"ARGONAUT, JR.," 1894A small experimental boat built by the author to demonstrate the practicability of wheeling over the bottom and of sending divers out from the boat without water entering the vessel. She was propelled by hand over the waterbed; she had an air lock and diver's compartment which permitted egress and ingress of a diver when submerged.Later we took the boat up to Atlantic Highlands and had a lot of fun running around on the bottom of New York Bay picking up clams and oysters, etc. We finally decided to organize a company and build a larger boat; so one day we invited the mayor of Atlantic Highlands, the president of the bank, and a number of other prominent peopleof the little community to witness our trials. A number of the men wrote their names on a shingle, which was tied to a sash weight and then thrown off the end of the Atlantic Highlands pier in about sixteen feet of water. My cousin and I got into the boat, submerged her, wheeled her forward to where the sash weight had been thrown overboard, picked it up, and had it back on the dock again in five minutes.The performance of theArgonaut, Jr., becoming known, she received no little newspaper notoriety. In looking over my old clippings I find that there was a vein of scepticism and sarcasm running through most of these early accounts of her performance. I just quote briefly from one of the papers describing her, theNew York Herald, of January 8, 1895:This Boat Crawls Along The Bottom. At LeastThat's What It Was To Do, but It Escapes andAstonishes Folks in Oceanic, N. J.DRIFTS UP THE SHREWSBURYIT WILL CRAWL FIVE MILES WITHOUT COMING UP TO BREATHEWHEN INVENTOR LAKE COMPLETES IT. FUNFOR MERRY MERMEN."Red Bank, N. J., Jan. 8, 1895.—Strange things come in with the tide in the ungodly hours of the night, and in the stillness of the night strange things follow them, but the strange thing which came up the North Shrewsbury a day or two ago, and which lies high and dry on Barley Point,is a 'new one' on the good folk of Oceanic. Now that they have fairly discovered it, they are sorry that it didn't wobble ashore in the summer, when Normandie-by-the-Sea below the Point is crowded with curious persons from the city. Any enterprising Oceanic man might have fenced in the queer thing and charged every one a quarter to see it."The few substantial persons who had witnessed theArgonaut'sexperiments provided the capital for the construction of theArgonaut Firstand enabled me to complete her, and she was launched on August 17, 1897. I had called the little experimental boat theArgonaut, Jr., because it was born before its mother, although the mother (theArgonaut First) had been conceived and designed first. I did not have sufficient capital to go ahead with her construction, and even the design of theArgonautitself was cut down to correspond to the size of the subscriptions that we had been able to secure.The raising of capital to most inventors is a serious problem; it has always been so with me. I have always been interested in mechanical accomplishments, but always dreaded the necessity of trying to raise capital to carry on those experiments. I have never valued money for itself or felt the need of it except when I did not have it. I think this is the case with most inventors, which is the reason why so many of them go to unscrupulous promoters who rob them of their inventions, or else often tie them up so that they themselves are incapable of continuing their development work.Having made an initial success by my experiments, like most unsophisticated inventors I also fell into the hands of a promoter of this type. He was introduced to me by anofficer of a bank, and, after an investigation of my project, claimed that he could raise all the money necessary to float a project of this kind, which in his judgment had the greatest possibilities of anything he had ever learned of. He said that his friends, the Vanderbilts, "Jack" Astor, and the Goulds, would immediately subscribe large sums upon his submitting the proposition to them. He secured possession of my plans, and took me to his house, which was a handsome brownstone structure standing in beautiful grounds. Another evidence of wealth was that he always had a smart carriage with liveried coachman waiting for him at our various conferences, held frequently in the directors' room of the bank. He had himself made the general manager, myself the president, and Hon. William T. Malster, of Baltimore, the treasurer of the company. At his suggestion we sent out a notification to our subscribers that twenty-five per cent. of their subscriptions was due and payable. Mr. Malster was president of the Columbia Dry Dock and Iron Works, Baltimore, the company with which we had placed the contract for building theArgonaut, and as he was a Baltimorean he had kindly consented to serve as treasurer of my company. Everything now looked rosy, and I gave my attention to preparing the detailed plans of theArgonaut. One day the general manager came into the room and said, "Now I have arranged for the sale of $100,000 worth of our stock." (He was to get a certain percentage of the stock for selling it to his friends, the Astors, Goulds, etc.) "So," he continued, "I want you to go to Baltimore and get Mr. Malster to sign up a lot of this stock so that we can make immediate delivery of it and get the money, and it would also be advisable for you to have Mr. Malster sign some checks in blank,"the checks of the company requiring the signatures of both president and treasurer.I visited Baltimore and explained to Mr. Malster what our general manager told me, and he said, "Well, Simon, you are a young man, and I think an honest one, and I am willing to trust you. I will sign these certificates, but don't you let them go out of your hands or sign them yourself until you have some definite written obligations on the part of those who are going to purchase this stock that they will pay for it." I returned to New York and told Mr. H—— that I had the certificates, etc., signed, and asked him when he would be ready to deliver the money and receive the stock. He stated that his friend "Jack" Astor was then out of town and he wanted him to be on the list first and would wait until he returned. He said, "I will see him at the first opportunity, but in the meantime you had better sign these certificates in blank and leave them with me, as I will have to fill out the names as he wants them, and I have had to agree to give him the biggest part of my commission to get it started." At the same time he told me that he would like to have a loan of a couple of thousand dollars for a few days (this we had on deposit there in the bank in the company's name). He said, as I had Mr. Malster's signature, I could easily make him the loan and he would return it soon, for he had a large piece of property which he had arranged the sale of, but there were some back taxes due on it which he wanted to clear off before turning over the deed. I told him that I could not make a loan of the company's money. He then became very angry and said, "Well, if I did not trust him to that extent he would not go to his friends or dispose of the stock." He was a very pompousindividual, wore gold eyeglasses, and had a large acquaintance, formerly having been a business man of standing.The fact that he had been introduced to me by an official of the bank led me to investigate him no further, but when he attempted to get the company's funds and its stock in blank I started an investigation, and found that the house that he was living in, and the horses and carriages, had been secured from another unsuspecting