“That's a fact,” chimed in Tommy.
“I'll have to look into that,” said the patent lawyer, calmly.
“If there was any patent, people would be using it, wouldn't they?” challenged Bill, unaware that all inventors make the same point at their first interview with their patent lawyers.
“That may be true,” was all that Kemble would admit.
“What do you need besides this,” asked Bill, pointing to his carburetor, “to file an application for a patent?”
“Well, you'd better leave that here and find out what your dynamo and transformer are. In fact, I think you'd better send them on to me. That would be the easiest way. When did you first run this?”
After some guessing, Bill told him.
“You ought to keep a careful date record.”
“What's that for?”
“As a record of your priority in case somebody else has the same thing.”