this way an idea is very much like electricity--we don’t know
exactly what it is but we do know a good deal about how it works and
this is enough for our present purpose.
~The First Raw Idea.--~There are several ways by which you may get an
idea for an invention but in any case the first raw idea, or _inductive
discovery_, as it is called in _philosophy_, must and does come from
something outside the mind, something that you have seen, heard,
smelled, tasted or felt, and when your mind is in the right condition
to receive an idea of this kind you will know it when it comes and
grasp it very quickly, that is if you are a real inventor.
[Illustration: FIG. 2. WHERE THE BIG IDEA REALLY ORIGINATES]
There are many kinds of raw, or original ideas and they show themselves
in various ways. You may get a very vague idea of an invention, or
of an improvement, or it may be a clean cut one on the jump; it may
be a very valuable idea or it may be a wholly worthless one, but it
is generally easy after you get one to enlarge upon it, as we shall
presently see, and to build up in the mind’s eye a structure so
that you can guess pretty nearly whether you will have a palace, an
architectural monstrosity or a chicken-coop when it is done.
A first, or raw idea may come to a fellow, who is on inventing bent,
in any one of several ways but chiefly when (1) he is conjuring up
in his mind something which he has seen or heard; (2) when something
happens by accident which shows him an effect or a result that is new,
and (3) when he is looking at or working on some device or machine; and
this last way is the one that is most productive of ideas for useful
improvements.
As an example of getting an idea behold a young man rocking in a chair
with closed eyes; he is thinking of nothing in particular but of a
good many things quite vaguely. A thought of his sister packing her
trunk--in the way a woman usually packs a trunk--comes into his mind
and then an idea strikes him that it would be a good scheme for a trunk
to have drawers in it like a bureau. The result of this raw idea is the
_wardrobe trunk_ as we know it to-day.
~Accidental Discoveries.--~Once in a long while some one hits upon an
invention purely by accident.
A good illustration which covers the point was the discovery of
_vulcanized rubber_. The story goes that Charles Goodyear happened to
drop some crude rubber and sulphur on a hot stove at the same time with
the result that it was made much stronger and more elastic than before.
Experiment showed that the vulcanized rubber could be made as soft or
as hard as desired by using more or less sulphur and applying more or
less heat. From this discovery of Goodyear’s has sprung the gigantic
rubber industry of to-day.
Discoveries of this kind were often made in the early days of invention
but the principles which underlie all of the sciences are now so well
known that invention itself has been brought down to a scientific
basis; and instead of inventors being long-haired, dreaming Micawbers
they are generally men of education and genius too, trained along the
lines they are working in and who look like clean-cut business men;
and if they are successful inventors you may depend upon it they are
business men.
When I say that they are men of learning I do not mean that it takes
a college professor to be a big inventor; indeed very few college
professors have the genius to be inventors and too many inventors have
too little knowledge along the line in which they are working. Of the
two genius is the greatest for it is bred in the bone while any one can
educate himself.
To make the point clear here are three famous men of genius and who
were largely self-taught.
Faraday who made the dynamo and motor possible was a poor, uneducated
boy with a burning thirst for knowledge when he was apprenticed to
Davy at the Royal Institution in London. Edison had about as little
schooling as the law allows, but he taught himself science and he now
stands head and shoulders above all the rest of the great inventors.
And Marconi, a young fellow of 23, invented the wireless telegraph
while the greatest scientists of the world could not do it until he
showed them how.
~Thought Out Ideas.--~There are very few inventions which are complete
when the first idea of it comes into the mind, but instead nearly all
of them require thinking out, or _deductive proof_ as it is called in
philosophy.
This second process of thinking consists of turning the raw idea over
and over in your mind so that you can judge whether it is good or not,
how it will work out and other things about it, and to do this you must
know as many of the facts relating to it as you can and when you have
these all clear and catalogued in your mind your idea then takes on the
aspect of an invention.
The two usual ways to get the needed facts are (1) to read up on the
subject, and (2) to experiment along the line of your idea. Of course
if it is your regular work that has called forth your first idea it is
quite likely you will have all of the facts you need to go ahead and
work the thing out; but if your idea is about a device, or a machine,
or a compound you know nothing of your best plan is to read up on the
subject and follow up your reading by making a number of experiments.
~Reading up Your Subject.--~In this day of public libraries it is easy
to get books on any subject unless it is one on sunsets and sunsets
don’t count in inventing--in fact nothing counts except the big idea,
a shop or a laboratory to develop it in and burning the midnight
incandescent light.
It doesn’t matter very much what invention you are working on you ought
to read a _first book_ on _physics_ and one on _chemistry_ and what’s
more you should study them if you expect to ever invent anything of
magnitude.