individual much older than myself in much the same manner. This individual had been in business for many years, nevertheless the promoter induced him to reorganize his successful business on a much larger capitalization. The promoter made an agreement with this man to sell the stock of the new company, and promised he would interest his friends, the Astors, Goulds, and Vanderbilts. As a partial consideration for this he was to receive this mans beautiful home and a certain percentage of the stock. The man's wife having died, he did not care to live longer in the house, so he agreed that the house should be given as a part consideration, and as a guarantee of his delivery of the house and stock as a part consideration on this promoter's agreement to float the stock of the much larger capitalized new company, he had placed both the controlling stock of the company and the house in escrow, and had turned the possession of the house over to this promoter, who was now our general manager, with the deeds of same to be held in escrow and not to be finally recorded until the Goulds, Vanderbilts, Astors, etc., had come into the new company. Hard times occurred about this time, so he claimed, which prevented promised capitalists from coming in, but, as Mr. H—— held the control of the company by holding the control of the stock, he had himself electedan officer of the company at a handsome salary and still held possession of this most beautiful home without ever having paid a dollar. I merely recite this as a warning to inventors to look out for the plausible New York promoter. I also discovered that Mr. H—— had made application for patents, my own patents not yet having been issued, with the idea of getting me into interference in the Patent Office, and it was necessary for us to threaten him with arrest and bring a suit against both himself and the cashier—whom we now learned had known of his previous experiences and expected to share in his profits this time—in order to get a legal release so that we could proceed with the work.Many of the troubles of inventors can be traced originally to certain semi-professional men who call themselves patent attorneys. There are two classes of patent attorneys, one class consisting of conscientious, honorable gentlemen, who consider it their duty, when an unsophisticated inventor comes before them with an idea which the inventor considers new, to tell him the truth about his invention and to inform him whether it is really an original invention or not, or merely a slight modification of some old idea on which no protection can be secured. There is another class of attorneys who have been more properly termed patent sharks, who will get a patent on anything brought to them; for by juggling words they are able to get claims which mean nothing, except that they serve the purpose of getting the attorneys their fees. Many an inventor has an idea which is original with him but which may be as old as Bushnell's submarine or entirely impractical. The patent shark will get him a patent on this, and the inventor then thinks his fortune is made. He is very likely then to sell his farm and go to New Yorkand advertise in the papers that he has a valuable invention, there to fall into the hands of some unscrupulous promoter who secures all of his money without letting him know that the patent is worthless; or if he happens to have a valuable invention the promoter will in all probability arrange matters so that he himself gets the cream and leaves the inventor a mere pittance.Since the war began, and there has been the general editorial demand by the papers of the country for some means to destroy or offset the submarine menace, I have received hundreds of letters asking advice, etc., regarding various devices. I have received visits from a number of people who have come from long distances, some from the West, others from Canada and from the South, to ask my opinion regarding certain attachments to be applied to submarines or on devices to capture submarines. Many of the ideas were old and some of them pitiful in the fact that they showed such ignorance of the laws of nature and of mechanics on the part of their projectors. One man sends me a copy of his allowed patent with a letter from one of these patent sharks acknowledging the receipt of final payment of a considerable amount for his having received an allowance of his patent. I will, without betraying the name, quote in part from his letter:I would kindly ask if you would take hearing from me and take notice of my new invention, which is called the Power Transmitting Mechanism. The machine is started by spring or batteries; the first start is the spin of the fly-wheel; the fly-wheel pumps on the handle of the jack: one revolution to the one pound on the fly-wheel drives the handle of the jack back and forth. The jack will throw the crank one revolution with ninety-seven pounds. The jack is the result of multiplying power, and the jacks can be usedin the same position as any and all cylinders. This machine will nicely furnish you the power for your undersea liner. No fuel is needed....Now anyone can see that this proposition is nothing more or less than an impractical proposition mechanically, and that it is on the perpetual-motion order, yet this patent shark mulcts the poor man of a considerable sum to secure him some kind of a worthless patent. He is likely to expend much further sums in trying to get it on the market. A patent lawyer of that stamp should be put in jail for fraud, and should not be permitted to practise in an honorable profession.I have already recited my own difficulties in attracting the interest of the United States Government to my work, and I call attention to the fact that it required many years of persistent endeavor and the expenditure of vast sums of money furnished by patriotic individuals, and also the recognition of my devices by several foreign governments, before our own government recognized any merit in my work. That has been the experience of almost every American inventor, so far as I am aware. We have seen how Bushnell was derided and driven from his home; and that Robert Fulton received no recognition from his home government, and that the only recompense he ever received for his submarine work was from the British Government. Strangely, the money paid him was not for the purpose of enabling him to develop his invention, but rather to suppress his inventive genius. Ericsson could get no recognition or assistance from the government when he presented his design of theMonitor. She was built by private capital, and her builders assumed all the risk, and it is stated that at thetime she fought theMerrimacand helped to save the United States from being divided internally, she was on a builder's trial and had not been accepted or paid for by the government. All readers of the life of Ericsson are familiar with the lack of consideration he received from the naval authorities of the United States at that time, and that his epoch-making invention was derided as a "cheese-box on a raft." It was strange that he received such little consideration, as at the time of his arrival in America he was an engineer of note and while still a young man had built the wonderful canals of Sweden. I had never really appreciated Ericsson's great engineering ability until I made a journey over these canals, which are virtually carried up over mountains, and offer one of the most interesting European trips a tourist can make. Maxim had to go to England and Hotchkiss to France to get their guns adopted. Sir Hiram Maxim told me of the heartbreaking time he spent