A. Frederick Collins

All through this book I have done my best to nickelplate you in the bath of my own experience and I believe I have made everything clear unless it is just how to get the big idea.

And even if I could give you a hard and fast rule for thinking up new and novel things I have grave fears I would be tempted to keep that bit of information to myself and start up an idea factory in opposition to Edison.

But while it is not yet possible to lay down a law for the creation of an original idea it may prove of some value to tell you something about what is needed both small and large and this in itself may serve to stimulate your thought centers to activity.

As you look about and see all the different materials, apparatus and machines that have been invented to make work easier, to save time or goods and to increase safety and comfort you may on first thought conclude that everything the human race really needs has been invented and this is in a large measure true.

But the secret of present day inventing was let out of the bag by Edison when he said that “hardly any piece of machinery now manufactured is more than 10 per cent. perfect.” Certainly the electric lights we now have are good enough as far as the light goes but light costs us ten times as much as it ought to cost for the reason that 90 per cent. of the energy there is in a ton of coal is wasted and only 10 per cent. of it is transformed into actual light.

Oliver Lodge, England’s greatest electrician, once said that if we knew how the glow worm makes his light then a boy could turn a machine that would develop enough electricity to light a factory. The problem for you to tackle then is not to make a better light but to make a cheaper light.

And what Edison has said about machines and Lodge has said about light, I say is just as true of everything else we have for lessening labor, for saving time and materials, making for safety and adding to comfort. Everything that has been invented up to the present time, with very few exceptions, such as the electric motor which is 98 per cent. efficient, can be made nearly 90 per cent. better.

This gives you your cue for inventing, that is to conceive and improve upon what has been done rather than to sap your life’s blood and waste time, which is just as precious if you only know it, in trying to invent something entirely new and original under the shining sun.

Nor do you need to undertake to improve upon the big things—unless, of course, you get a great idea and you feel that the world can’t get along without it and that you would lose a fortune unless you straightaway developed it. Otherwise just keep your eagle eye on the lookout and your inventive brain cells on the alert and it will not be long before you will see something where there is room for improvement.

Some Little Things Needed.—For the Person.—There isn’t a thing you wear, or carry in your pockets, or use in making your toilet but which can be improved upon.

Your suspenders, your corset, cuff buttons, dress-shields, necktie clasp, hose supports, garters, hat pins, collar buttons, eye glasses and eye-glass guards, hair curlers or straighteners according to the dictates of fashion, jewelry guards, fasteners for clothing, clothes hangers and clothes presses ought all to be done over and re-invented.

Fig. 103a. OLD STYLE TOOTH BRUSH
Fig. 103b. AN IMPROVED TOOTH BRUSH

A better way to clean teeth, see Fig. 103, to shampoo the head, to manicure nails, to wash backs and to shine shoes should all have attention. Improvements in false teeth and in making the deaf hear are in order; but it is just as well to keep away from inventions to make the hair grow and to remove freckles.

For the House.—You can help to save mother’s time and conserve her strength by inventing any of the following devices and besides you’ll make enough money so that she won’t have to use them and that will be still better.

Fig. 104a. THE OLD WAY—THE CARPET SWEEPER
Fig. 104b. THE NEW WAY—THE VACUUM CLEANER

Odorless cooking utensils, candy making apparatus, visible ovens, dish washer, ironing machine, soap saver, milk jar seal, fish scaler, fire extinguisher, water cooler, water purifier, cheap ice machine, ice crusher, window cleaner, silver cleaning apparatus, vacuum cleaner, see Fig. 104, knife sharpener, fountain scrub brush and all kinds of handy tools are needed.

A self-serving dining room table that will let the folks eat instead of keeping every one busy waiting on everybody else between bites should and undoubtedly would find a large sale.

For the Farm.—Improved farm machinery has made the farmers and the inventors rich and important but the little things around the farm have been sadly neglected and if some one doesn’t come to its rescue pretty soon it will go to rack and ruin.

Fig. 105. A LABOR SAVING PAINTING MACHINE

A substitute for leather, mail conveyer to carry mail from the road to the house, a painting machine, see Fig. 105, cheap fence posts, fattening apparatus for chickens, insect exterminators, portable fences, nests and coops for chickens, traps for preying birds, parcels post cartons for butter and eggs, incubators, brooders, cream separators, milking machines, and everything else used on the farm can be made more efficient than the present apparatus and machines which are now used.

For the Office.—There was once a time when a shingle swinging in the breeze, a desk, a chair and a spittoon constituted an office, but those halcyon days of Lincoln and Douglas, Calhoun and Webster are gone forever.