A book on physics tells all you need to know in the beginning about
matter, force, motion, the principles of machines, the mechanics of
liquids and gases, electricity and magnetism, sound, heat and light.
Suppose you have an idea for an electrical device, if you will read the
chapters on electricity and magnetism in your book of _physics_ you
will learn what you ought to know first about these subjects and then
if you need to go deeper you can get a more advanced book.
A book of the elements of chemistry tells about gases, acids, alkalies
and metals and of their chemical changes, and you will find a little
knowledge of chemistry of considerable use in working out many ideas.
There are many books of physics and chemistry but _Avery’s Elements
of Physics_ published by the American Book Company of New York, and
_Remsen’s Elements of Chemistry_ published by Henry Holt and Company of
New York are good books for a beginner to read.
~Working Out Ideas by Experiment.--~Though you may think long and hard
and read everything you can find that has a bearing on your great idea,
you will soon reach a point where you feel you would like to try it
out, that is to build it up in reality so that you can see if it will
do the work you want it to do or if it won’t do the work where the
trouble comes in.
Generally speaking if it is a mechanical or an electro-mechanical
scheme you begin by drawing this brain-child of yours on paper and then
you make a model, or try to, and you add to it, take away from it, tear
it down sometimes and at others you scrap it and build an entirely new
one.
But usually it is some one part that needs patience and effort and
skill put upon it and as you try out idea after idea, plan after plan
and scheme after scheme you are not only almost sure to find just what
you are looking for but very often experimental work will lead you to
fresh ideas for other and even more important improvements.
Another curious thing I have found about experimenting is this: you may
start out on a certain line and find that the result you want is so
hard to get it seems hopeless to go ahead. Now if you quit it is all
off but if you go on and on trying everything you can think of, keeping
up your belief that the thing you are striving for must come and in
your own ability to do that which you want to do, after long hours,
or days, or weeks of constant work the result will come to you like a
flash and just as though the guardian angel of invention hovered over
you and put the desired thing right into your mind and hand. The moral
is that everything comes to the inventor who keeps on experimenting
and does not give up.
~Ideas for Inventions in General.--~Inventions may be divided into
three general classes and these are (1) _mechanical_, (2) _electrical_
and (3) _chemical_; and there are combinations of these classes as (a)
_electro-mechanical_ and (b) _electro-chemical_ inventions and your
idea may come under the head of any one of them.
[Illustration: FIG. 3. A MODEL SELF-INKING PRINTING PRESS]
~Ideas for Mechanical Inventions.--~Inventions of a mechanical kind
include nearly everything in the broad domain of physics but the term
_mechanical inventions_ is applied especially to devices that are
worked by means of pendulums, springs, weights, levers, wheels and
axles, pulleys and inclined planes, screws and pistons and which have
to do with force and motion.
To work out an idea for a mechanical device if the latter is a fairly
simple one, as a printing press, see Fig. 3, or a scroll saw, see Fig.
4, should not be a very hard thing to do because all of the parts
can be easily seen and if you add a few parts to it and it does not
work the fault can be readily picked and the part that is causing the
trouble can be redesigned and changed until the whole device is made
operative.
[Illustration: FIG. 4. A VELOCIPEDE SCROLL SAW WITH BORING ATTACHMENT]
Of course if the machine is a more complicated affair in which there
are pistons, valves and the like as in an air-pump, see Fig. 5, or an
ordinary engine, see Fig. 6, it is liable to develop internal--or
perhaps infernal would be more fitting--troubles that are sometimes
very pertinacious and hard to overcome.
[Illustration: FIG. 5. A STANDARD SINGLE CYLINDER AIR PUMP]
The easiest and best paying way to begin a career of inventing is to
hit on an idea to improve some simple device that either makes for
safety or for saving, for convenience or for lessening mental or manual
labor. But if you should happen to get an idea for something big and
hard don’t give it the go-by, but follow it up along the lines which I
have indicated in this book and you will stand a pretty good chance of
finally working it out to a successful conclusion.
~Ideas for Electrical Inventions.--~Ideas for inventions in which
electricity and magnetism are used are generally harder to work out
than those of a purely mechanical kind for the reason that the cause
in the first case which produces the result you want cannot be seen,
whereas the cause in the second case which sets up the effect you want
is always visible.
But electrical inventions are like mechanical inventions in that they
may be very simple, such as passing a current through the heating
element of an electric cooker as shown in Fig. 7, or it may be quite a
complex piece of apparatus as for instance a loud speaking telephone
for use on ship-board as shown in Fig. 8.