in his native country, America—he was born in Maine—trying to get his inventions properly developed, and the lack of consideration he received here by our own government officers, while in England, on the contrary, he was received with open arms. The late King Edward visited him, and the English took up his invention and knighted him.The Wright Brothers' first recognition and the first dollar they ever received as profits in their years of experimental effort came from France. I remember well when Wilbur Wright came to France with his flying machine and secured the recognition that the Wright Brothers had not been able to secure in the United States, their native country. The Wright Brothers and their and our own European representative, Mr. Hart O. Berg, occupied for a time one of therooms in our suite of offices in Regent Street, London, as their headquarters, and I am therefore familiar with some of their difficulties in getting recognition in this country.It has been said that Americans invent and the Europeans develop. This statement seems to be borne out in fact, so far as our military inventions at least are concerned. From the time the Wrights first introduced the flying machine in Europe all the important countries over there have been consistently assisting inventors in improving the construction of the planes and machinery for driving them, while our own country has stood almost at a standstill. Our government gave no aid to foster this American invention so that it could be gradually developed, but rather our authorities made the first requirements so difficult to fulfil that there was no incentive to work; which is a mistake often made by men with a theoretical rather than a practical education. A practical man may evolve something radically new in the arts or sciences, but to get it introduced into the government service it must first be passed upon and approved by men who at the country's expense have received, for the most part, a purely theoretical education; and nine times out of ten these men get some additional theories of their own which they insist must be incorporated in the machine or apparatus, and thus make it impossible of operation or delay its accomplishment. It is probably due to this cause that we are now forced to go to France for plans of our aeroplanes and their driving machinery to enable us to compete with the Germans' machines.What is the reason for this lamentable state of affairs in respect to American military inventions? I believe that I can partially explain it. I believe it is because our armyand navy officers are too busy with the routine of their profession to give the necessary time to a thorough investigation of devices other than those with which they are forced to become familiar by their training. I believe that there is not a single fundamental invention which has emanated from an army or navy officer during his service, although it is true that such men have made some improvements upon devices in their hands, based upon working experience. Their education and routine require them to be well-informed as to theproveddevices of which they make use in the service. On looking over the volume of text-books, rules and regulations covering in the most minute details all the methods of construction, tests of strength, chemical analyses, etc., with which officers are obliged to become familiar, I can fully appreciate the fact that they are too highly educated in the knowledge of accepted devices to be able to find time to look into the future.I believe that the present Secretary of the Navy, Mr. Josephus Daniels, in his creation of a civilian board of advisers to the navy to pass upon new inventions of value to the navy, has taken an important step in the protection of this country; the creation of this board I consider one of the greatest achievements of the present administration.The few inventions which have gained sufficient early recognition and have received governmental aid in their development have usually been forced on the Army or Navy by either political or financial interests. The intrigue and lobbying conducted in Washington to secure exclusive privileges would make volumes of interesting and spicy reading, and it is possible that the knowledge of these well-known intrigues makes officers very chary in recommendingor taking up devices that may appear to have merit. The usual answer to inventors of untried devices who offer their plans to the government has been, "Well, if you try it out and it proves successful, we will then consider it"; and in such a case should the inventor have no means or financial backing the invention is lost to the United States and is adopted abroad.This policy is "penny wise and pound foolish" when it so directly affects the safety of the nation. I was informed by Mr. Otto Exius, the managing director of the great Krupp Works in Germany, that the Imperial German Government has followed a far different method in fostering inventions that might be of benefit to the state. Mr. Exius informed me that when they undertook the development of a new invention for the purposes of national defence the government paid them for the cost of all material used and allowed them a sufficient percentage over labor costs to cover their overhead, plus a fair amount of profit. This probably accounts for the fact that Germany to-day is far ahead of us in her development of engines for the military submarine. There is no gainsaying the fact that the policy of our government has been to make up an ideally perfect weapon and then invite manufacturers to bid for the work. They have thus thrown the burden of development upon individual firms, many of whom have been forced into bankruptcy in their patriotic desire to furnish acceptable devices to the government.We have the inventive genius in this country tocreate and originatenew machines and new methods of manufacture. In most commercial and industrial lines we are able to maintain a leading position, but in devices designed for thenational defence we originate, and other nations develop and profit. Had we supported our inventors and held within this country as far as possible the knowledge of their devices, and withheld the secrets of their work from foreign powers, as indeed we should have, the United States to-day would be in a position of military effectiveness very different from that in which we are found. All this is due to the fact that the government does not foster and protect our newly created devices, and to-day we are behind the continental powers in our gunnery, our airplanes, in our dirigibles, and in our submarine engines, as well as in many other auxiliaries necessary to our national protection.I feel that it lies within the province of the civilian board to correct the mistakes in our governmental policy, provided, of course, that Congress makes suitable appropriations to enable it to carry on investigations in a proper manner and to protect the inventors who submit new and original ideas. At the time Secretary Daniels created the board I wrote him, in part, as follows:"I notice by to-day'sNew York Heraldthat you are proposing to appoint an 'advisory board of civilian inventors for a Bureau of Invention and Development,' to be created in the Navy Department, and that you have asked Mr. Thomas A. Edison to be the chairman of said board."I wish to congratulate you upon this conception. I believe such a board, if its work is properly systematized, can be made of great and permanent value to the nation."Many illustrations could be found in which other nations have been the first to take up and reap the benefit from American