Simple Inventions.—The next class of inventions I shall call your attention to is just as simple but they are different from toys in that they are useful.
Among them may be named our friend of infant days, the safety pin, the rubber tip for lead pencils, the cork nose shield for eyeglasses, the grooved steel rib for umbrellas, the stylographic pen, the glass lemon squeezer, paper clips, hook fasteners for shoes and the shipping tag reinforced around the hole which Dennison invented and still sells by the carload.
All of these little things and ten thousand others which you would hardly think were worth inventing have built up fortunes for those who thought of them and, more to their credit, were able to see that a future awaited them.
Real Inventions.—In passing we come to some small but none-the-less real inventions such as the spring roller window shade, automatic ink stand in which the ink is always at the same level, barbed wire fences, Mrs. Potts’ sad iron—the one with the attachable and detachable handle, the paragon umbrella frame, etc.
To the right you will see some inventions of a more complex kind such as the check protector, mimeograph, time stamp, combination lock, fountain pen, computing scale, compressed air rock drill, cash register, the comptometer and a thousand other devices we see in use or use ourselves every day. Many of them are small but each and every one produced anywhere from $10,000 to $1,000,000 for its inventor.
Great Inventions.—The Steam Engine, Locomotive, and Steamboat.—How the steam engine was invented by Watt, how the locomotive was invented by Stephenson and how the steamboat was invented by Fulton are pretty well known.
Just how much these great pioneer inventors received in actual cash for their efforts I cannot say offhand but it was not large when compared with the fortunes inventors have since made. But their names are writ large in the hall of fame, not the one at the New York University which doesn’t count, but in the hall of fame of progress and civilization which is the only one that really matters.
The Telegraph.—The telegraph was invented by Samuel F. B. Morse in 1832 but it was not until 1844 that he had a line working from Washington to Baltimore. After long years of litigation his patent rights were upheld by the courts and much wealth and more fame accrued to him.
The Perfecting Press.—The first web printing press, that is a press using a web, or continuous strip of paper, was invented by Bullock in 1845 and this the Hoe Brothers improved upon until the web perfecting press was evolved by them in 1846 and which revolutionized the printing of newspapers. The Hoe factory is the largest maker of printing presses in the world to-day.