"First, if he is unfortunate enough to fall in the hands of an unscrupulous patent attorney, he will get all the money he can out of him by securing him a worthless patent. Probably 75 per cent. of the patents issued are not worth the paper they are written upon. After securing the patents he will then give up his farm or his position, take his savings and go to New York or some other city, and fall into the hands of an unscrupulous promoter, who makes the inventor believe he can place his patents, or, if he has a good invention and falls into the hands of an unscrupulous promoter, the invention is taken away from him, or he is given a mere pittance for it.
"I know of one case where an inventor of one of the most successful typewriting machines on the market, who spent his life in developing it, is receiving the munificent sum of eleven cents from each machine as a royalty. There is a large number of these machines being manufactured, and of course he is receiving a comfortable income even at this small rate, but the promoter who had nothing to do with its origination and who only happened to know the capitalists to go to, and the capitalists, are receiving a princely income.
"So many instances of inventors being deprived of a fair remuneration for their inventions have occurred that as a class it will be found that many of them will hesitate to submit their ideas to the board.
"I have received many letters from inventors throughout the country who had all sorts of schemes for improving submarine boats, for detecting their presence under water, for destroying them, for protecting battleships against them, etc. In some cases they were accompanied by plans and descriptions, and they are usually old ideas, in many cases already patented. In other instances I have received letters stating that they had ideas which they would submit to me if I would pass upon them or coöperate with them in developing or introducing them to the Navy Department. My practice has always been to refuse to consider any device or invention unless the inventor had made application for a patent, as I did not want to be accused of taking another man's ideas, as he might submit to me ideas similar to my own and which I might have already had either patents pending in the Patent Office for same, or had made similar plans upon which I might expect to take out a patent at some future time.
"This feeling of uncertainty may cause inventors to hesitate to send their ideas in, but I think that could be overcome by having certain rules of procedure; that is, any idea submitted must be put into form, sworn to as original by the man who submitted it, which must be attested by witnesses. It could then be sent to examiners—first, to find out if it was an original idea; second, to find out if it was a mechanically operative idea; and, third, to find out if there was any need for such a device.
"I think your naming Mr. Edison as the head of such a bureau will go a long ways toward creating confidence in the mind of the inventors, that they would receive proper consideration. Most every one knows of Mr. Edison's perseverance in his early days in getting his inventions upon the market. A great many people know that he himself has not received a fraction of the reward that he is entitled to because of his great inventions. He is, without doubt, the greatest inventor the United States has produced. While I have never met Mr. Edison personally, I have always been a great admirer of him, because he is the man most responsible for raising the title of 'inventor' from that of crank to that of honor. I was such an admirer of him in my youth that I named my son after him. I do not think you could have made a better choice than he to head this bureau.
"If the bureau is organized, permit me to suggest that there should be some definite inducement held out to the inventors in the way of a royalty compensation or some other form of compensation for such ideas as the government might take up and utilize. The plan which I had in mind for my inventors' institution was to erect buildings, machine shops, laboratories, with a staff of patent experts, draftsmen, and engineers, so that the crude idea could first be investigated to see if it was original, then passed on to the engineers, who would coöperate with the inventor, and they would see that proper plans were made covering the proper kinds and strength of material to accomplish the purpose, and then it would be sent to the shops, all this work being charged up to the invention, or to the inventor if he was in a position to pay for it, at cost.
"The institution would, in consideration of its placing all these facilities available to the inventor, receive a certain percentage for its part of the work. In that way a properly endowed institution would probably be self-supporting. It might be possible to work that idea into your scheme. Take, as an illustration, the submarine boats. Something new and revolutionary might be introduced in the way of propulsive means which would enable submarines to make very much greater speed, both on the surface and submerged. As soon as the submarine has the speed of a battleship, it will be able to drive the battleship from the seas. Without battleships to cover the landing of troops from transports, no invasion of one country by another country, from the sea, can be made. Therefore, no more wars between maritime countries.
"Such a propulsive means, therefore, will become a great and valuable adjunct to any nation. If the government developed such a machine it would be only right for them to pay a royalty to the inventor. On the other hand, this same machine would undoubtedly be very valuable for a great many other industrial purposes. If it was used for other purposes, it would only be right that the inventor pay the government in return a royalty or percentage of his profits in consideration of the government having developed it for him.
"I hope you will not think I am officious in offering these suggestions. Having given so much thought to the matter in the line as above referred to, I felt that you were entitled to have my thoughts for what they were worth.