inventions. It is doubtful if Morse, Edison, Bell, the Wrights, or any other pioneer American inventorshave received any reward whatever from many countries whose own citizens have grown rich and prosperous by taking up and manufacturing American inventions without giving consideration to them."When I first submitted my plans of a submarine boat to the Navy Department in 1893 I had no company back of me and did not make a proposition to the department to build a boat. I suggested to them that I would coöperate with the Navy Department in a way satisfactory to them."My hope was, at that time, as I was only a youngster, to receive some sort of a commission in the United States Navy and to be placed in charge of the development of the submarine, but the submarine was a discredited machine in those days, and after I had spent several days in trying to interest the authorities at that time in my proposition I failed, and felt very much discouraged, and did not again return to the Navy Department until called there in 1901 by a telegram from Senator Hale, who was then chairman of the Senate Navy Committee."Since that time I have been offered a splendid position with very large financial backing if I would take charge of the development of submarines for a foreign government. This I refused to do, because I had a natural desire to receive some recognition in my own country."The principal aim and ambition in my life has been to be able to make sufficient money to endow an institution for the protection of American inventors."I tried to interest Enoch Pratt in this scheme twenty-three years ago in Baltimore. I have given a great deal of thought to such an institution. It does not look now as if I should be able to carry out my plans. If I had had sufficientfinancial backing in the early days of my experiments and development of the submarine to have protected myself fully by foreign patents, all of the European countries to-day would be paying me royalties, as they are all using a number of features in their boats which I originated."While I regret that the probabilities are that I will not be able to carry out my ambition, your proposition would, if carried out, go a long way toward improving the opportunities of American inventors to secure proper recognition of their inventive genius so far as they could be applied to the protection of the nation."I can, however, foresee certain oppositions to this scheme: first, there will be opposition from the vested interests who have held for years control of certain lines of manufactured articles and material used in the service."The scheme would also fail unless it would be possible for this board to secure the entire confidence of the American inventors. Very few inventors have had large business experience or know how to protect themselves from the various parasites who thrive upon them."A man gets an idea—it may be an old one, but he considers it original—and becomes obsessed with the idea that he has made a great discovery. He may be a farmer, a mechanic, a clergyman, or any other form of good American citizen, but not an experienced business man. In many cases he becomes a prey to people who live entirely upon their wits and the inexperience of others."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 thepaper 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 practicehas 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 youththat 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, fromthe 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."I certainly hope you will be able to get the support of Congress, the naval officers, and the inventors in carrying this scheme through to a successful conclusion, which, if done, I believe will be one of the greatest constructive pieces of legislation accomplished in years."A larger institution along the same lines might well be endowed by a number of America's bright business men who have made fortunes based upon the ideas of some poor, unsophisticated inventor who has not been brought up to worship wealth, but who had an original idea of value to the world and to the individuals who had the business capacity to get the money out of it.Original ideas are creations, and the creation of ideas may become possible by constant study and research. Inthis class are all the professional inventors; but many good ideas are spontaneous and occur in brains not educated along mechanical or scientific lines. The establishment of such an institution as above outlined would conserve these spontaneous inventions for the benefit of the nation, as well as assist the professional inventor in his research.
"ARGONAUT, JR.," 1894A small experimental boat built by the author to demonstrate the practicability of wheeling over the bottom and of sending divers out from the boat without water entering the vessel. She was propelled by hand over the waterbed; she had an air lock and diver's compartment which permitted egress and ingress of a diver when submerged.
"ARGONAUT, JR.," 1894A small experimental boat built by the author to demonstrate the practicability of wheeling over the bottom and of sending divers out from the boat without water entering the vessel. She was propelled by hand over the waterbed; she had an air lock and diver's compartment which permitted egress and ingress of a diver when submerged.
A small experimental boat built by the author to demonstrate the practicability of wheeling over the bottom and of sending divers out from the boat without water entering the vessel. She was propelled by hand over the waterbed; she had an air lock and diver's compartment which permitted egress and ingress of a diver when submerged.
Later we took the boat up to Atlantic Highlands and had a lot of fun running around on the bottom of New York Bay picking up clams and oysters, etc. We finally decided to organize a company and build a larger boat; so one day we invited the mayor of Atlantic Highlands, the president of the bank, and a number of other prominent peopleof the little community to witness our trials. A number of the men wrote their names on a shingle, which was tied to a sash weight and then thrown off the end of the Atlantic Highlands pier in about sixteen feet of water. My cousin and I got into the boat, submerged her, wheeled her forward to where the sash weight had been thrown overboard, picked it up, and had it back on the dock again in five minutes.
The performance of theArgonaut, Jr., becoming known, she received no little newspaper notoriety. In looking over my old clippings I find that there was a vein of scepticism and sarcasm running through most of these early accounts of her performance. I just quote briefly from one of the papers describing her, theNew York Herald, of January 8, 1895:
This Boat Crawls Along The Bottom. At LeastThat's What It Was To Do, but It Escapes andAstonishes Folks in Oceanic, N. J.DRIFTS UP THE SHREWSBURYIT WILL CRAWL FIVE MILES WITHOUT COMING UP TO BREATHEWHEN INVENTOR LAKE COMPLETES IT. FUNFOR MERRY MERMEN."Red Bank, N. J., Jan. 8, 1895.—Strange things come in with the tide in the ungodly hours of the night, and in the stillness of the night strange things follow them, but the strange thing which came up the North Shrewsbury a day or two ago, and which lies high and dry on Barley Point,is a 'new one' on the good folk of Oceanic. Now that they have fairly discovered it, they are sorry that it didn't wobble ashore in the summer, when Normandie-by-the-Sea below the Point is crowded with curious persons from the city. Any enterprising Oceanic man might have fenced in the queer thing and charged every one a quarter to see it."