Fig. 106. A QUICK FIGURING AND BOOKKEEPING MACHINE

What is needed now are not brains so much as an improved file case, time stamp, check protector, gumless mucilage bottle, inkwell that cleans the pen, safety envelope that can’t be opened without detection, mailing boxes and tubes, envelope inserting and folding machine, duplicating processes for typewritten copy, envelope opener, improved dictaphones, that is phonographs for dictating to stenographers, and figuring and bookkeeping machines; see Fig. 106.

For Fun.—There is a great demand for toys and amusement devices and novelties of all kinds.

Little 5 and 10 cent jokes, like the snake jar, shadow dancer, shooting pack of cards, rubber dagger, see Fig. 107, and the musical seat, puzzles like the beast, the star and crescent, Billy Possum, devil lock and Chinese conjuring rings and games, tricks, magical advertising novelties and the like are profitable in a small and sometimes in a big way.

Merry-go-round, shoot-the-chutes, bump-the-bumps, see Fig. 108, dips and slides are some of the larger amusement inventions that have been making money at summer and seaside resorts. What you must do is to provide other new and novel means for the fun loving people to do ridiculous stunts and pay you for the privilege.

Now while all of the above devices have been invented and patented the point is that every one of them has a bug, that is a flaw in it somewhere; by which I mean that in each and every case, except the toys and amusements, the device is too hard to work, costs too much, takes too much time, is too troublesome, is too poorly made or is not as comfortable as the old-fashioned thing.

It is your business as an inventor to improve it so that your device will do the work or serve the purpose better than it has ever been done before. In order to improve a compound, device or machine to this extent you will have to introduce some new principle, or element into it and it is this added cause, or part in combination with the other and well-known arrangements that gives it a new and novel twist and for which you pray that letters patent may be granted.

Some Big Inventions Needed.—Safety First.—That there were 38,000 deaths, 500,000 seriously injured and 2,000,000 slightly injured persons caused by all manner of accidents in 1915, shows how badly improvements are needed for all kinds of machinery, in the operation of mines, railroads and steamships and in the manufacture of certain chemical products such as phosphorus matches and dynamite. There is money and lots of it in inventions that have for their object the safeguarding of human health, limb and life. Fig. 109 shows a life-saving gun.

Automobiles.—The automobile is the speed machine of to-day. Pneumatic tires, transmission gears and differentials, must go for they are bothersome, complicated and costly. An engine without poppet valves, carburetor, high tension ignition system and water cooling system with its expensive radiator would be most welcome. A magnetic clutch that does away with the transmission gears is shown in Fig. 110.

A cheap substitute for gasoline is heartily to be hoped for and inventors are searching for it now. The engine of the future will be driven by some high explosive mixture each ingredient of which will be perfectly harmless in itself but when the fractional part of a drop of each chemical is mixed with the other in the cylinder of the engine they will combine and explode violently.

Aviation.—The aeroplane is the speed machine of to-morrow. The great requirement of the present time in the flying machine is inherent stability, which means that it is so designed that it will not overturn, or if overturned it will right itself of its own accord. Fig. 111 shows a gyro-stabilizer for this purpose.

After stability the next most desirable improvement needed in an aeroplane is one that will make it rise from the ground at a far larger angle from the horizontal, that is fly more nearly straight up than those that are built at the present time. A better engine, an easier way of starting and a surer way of alighting, are next in order.

Chemistry.—There are unlimited possibilities in chemistry for making big inventions. A method to produce cheap liquid air, see Fig. 112, would revolutionize many industries. Radium which is worth $1,000,000 a pound, or thereabouts, is plentiful in nature and requires some simpler method only for its cheap extraction. But both of the above are very hard things to do.

Artificial milk, tea, coffee and eggs, the extraction of caffeine from coffee, thein from tea and nicotine from tobacco—which are the harmful chemicals in these products, a cheap method of producing artificial ice, or refrigeration without ice, a substance to denature alcohol are only a few of the things to be invented in chemistry.

Synthetic chemistry, that is the artificial production of real rubber, camphor, diamonds, rubies and other precious stones, dye-stuffs and other products heretofore supplied only by nature, also offers a large and fascinating field for the inventive chemist.

Electricity.—There are hundreds, if not thousands of electrical inventors who are busier than a swarm of bees in a field of clover, but there is enough left for all of them and as many more to do if they worked in eight hour shifts until the dawn of the millennium.

An apparatus for dispelling fogs by electricity, television, or transmitting sight by electricity, cheap electric lights, see Fig. 113, a simple telautograph, or writing telegraph, a means for directing wireless telegraph and telephone messages, automatic block signals which operate in the engine driver’s cab and are positive in action, transmitting pictures by wireless and a cheap and powerful generator of sustained electric oscillations by a battery or other low voltage current, all these needs show that there is still plenty of room for improvement.

