The phonoscope (Nov 1896-Dec 1899)

The Phonoscope (Copyrighted, 1896) A Monthly Journal Devoted to Scientific and Amusement Inventions Appertaining to Sound and Sight Vol. J NEW YORK, JANUARY-FEBRUARY, 1897 No. 3 Successful Inventions Some of the Fortuitous Suggestions That Have Made Clever Yankees Rich One of the most successful inventors of small things was Crandall. He patented several puzzles that made money, but "Pigs in Clover" was his great hit in this line. At one time he was engaged in the business of making croquet sets, the lawn game being then at the heighth of its popularity. He devised a method of constructing the boxes so that the parts were held together by groove and tongue fastenings instead of nails. One night he took home some of the waste pieces to his little girl, who was sick. She found such delight in playing with them and putting them together that her father conceived the idea of making similar blocks for the amusement of children. Such was the evolution of the well-known Crandall buildingblocks. Another very profitable toy was the invention of a bedridden boy. This was the "Dancing Jim Crow," which for a long time was the rage. It is said to have yielded seventy-five thousand dollars in the first year it came out. By a simple bit of mechanism a darkey was made to dance on a box. The celebrated "Fifteen Puzzle" was never patented ; several inventors claimed to have originated it, and fortunes were gained by the sale of it. Most famous of all patented toys was the " return ball." It was sold for a cent, with rubber string and brass finger-ring ; yet the profit ran up to an enormous sum. The chameleon top and walking alligator brought fortunes to the patentees. The roller skate was another very profitable invention, though it did not begin to make money until the patent had nearly run out, when the craze came. Hundreds of thousands of dollars have been made by Dennison out of his shipping tags. The idea consists simply in a little ring of cardboard that reenforces the tying holes and prevents the string from tearing out. A lot of money has been earned by the little brass clip-fastening, patented a few years ago, by which sheets of paper are held together. Yet it is an exact copy of a contrivance in bronze that was used by the Eomans more than twenty centuries ago. In fact, there are not a few modern inventions which are in reality merely reproductions of antique contrivances. One of these is the safety-pin, which was commonly employed by the women of ancient Rome to fasten their dresses. Among the most profitable patents have been various little devices having relation to women's costume, such as the perspiration-proof shield of rubber, the idea of substituting the quills of chickens and turkey feathers for whalebone in corsets, and the suspender garter. The last was sold outright for fifty thousand dollars. The ball-and-socket glove-fastener is a Frenchman's idea, and it has made him rich. Another successful invention is the double-ball clasp for pocketbooks and handbags. It is said that no sort of clasp can be popular unless it makes a noise when it catches. Only a few years ago a lucky man thought of puttiug a couple of little strips of cork on the nose-piece of eyeglasses to make them more comfortable. Nearly all eyeglasses nowadays have this improvement, aud every pair pays a royalty to the inventor. The latest of the very profitable small inventions is the tin cap for beer bottles, which is taking the place of corks. It is cheaper than cork, more convenient, aud keeps the beer better. Metal lemon-squeezers are undesirable because the juice of the fruit acts upon the metal and makes poison. Not long ago somebody thought of making lemon-squeezers of glass, and the idea was worth just fifty thousand dollars to him. Tin cans are now made so that they can be opened by simply striking the top with a smart blow. As soon as he learned of the invention, Armour, the Chicago packer, ordered five hundred thousand of the cans, and the inventor is already independently wealthy. The automatic inkstand, which keeps an equal supply of ink always ready for the pen, is said to have earned two hundred thousand dollars. The "shading pen" has earned a sum even larger. Shoe-buttons are no longer sewn on, but are applied with a metal fastener. This idea has been worth a big fortune. A new contrivance that promises to be very profitable, is a whistle for bicyclers, made on the principle of the siren fog-whistle. There was five hundred thousand in the shoe-peg, but the inventor went insane just, as wealth was pouring in upon him. Another! gold producing patent was the inverted glass belli, placed over gas-jets to protect ceilings. Great sums have been earned by the rubber pencil-tip. barbedwire for fences, and a contrivance for shaving ice. A " hump" on a hook to keep it from slipping out of the eye has made the proprietors of the contrivance millionaires. One of the most valuable patents was the result of a dream. An engineer named Springer had been trying to devise an automatic lock which would brake a carriage going down hill, so that the driver would not have to get out, but might lock the brake by pulling his horse in. He dreamed that he was driving down a steep hill and had just such a lock on his wagon. He noticed exactly how it was constructed, and on waking he got up and sketched the details of the mechanism. Then he went to bed again. Three days later he applied for a patent, which was granted. It yielded seventy-five thousand the first year. Of the heaps of patents issued every week by the United States Patent Office, only a small percentage of them have any practical usefulness. But it is not always possible to judge before a thing has been tried. A few years ago a man thought of enclosing trees in canvas, and filling the canvas with deadly gases for the purpose of destroying insects. He was considered a lunatic, but this 1 method is now practised on' a great scale' and with much success in California. photographing tbe invisible PHOTO-MICROGRAPHIC APPARATUS Apparatus for Reproducing Objects Unseen to the Eye As photography is employed to assist the astronomer in detecting the existence of the stars in the heavens which could not be seen by the naked eye with the aid of the telescope, so it is also used to secure accurate enlarged reproductions of minute objects which are revealed to man only by the aid of the microscope. This development of the art of photography is of great assistance, not only to the microscopist, but also to the pathologist and histologists. A photomicrographic apparatus, as it is called, has recently been invented by O. G. Mason, secretary of the American Microscopical Society, which can be used for making negatives, showing objects with a magnification of 15,000 times. The apparatus is very compact, being only about two feet in length, but it will receive an objective of any power and photograph the most minute objects. The images are produced on a plate three and one-quarter by four and one-quarter inches. It is mounted on a single base board, so that the apparatus may be shifted at the will of the operator. To the standard of a microscope the camera box is attached in such a way that the box can be placed horizontally or inclined at any desired angle, like a teloscope or microscope itself. Thus adjustments can be made providing for any required distance between the objective and the sensitive plate, so that the desired amplication may be readily secured. The mechanical stage is operated by the small chains which extend along the sides of the frame of the apparatus, and the rotation of the objective polariscope, etc, and the focusing are effected by rods extending toward the rear of the camera box. By its means the operator, seated at the camera, can manipulate the instrument for focusing or searching the field for any particular object.