This Boat Crawls Along The Bottom. At Least
That's What It Was To Do, but It Escapes and
Astonishes Folks in Oceanic, N. J.
DRIFTS UP THE SHREWSBURY
IT WILL CRAWL FIVE MILES WITHOUT COMING UP TO BREATHE
WHEN INVENTOR LAKE COMPLETES IT. FUN
FOR MERRY MERMEN.
"Red Bank, N. J., Jan. 8, 1895.—Strange things come in with the tide in the ungodly hours of the night, and in the stillness of the night strange things follow them, but the strange thing which came up the North Shrewsbury a day or two ago, and which lies high and dry on Barley Point,is a 'new one' on the good folk of Oceanic. Now that they have fairly discovered it, they are sorry that it didn't wobble ashore in the summer, when Normandie-by-the-Sea below the Point is crowded with curious persons from the city. Any enterprising Oceanic man might have fenced in the queer thing and charged every one a quarter to see it."
The few substantial persons who had witnessed theArgonaut'sexperiments provided the capital for the construction of theArgonaut Firstand enabled me to complete her, and she was launched on August 17, 1897. I had called the little experimental boat theArgonaut, Jr., because it was born before its mother, although the mother (theArgonaut First) had been conceived and designed first. I did not have sufficient capital to go ahead with her construction, and even the design of theArgonautitself was cut down to correspond to the size of the subscriptions that we had been able to secure.
The raising of capital to most inventors is a serious problem; it has always been so with me. I have always been interested in mechanical accomplishments, but always dreaded the necessity of trying to raise capital to carry on those experiments. I have never valued money for itself or felt the need of it except when I did not have it. I think this is the case with most inventors, which is the reason why so many of them go to unscrupulous promoters who rob them of their inventions, or else often tie them up so that they themselves are incapable of continuing their development work.
Having made an initial success by my experiments, like most unsophisticated inventors I also fell into the hands of a promoter of this type. He was introduced to me by anofficer of a bank, and, after an investigation of my project, claimed that he could raise all the money necessary to float a project of this kind, which in his judgment had the greatest possibilities of anything he had ever learned of. He said that his friends, the Vanderbilts, "Jack" Astor, and the Goulds, would immediately subscribe large sums upon his submitting the proposition to them. He secured possession of my plans, and took me to his house, which was a handsome brownstone structure standing in beautiful grounds. Another evidence of wealth was that he always had a smart carriage with liveried coachman waiting for him at our various conferences, held frequently in the directors' room of the bank. He had himself made the general manager, myself the president, and Hon. William T. Malster, of Baltimore, the treasurer of the company. At his suggestion we sent out a notification to our subscribers that twenty-five per cent. of their subscriptions was due and payable. Mr. Malster was president of the Columbia Dry Dock and Iron Works, Baltimore, the company with which we had placed the contract for building theArgonaut, and as he was a Baltimorean he had kindly consented to serve as treasurer of my company. Everything now looked rosy, and I gave my attention to preparing the detailed plans of theArgonaut. One day the general manager came into the room and said, "Now I have arranged for the sale of $100,000 worth of our stock." (He was to get a certain percentage of the stock for selling it to his friends, the Astors, Goulds, etc.) "So," he continued, "I want you to go to Baltimore and get Mr. Malster to sign up a lot of this stock so that we can make immediate delivery of it and get the money, and it would also be advisable for you to have Mr. Malster sign some checks in blank,"the checks of the company requiring the signatures of both president and treasurer.
I visited Baltimore and explained to Mr. Malster what our general manager told me, and he said, "Well, Simon, you are a young man, and I think an honest one, and I am willing to trust you. I will sign these certificates, but don't you let them go out of your hands or sign them yourself until you have some definite written obligations on the part of those who are going to purchase this stock that they will pay for it." I returned to New York and told Mr. H—— that I had the certificates, etc., signed, and asked him when he would be ready to deliver the money and receive the stock. He stated that his friend "Jack" Astor was then out of town and he wanted him to be on the list first and would wait until he returned. He said, "I will see him at the first opportunity, but in the meantime you had better sign these certificates in blank and leave them with me, as I will have to fill out the names as he wants them, and I have had to agree to give him the biggest part of my commission to get it started." At the same time he told me that he would like to have a loan of a couple of thousand dollars for a few days (this we had on deposit there in the bank in the company's name). He said, as I had Mr. Malster's signature, I could easily make him the loan and he would return it soon, for he had a large piece of property which he had arranged the sale of, but there were some back taxes due on it which he wanted to clear off before turning over the deed. I told him that I could not make a loan of the company's money. He then became very angry and said, "Well, if I did not trust him to that extent he would not go to his friends or dispose of the stock." He was a very pompousindividual, wore gold eyeglasses, and had a large acquaintance, formerly having been a business man of standing.
The fact that he had been introduced to me by an official of the bank led me to investigate him no further, but when he attempted to get the company's funds and its stock in blank I started an investigation, and found that the house that he was living in, and the horses and carriages, had been secured from another unsuspecting individual much older than myself in much the same manner. This individual had been in business for many years, nevertheless the promoter induced him to reorganize his successful business on a much larger capitalization. The promoter made an agreement with this man to sell the stock of the new company, and promised he would interest his friends, the Astors, Goulds, and Vanderbilts. As a partial consideration for this he was to receive this mans beautiful home and a certain percentage of the stock. The man's wife having died, he did not care to live longer in the house, so he agreed that the house should be given as a part consideration, and as a guarantee of his delivery of the house and stock as a part consideration on this promoter's agreement to float the stock of the much larger capitalized new company, he had placed both the controlling stock of the company and the house in escrow, and had turned the possession of the house over to this promoter, who was now our general manager, with the deeds of same to be held in escrow and not to be finally recorded until the Goulds, Vanderbilts, Astors, etc., had come into the new company. Hard times occurred about this time, so he claimed, which prevented promised capitalists from coming in, but, as Mr. H—— held the control of the company by holding the control of the stock, he had himself electedan officer of the company at a handsome salary and still held possession of this most beautiful home without ever having paid a dollar. I merely recite this as a warning to inventors to look out for the plausible New York promoter. I also discovered that Mr. H—— had made application for patents, my own patents not yet having been issued, with the idea of getting me into interference in the Patent Office, and it was necessary for us to threaten him with arrest and bring a suit against both himself and the cashier—whom we now learned had known of his previous experiences and expected to share in his profits this time—in order to get a legal release so that we could proceed with the work.