Electro-Chemistry.—In this field of endeavor the things that are needed would fill a large book and many things that will come have not even been dreamed of yet.

A few that I can think of is a self-charging primary battery, a light weight storage battery, a way to produce electricity direct from coal, a scheme to prevent electrolysis in underground pipes, the electrification of farming lands to make forty bushels of rye grow where only one was sown, see Fig. 114, to store up electrical energy from the sun and the production of entirely new and unheard of substances in the electric furnace.

Building.—In the building line heating, ventilation and drainage are all open to great improvement. Glass that can be bent to shape and which cannot be so easily broken is much needed while fireproof materials and fire protection leave much to the inventor to perfect. Even improvements are needed for wrecking buildings as will be seen in Fig. 115.

Mining and Metallurgy.—Safety appliances are of the first importance in mine inventions, see Fig. 116, and after these, machines for labor saving should receive attention. If you understand mining, be it for coal, metals or gems, you will see that there is yet much to be done to make the operations safer, more saving and less laborious.

After the ore is mined, the metal must be separated from it and this is largely a matter of chemistry and mechanical devices. Saving is the watchword for the inventor who would improve the present methods and processes. If you can show how a saving of metal can be effected or how the same amount can be extracted more cheaply you are the boy the owners are looking for and you can name your own price, nearly.

An alloy for armor which will deflect projectiles, steel rolls which will roll and straighten sheets and rails with one handling, a process for extracting metals from low grade ores, a process for making small brass, iron or steel castings in much the same manner that a linotype machine casts a type slug, are all improvements for you to think about even if you don’t try to invent them.

Printing.—The noble art of printing has been brought to such a high degree of perfection it would seem to leave little to be invented. But like all the arts and sciences there is yet much to be done.

A few gentle hints in this direction is the need of a three color printing press, machines for engraving steel plates, see Fig. 117, and presses for printing from them, power copper plate presses, printing without ink by means of electricity and bookbinding, electrotyping and typefoundry processes and machinery; all these, and many more need looking into.

Moving Pictures.—Three great improvements must be made in the moving picture industry before it will take on anything like perfection, and these are (1) a film that is not easily broken, is as transparent as glass and is fire proof; (2) pictures that are photographed on the film and projected on the screen in their natural colors, and (3) moving pictures that are made and projected on the principle of the stereoscope so that the picture will stand out true to life in color, time and space. The last word in moving picture machines at this writing is shown in Fig. 118.

All of the above improvements have been made but they are each of them very crude and they must be re-improved to a very great extent before they can be successfully shown in theaters. I do not believe any attempt has yet been made to combine the three features in a single machine.

Other Fields of Endeavor.—There are many other fields that are just as full of promise for the inventor as those I have cited and among them may be named railways and steamships, boilers and engines, bridge building, munitions of war, textile and boot and shoe machinery, medical and dental apparatus and instruments, devices for the postal service, musical instruments, vending machines and the utilization of by-products. Verily there is everything under the heavens for you to improve if you will but find out a new means, devise a scheme, discover by art, contrive by ingenuity or, in a nutshell, originate an idea, work it out, patent it and beat the other fellow to it.

What Not to Invent.—If you have but little time, small means and are without tools it were better not to get too big an idea for your first invention. Try out your genius on some simple thing, that is if you can.

Of course should some great improvement strike you it would be folly to drop it simply because you happened to be handicapped in two or three several little ways. When in such a predicament you must rise above the level of mediocrity and circumstance and invent a plan to raise the necessary funds to go ahead with your experimental work.

But whether you have or have not the quick capital of your own to draw on there are some things you should not try to invent—that is if you are an inventor for the financial profits you expect to accrue from your work. If you are doing it purely as a scientist that is a horse of quite another color and some scientific society may present you with a medal in a plush lined case and its Transactions will laud you for your unselfish work.

Such schemes as extracting gold from the salt water of the sea, milking electricity directly from the ether, blowing up ships at a distance by means of invisible waves, making a phonotypograph which will, when spoken into, print what you have said on a sheet of paper, printing without type by means of the X-rays, sending wireless messages to Mars and the wireless transmission of power, see Fig. 119, are all good things to let alone.

Not because these innovations are impossible to invent—they will all come into general use some day—but because it is not given to any inventor to work a single one of them out alone and so I say don’t try to unless you are a real Simon pure scientist.

And as a last piece of advice don’t try to invent that monstrous impossibility—perpetual motion.