It has been aptly said that the products of all the gold, silver, and diamond mines in the world would not equal in value the annual income of American inventors. It has been carefully estimated that there are at least fifty patents in the United States which yield over $1,000,000 annually, some 300 that yield over one-half million, from 500 to 800 which bring from $250,000 to $500,000, and between 15,000 and 20,000 that bring over $100,000 annuities. Besides these, there are thousands upon thousands of patents which yield yearly more profit to their fortunate possessors than could be accumulated in a lifetime by a wage-earner.

There are thousands of patents sold outright every year by the patentees of the United States for thousands of dollars; and, to the already long list of successful inventors, each year adds many more, who have become independent through the proper handling of the product of their ingenuity. Indeed there can hardly be conceived a quicker way for the average person to attain independence andp. 14 wealth than by inventing something of real worth and merit that can be quickly turned into money. The inventive field is large, and each invention opens up a new field for improvements, and it is the "improver," without question, that reaps the greatest benefit from any invention. Owing to the ever forward progress of civilization, there is no limit to the possible improvements in the sciences, arts, and manufactures.

It must, however, be borne in mind that all patents are not remunerative, neither are all gold mines productive of fortunes, and one may lose money in patents as well as in any other business. There are thousands of patents, many having merit no doubt, which have never been sufficiently brought before the public to test their merits, effect their sale, or manufacture; this in many instances is owing to incompetency, or bad management on the part of the patentee or his agents. There are thousands of other patents that do not prove remunerative because they do not supply a real want, while still others are such slight improvements upon existing inventions that they necessitate such narrow claims, which render the patent of little or no value. One has only to look over the weekly issue of patents to see many of the last class.

As before stated, while there are many thousands of patents that do not pay—and many nop. 15 doubt cause their owners disaster, as is the case in any other business or investment; on the other hand, the far greater proportion of patents granted are productive of handsome profits, if properly managed.

That the majority of patents taken out prove lucrative is evident from the fact that upward of seventy thousand applications for patents and designs are filed each year in the United States Patent Office, and approximately eight hundred are granted and issued each week. Probably about one-fifth of these patentees obtain their patents with a definite view of manufacturing their inventions, and the remainder obtain theirs with a view of realizing from the sale of the rights to manufacture.

It may be said, as a general thing, there is more money in small inventions than in larger ones, from the fact that they can be easily manufactured anywhere with but little outlay of capital; they usually fill a general need, and the profit derived from their manufacture is large, besides the patent is more readily disposed of; while with larger inventions it requires more money and ability in handling the patent, and the invention must be unusually promising to justify the erection of a plant costing thousands of dollars for its manufacture. However, when large and complicated inventions do pay, they usually pay well.p. 16

It must be remembered that the actual cash value of a patent is not in the patent itself, but in the sale or use of the monopoly it affords, and the amount realized from any invention frequently depends upon the business capacity of the inventor or his agents. Owing to his business ability, one person may make a fortune out of an unpromising improvement, while another, through bad or careless management, will realize little or nothing from a brilliant invention.

Speaking along this line in an official report the chief examiner of the Patent Office says: "A patent, if it is worth anything, when properly managed, is worth and can easily be sold for from $1,000 to $50,000. These remarks only apply to patents of ordinary or minor value. They do not include such as the telegraph, the planing machine, and the rubber patents, which are worth millions each. A few cases of the first kind will better illustrate my meaning:

"A man obtained a patent for a slight improvement in straw cutters, took a model of his invention through the Western States, and after a tour of eight months returned with $40,000 in cash or its equivalent.

"Another inventor in about fifteen months made sales that brought him $60,000, his invention being a machine to thrash and clean grain.p. 17 A third obtained a patent for a printing ink, and refused $50,000, and finally sold it for about $60,000.

"These are ordinary cases of minor inventions embracing no very considerable inventive powers and of which hundreds go out from the Patent Office every year. Experience shows that the most profitable patents are those which contain very little real invention, and are to a superficial observer of little value."

Under the writer's personal observation has come many instances where inventors have secured patents on improvements which to a casual observer would appear insignificant, yet through shrewd management they have been made to yield princely incomes. Among these one case worthy of note is that of a young man in Pennsylvania who secured a patent on a toy game which any person could have thought of, but few would have considered worth protecting by letters patent. He was offered $1,000 for the patent by one manufacturer at the outset which he refused, and afterward he placed it on royalty with quite a number of large manufacturers throughout the country. He receives but one cent on each one manufactured, yet his income averages over $12,000 a year. Another borrowed part of the money with which to obtain a patent on a railway tie plate, which was bought by ap. 18 corporation for $25,000, after having manufactured it for two years on royalty. And many others, who have realized from one to five thousand dollars on such slight improvements on which few would have thought worth applying for a patent.

Patentees who would realize any considerable amount from their patents must not sit down and expect the other fellow to make money out of their inventions for them.

Invention is sometimes called the "genius of the poor," and it is a singular fact that there are a greater number of inventions made by men and women of limited means than by those whose wealth, education, and other advantages would seem to have especially fitted them for success in a field dominated so completely by "brains." This may be explained in a measure by the fact that people of moderate means are brought into closer contact with the arts and manufactures, and are thus the first to discover and improve their defects.

A self-made millionaire, recently speaking to the writer about patents, said: "I know of no business or vocation requiring so small amount of capital, and yielding such immense profits as that of invention. Certainly no person of inventive genius can employ his time and ingenuity to betterp. 19 or more profitable advantage than to invent something that is really needed. Many poor men, through the art of invention, have risen from poverty to reputation, fame, and honor, and taken high places among noted men of all times.

Our moneyed kings may have enriched themselves by stock jobbing, but this precarious procedure requires large capital, and the few enormous fortunes accumulated are merely the monuments marking the graves of thousands of foolhardy unfortunates caught in the vortex of speculation."

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