Many of the troubles of inventors can be traced originally to certain semi-professional men who call themselves patent attorneys. There are two classes of patent attorneys, one class consisting of conscientious, honorable gentlemen, who consider it their duty, when an unsophisticated inventor comes before them with an idea which the inventor considers new, to tell him the truth about his invention and to inform him whether it is really an original invention or not, or merely a slight modification of some old idea on which no protection can be secured. There is another class of attorneys who have been more properly termed patent sharks, who will get a patent on anything brought to them; for by juggling words they are able to get claims which mean nothing, except that they serve the purpose of getting the attorneys their fees. Many an inventor has an idea which is original with him but which may be as old as Bushnell's submarine or entirely impractical. The patent shark will get him a patent on this, and the inventor then thinks his fortune is made. He is very likely then to sell his farm and go to New Yorkand advertise in the papers that he has a valuable invention, there to fall into the hands of some unscrupulous promoter who secures all of his money without letting him know that the patent is worthless; or if he happens to have a valuable invention the promoter will in all probability arrange matters so that he himself gets the cream and leaves the inventor a mere pittance.
Since the war began, and there has been the general editorial demand by the papers of the country for some means to destroy or offset the submarine menace, I have received hundreds of letters asking advice, etc., regarding various devices. I have received visits from a number of people who have come from long distances, some from the West, others from Canada and from the South, to ask my opinion regarding certain attachments to be applied to submarines or on devices to capture submarines. Many of the ideas were old and some of them pitiful in the fact that they showed such ignorance of the laws of nature and of mechanics on the part of their projectors. One man sends me a copy of his allowed patent with a letter from one of these patent sharks acknowledging the receipt of final payment of a considerable amount for his having received an allowance of his patent. I will, without betraying the name, quote in part from his letter:
I would kindly ask if you would take hearing from me and take notice of my new invention, which is called the Power Transmitting Mechanism. The machine is started by spring or batteries; the first start is the spin of the fly-wheel; the fly-wheel pumps on the handle of the jack: one revolution to the one pound on the fly-wheel drives the handle of the jack back and forth. The jack will throw the crank one revolution with ninety-seven pounds. The jack is the result of multiplying power, and the jacks can be usedin the same position as any and all cylinders. This machine will nicely furnish you the power for your undersea liner. No fuel is needed....
I would kindly ask if you would take hearing from me and take notice of my new invention, which is called the Power Transmitting Mechanism. The machine is started by spring or batteries; the first start is the spin of the fly-wheel; the fly-wheel pumps on the handle of the jack: one revolution to the one pound on the fly-wheel drives the handle of the jack back and forth. The jack will throw the crank one revolution with ninety-seven pounds. The jack is the result of multiplying power, and the jacks can be usedin the same position as any and all cylinders. This machine will nicely furnish you the power for your undersea liner. No fuel is needed....
Now anyone can see that this proposition is nothing more or less than an impractical proposition mechanically, and that it is on the perpetual-motion order, yet this patent shark mulcts the poor man of a considerable sum to secure him some kind of a worthless patent. He is likely to expend much further sums in trying to get it on the market. A patent lawyer of that stamp should be put in jail for fraud, and should not be permitted to practise in an honorable profession.
I have already recited my own difficulties in attracting the interest of the United States Government to my work, and I call attention to the fact that it required many years of persistent endeavor and the expenditure of vast sums of money furnished by patriotic individuals, and also the recognition of my devices by several foreign governments, before our own government recognized any merit in my work. That has been the experience of almost every American inventor, so far as I am aware. We have seen how Bushnell was derided and driven from his home; and that Robert Fulton received no recognition from his home government, and that the only recompense he ever received for his submarine work was from the British Government. Strangely, the money paid him was not for the purpose of enabling him to develop his invention, but rather to suppress his inventive genius. Ericsson could get no recognition or assistance from the government when he presented his design of theMonitor. She was built by private capital, and her builders assumed all the risk, and it is stated that at thetime she fought theMerrimacand helped to save the United States from being divided internally, she was on a builder's trial and had not been accepted or paid for by the government. All readers of the life of Ericsson are familiar with the lack of consideration he received from the naval authorities of the United States at that time, and that his epoch-making invention was derided as a "cheese-box on a raft." It was strange that he received such little consideration, as at the time of his arrival in America he was an engineer of note and while still a young man had built the wonderful canals of Sweden. I had never really appreciated Ericsson's great engineering ability until I made a journey over these canals, which are virtually carried up over mountains, and offer one of the most interesting European trips a tourist can make. Maxim had to go to England and Hotchkiss to France to get their guns adopted. Sir Hiram Maxim told me of the heartbreaking time he spent in his native country, America—he was born in Maine—trying to get his inventions properly developed, and the lack of consideration he received here by our own government officers, while in England, on the contrary, he was received with open arms. The late King Edward visited him, and the English took up his invention and knighted him.