[Illustration: FIG. 6. A HORIZONTAL STEAM ENGINE]
Where an electric current is used for some simple device a thorough
knowledge of electricity may not be necessary but if your invention
requires that a _low voltage_ current be changed into _high frequency
oscillations_ which are in turn varied by the voice and these
oscillations are sent out from an _aerial wire_, all of which is done
in a wireless telephone, I should say that you ought to have a pretty
fair understanding of the theory of electricity before you begin your
experiments--that is if you expect to develop your invention into an
apparatus of utility and hence of worth.
~Ideas for Electro-Mechanical Inventions.--~There are many devices that
are partly electrical and partly mechanical, the _operation_ of the one
_actuating_ the other and the other way about.
[Illustration: FIG. 7. A FIRELESS COOKER. THE HEAT IS WHERE YOU WANT IT]
The electric bell, see Fig. 9, and the telegraph sounder, see Fig.
10, are types of simple electro-mechanical devices, while the
telautograph, see Fig. 11, and the electrical gyroscopic compass for
use on ship-board, see Fig. 12, are examples of the more complex
electro-mechanical devices.
To work out an idea by bringing both mechanics and electricity to bear
in the same device often makes the work much easier for sometimes the
armature of an _electromagnet_ or the plunger of a _solenoid_ will
operate to a better advantage than a combination of levers. But to use
mechanics and electricity in the same device you must of course have a
knowledge of them both.
~Ideas for Chemical Inventions.--~There is another class of ideas which
require neither mechanics nor electricity for their working out. They
are chemical compounds.
[Illustration: FIG. 8. A LOUD SPEAKING TELEPHONE LARGELY USED ON
SHIP-BOARD]
Suppose an idea comes to you to make a chemical solution for erasing
ink, or to make a new high explosive. While the idea might be a good
one you would have a long road to travel if you began experimenting and
had no knowledge of chemistry and your road in the latter case would
probably be straight up.
Trying out chemical compounds without knowing something of the
reactions they produce is far more wasteful of time and money than
puttering around with mechanical and electrical devices, especially
when one’s line of business is selling ribbons, and besides it’s more
or less dangerous too.
Should you get an idea for making an explosive more powerful than any
yet invented, either _dish_ the idea or pave the way by taking a course
in advanced chemistry and even then your idea is liable to perish with
you. Better let the Maxims or the du Ponts do it.
[Illustration: FIG. 9. A COMMON ELECTRIC BELL]
~Ideas for Electrochemical Inventions.--~Just as there are ideas that
call for the use of mechanics and electricity in a single device
so there are ideas for processes that combine both chemistry and
electricity.
The action of a common dry cell is electrochemical and so is
electroplating. But there are a large number of chemicals and chemical
substances that are produced by electricity such as _nitric acid_
from the air, _calcium carbide_ from which _acetylene gas_ is made,
_carborundum_ which is used as an _abrasive_ in the place of emery, and
then there is the _electrolytic_ refining of copper, the manufacture of
_aluminum_, besides a whole string of other electrochemical inventions.
[Illustration: FIG. 10. AN ORDINARY TELEGRAPH SOUNDER]
While it is quite safe to work along electrochemical lines still it
takes a considerable amount of technical knowledge in these days to
invent anything that the kultured German scientists haven’t thought of
and worked out.
~Protecting your Raw Ideas.--~Just as soon as you have an idea for an
invention write as clear a description of it as you can, read it to the
members of your family, have them sign it and file it away as this is
a record you may have to produce sometime in the future to prove your
_priority_, that is that you were the first in time to conceive the
idea.
As soon as you have your idea all thought out and have made a drawing,
an experiment, a cardboard or other model, in fact anything that will
show what it will do, at least to some extent, and so prove that you
have really made a new invention, invite two or three of your trusted
friends to see it.
[Illustration: FIG. 11. A TELAUTOGRAPH. A TELEGRAPH FOR REPRODUCING
WRITING AT A DISTANCE]
Having shown, explained and enthused over it have them go with you to
a _notary public_ and sign a statement to the effect that they have
seen it; then have him put his signature and his seal on it. You have
two years from the date you first showed it to develop and file an
application for a patent on it but should you fail to do this within
the above time limit any one else can take up your idea, if they know
of it, work it up and get a patent on it.
Finally keep a note book and write down every thought you have about
your invention, and every experiment you make in good black ink; draw
pictures and diagrams and make photographs if possible of your work
as you go along and put them in your book with the dates on them.
This kind of a record will furnish you with what patent attorneys
call the _evidence of conception_, and which will prove very useful
in establishing your prior rights if you should ever get into an
_infringement_ suit.
[Illustration: FIG. 12. THE GYRO COMPASS OF A SHIP. A GYROSCOPE TAKES
THE PLACE OF THE MAGNETIC NEEDLE]