The Wright Brothers' first recognition and the first dollar they ever received as profits in their years of experimental effort came from France. I remember well when Wilbur Wright came to France with his flying machine and secured the recognition that the Wright Brothers had not been able to secure in the United States, their native country. The Wright Brothers and their and our own European representative, Mr. Hart O. Berg, occupied for a time one of therooms in our suite of offices in Regent Street, London, as their headquarters, and I am therefore familiar with some of their difficulties in getting recognition in this country.
It has been said that Americans invent and the Europeans develop. This statement seems to be borne out in fact, so far as our military inventions at least are concerned. From the time the Wrights first introduced the flying machine in Europe all the important countries over there have been consistently assisting inventors in improving the construction of the planes and machinery for driving them, while our own country has stood almost at a standstill. Our government gave no aid to foster this American invention so that it could be gradually developed, but rather our authorities made the first requirements so difficult to fulfil that there was no incentive to work; which is a mistake often made by men with a theoretical rather than a practical education. A practical man may evolve something radically new in the arts or sciences, but to get it introduced into the government service it must first be passed upon and approved by men who at the country's expense have received, for the most part, a purely theoretical education; and nine times out of ten these men get some additional theories of their own which they insist must be incorporated in the machine or apparatus, and thus make it impossible of operation or delay its accomplishment. It is probably due to this cause that we are now forced to go to France for plans of our aeroplanes and their driving machinery to enable us to compete with the Germans' machines.
What is the reason for this lamentable state of affairs in respect to American military inventions? I believe that I can partially explain it. I believe it is because our armyand navy officers are too busy with the routine of their profession to give the necessary time to a thorough investigation of devices other than those with which they are forced to become familiar by their training. I believe that there is not a single fundamental invention which has emanated from an army or navy officer during his service, although it is true that such men have made some improvements upon devices in their hands, based upon working experience. Their education and routine require them to be well-informed as to theproveddevices of which they make use in the service. On looking over the volume of text-books, rules and regulations covering in the most minute details all the methods of construction, tests of strength, chemical analyses, etc., with which officers are obliged to become familiar, I can fully appreciate the fact that they are too highly educated in the knowledge of accepted devices to be able to find time to look into the future.
I believe that the present Secretary of the Navy, Mr. Josephus Daniels, in his creation of a civilian board of advisers to the navy to pass upon new inventions of value to the navy, has taken an important step in the protection of this country; the creation of this board I consider one of the greatest achievements of the present administration.
The few inventions which have gained sufficient early recognition and have received governmental aid in their development have usually been forced on the Army or Navy by either political or financial interests. The intrigue and lobbying conducted in Washington to secure exclusive privileges would make volumes of interesting and spicy reading, and it is possible that the knowledge of these well-known intrigues makes officers very chary in recommendingor taking up devices that may appear to have merit. The usual answer to inventors of untried devices who offer their plans to the government has been, "Well, if you try it out and it proves successful, we will then consider it"; and in such a case should the inventor have no means or financial backing the invention is lost to the United States and is adopted abroad.
This policy is "penny wise and pound foolish" when it so directly affects the safety of the nation. I was informed by Mr. Otto Exius, the managing director of the great Krupp Works in Germany, that the Imperial German Government has followed a far different method in fostering inventions that might be of benefit to the state. Mr. Exius informed me that when they undertook the development of a new invention for the purposes of national defence the government paid them for the cost of all material used and allowed them a sufficient percentage over labor costs to cover their overhead, plus a fair amount of profit. This probably accounts for the fact that Germany to-day is far ahead of us in her development of engines for the military submarine. There is no gainsaying the fact that the policy of our government has been to make up an ideally perfect weapon and then invite manufacturers to bid for the work. They have thus thrown the burden of development upon individual firms, many of whom have been forced into bankruptcy in their patriotic desire to furnish acceptable devices to the government.
We have the inventive genius in this country tocreate and originatenew machines and new methods of manufacture. In most commercial and industrial lines we are able to maintain a leading position, but in devices designed for thenational defence we originate, and other nations develop and profit. Had we supported our inventors and held within this country as far as possible the knowledge of their devices, and withheld the secrets of their work from foreign powers, as indeed we should have, the United States to-day would be in a position of military effectiveness very different from that in which we are found. All this is due to the fact that the government does not foster and protect our newly created devices, and to-day we are behind the continental powers in our gunnery, our airplanes, in our dirigibles, and in our submarine engines, as well as in many other auxiliaries necessary to our national protection.
I feel that it lies within the province of the civilian board to correct the mistakes in our governmental policy, provided, of course, that Congress makes suitable appropriations to enable it to carry on investigations in a proper manner and to protect the inventors who submit new and original ideas. At the time Secretary Daniels created the board I wrote him, in part, as follows:
"I notice by to-day'sNew York Heraldthat you are proposing to appoint an 'advisory board of civilian inventors for a Bureau of Invention and Development,' to be created in the Navy Department, and that you have asked Mr. Thomas A. Edison to be the chairman of said board."I wish to congratulate you upon this conception. I believe such a board, if its work is properly systematized, can be made of great and permanent value to the nation."Many illustrations could be found in which other nations have been the first to take up and reap the benefit from American inventions. It is doubtful if Morse, Edison, Bell, the Wrights, or any other pioneer American inventorshave received any reward whatever from many countries whose own citizens have grown rich and prosperous by taking up and manufacturing American inventions without giving consideration to them."When I first submitted my plans of a submarine boat to the Navy Department in 1893 I had no company back of me and did not make a proposition to the department to build a boat. I suggested to them that I would coöperate with the Navy Department in a way satisfactory to them."My hope was, at that time, as I was only a youngster, to receive some sort of a commission in the United States Navy and to be placed in charge of the development of the submarine, but the submarine was a discredited machine in those days, and after I had spent several days in trying to interest the authorities at that time in my proposition I failed, and felt very much discouraged, and did not again return to the Navy Department until called there in 1901 by a telegram from Senator Hale, who was then chairman of the Senate Navy Committee."Since that time I have been offered a splendid position with very large financial backing if I would take charge of the development of submarines for a foreign government. This I refused to do, because I had a natural desire to receive some recognition in my own country."The principal aim and ambition in my life has been to be able to make sufficient money to endow an institution for the protection of American inventors."I tried to interest Enoch Pratt in this scheme twenty-three years ago in Baltimore. I have given a great deal of thought to such an institution. It does not look now as if I should be able to carry out my plans. If I had had sufficientfinancial backing in the early days of my experiments and development of the submarine to have protected myself fully by foreign patents, all of the European countries to-day would be paying me royalties, as they are all using a number of features in their boats which I originated."While I regret that the probabilities are that I will not be able to carry out my ambition, your proposition would, if carried out, go a long way toward improving the opportunities of American inventors to secure proper recognition of their inventive genius so far as they could be applied to the protection of the nation."I can, however, foresee certain oppositions to this scheme: first, there will be opposition from the vested interests who have held for years control of certain lines of manufactured articles and material used in the service."The scheme would also fail unless it would be possible for this board to secure the entire confidence of the American inventors. Very few inventors have had large business experience or know how to protect themselves from the various parasites who thrive upon them."A man gets an idea—it may be an old one, but he considers it original—and becomes obsessed with the idea that he has made a great discovery. He may be a farmer, a mechanic, a clergyman, or any other form of good American citizen, but not an experienced business man. In many cases he becomes a prey to people who live entirely upon their wits and the inexperience of others."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 thepaper 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 practicehas 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 youththat 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, fromthe 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."I certainly hope you will be able to get the support of Congress, the naval officers, and the inventors in carrying this scheme through to a successful conclusion, which, if done, I believe will be one of the greatest constructive pieces of legislation accomplished in years."
"I notice by to-day'sNew York Heraldthat you are proposing to appoint an 'advisory board of civilian inventors for a Bureau of Invention and Development,' to be created in the Navy Department, and that you have asked Mr. Thomas A. Edison to be the chairman of said board.
"I wish to congratulate you upon this conception. I believe such a board, if its work is properly systematized, can be made of great and permanent value to the nation.
"Many illustrations could be found in which other nations have been the first to take up and reap the benefit from American inventions. It is doubtful if Morse, Edison, Bell, the Wrights, or any other pioneer American inventorshave received any reward whatever from many countries whose own citizens have grown rich and prosperous by taking up and manufacturing American inventions without giving consideration to them.
"When I first submitted my plans of a submarine boat to the Navy Department in 1893 I had no company back of me and did not make a proposition to the department to build a boat. I suggested to them that I would coöperate with the Navy Department in a way satisfactory to them.
"My hope was, at that time, as I was only a youngster, to receive some sort of a commission in the United States Navy and to be placed in charge of the development of the submarine, but the submarine was a discredited machine in those days, and after I had spent several days in trying to interest the authorities at that time in my proposition I failed, and felt very much discouraged, and did not again return to the Navy Department until called there in 1901 by a telegram from Senator Hale, who was then chairman of the Senate Navy Committee.
"Since that time I have been offered a splendid position with very large financial backing if I would take charge of the development of submarines for a foreign government. This I refused to do, because I had a natural desire to receive some recognition in my own country.
"The principal aim and ambition in my life has been to be able to make sufficient money to endow an institution for the protection of American inventors.
"I tried to interest Enoch Pratt in this scheme twenty-three years ago in Baltimore. I have given a great deal of thought to such an institution. It does not look now as if I should be able to carry out my plans. If I had had sufficientfinancial backing in the early days of my experiments and development of the submarine to have protected myself fully by foreign patents, all of the European countries to-day would be paying me royalties, as they are all using a number of features in their boats which I originated.
"While I regret that the probabilities are that I will not be able to carry out my ambition, your proposition would, if carried out, go a long way toward improving the opportunities of American inventors to secure proper recognition of their inventive genius so far as they could be applied to the protection of the nation.
"I can, however, foresee certain oppositions to this scheme: first, there will be opposition from the vested interests who have held for years control of certain lines of manufactured articles and material used in the service.
"The scheme would also fail unless it would be possible for this board to secure the entire confidence of the American inventors. Very few inventors have had large business experience or know how to protect themselves from the various parasites who thrive upon them.
"A man gets an idea—it may be an old one, but he considers it original—and becomes obsessed with the idea that he has made a great discovery. He may be a farmer, a mechanic, a clergyman, or any other form of good American citizen, but not an experienced business man. In many cases he becomes a prey to people who live entirely upon their wits and the inexperience of others.
"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 thepaper 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 practicehas 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 youththat 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, fromthe 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.
"I certainly hope you will be able to get the support of Congress, the naval officers, and the inventors in carrying this scheme through to a successful conclusion, which, if done, I believe will be one of the greatest constructive pieces of legislation accomplished in years."
A larger institution along the same lines might well be endowed by a number of America's bright business men who have made fortunes based upon the ideas of some poor, unsophisticated inventor who has not been brought up to worship wealth, but who had an original idea of value to the world and to the individuals who had the business capacity to get the money out of it.
Original ideas are creations, and the creation of ideas may become possible by constant study and research. Inthis class are all the professional inventors; but many good ideas are spontaneous and occur in brains not educated along mechanical or scientific lines. The establishment of such an institution as above outlined would conserve these spontaneous inventions for the benefit of the nation, as well as assist the professional inventor in his research.