Simple Ideas Worth Fortunes

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 106, 7 May 1938, Page 1 (Supplement)

Simple Ideas Worth Fortunes

ONE day an idea struck a inan when he was ahout to throw away a used matchbox. As he was throwing away the box lie noticed that only one side of the box to which the sandpaper for striking the match was fixed had been used. Oti the other side the sandpaper was quite fresh. '"Sandpaper," he reflected, "isn't so cheap that it can lx? thrown away." After nights of mathematical problems, he round that the firm who had made the matches spent millions of pounds every year in purchasing matchboxes. ITe then checked up the price of sandpaper, then, feeling full of confidence, went to see the head of the match-making firm.

"Good afternoon," he said. "I have an idea here which is worth a lot of money. It will save you j£IU.OOO a year, and I am prepseeud to sell it to yon or. payment of flf.ilO a year for life.' The mfin with the idea told the head of the firm how much money his firm lost by putting sandpaper on two sides of fhe box, whereas only one side was necessary. The head of the firm could not believe it and replied rather gruffly: '"Don't waste my time with an idea like that; we've got experts who check matters like these. Goodday!" But the man with the idea wasn't disheartened. Three times lie was shown the door, but still persisted in seeincr the irate head of the. firm again. At Inst he won his way, and the head of the firm had the matter checked earefully. Tie realised that the man with the idea was right, and heaving a weary sigh, drew up a contract. One man niado an income of £20 a

Have you ever had an idea? Ideas are sometimes worth millions of pounds, and many have made fortunes for the men who thought of something — something useful for the benefit of mankind.

week for life. The matchmaker had really signed away £."">().(100. This is a l«t of money, but it was worth it for the idea. His sandpaper hill for the striking strips had cost him around about £."{2,000 a year. By putting sandpaper on only one siile of the box lie saved more than half that amount again.

-Again there is an instance of how an idea brought wealth to the person who first thought of it. There was a young man named O'Sullivan who had a weak stomach. Twenty-five years ago he was working in a factory where machinery set the whole floor vibrating. It made him feel sick every hour of the nay, so at last he began to think of a cere for the effects of the vibration. At length he brought along to the factory a rubber mat on which to stand. It proved a great shook absorber, and young O'Sullivan was sick no longer. He was overjoyed, and soon had all the factory hands interested in his idea. Dozens lxiiiglit rubber mats and used them, then one day someone stele O'Sullivan's mat. He was furious, but it was then that he stumbled on the big idea which made him a millionaire. He got two pieces of rubber and stuck them on the bottom of the heels of his shoes. It struck him that idea was worth patenting, and young O"Sullivan, the rough and tumble Irish lad, became the manufacturer of rubber heels for shoes. He died a millionaire.

Now what, you boys and girls? Haven't you some idea tlmt will bring you a fortune? Never mind if you haven't. Take advanta{*e of others' pains, and notice how they combat them. A man named Henry Perky did, and it did him over two million pounds worth of good! Henry Perky was an American lawyer. One day he was in a Fmall country town in Nebraska. He stayed the night at a email boarding house, and at breakfast the following morning noticed one of the boarders eating an oddlooking "mess."

"That's an awful looking dish," eaid Perky. "Whatever is it?" "Boiled whole wheat," said the other. "I'm a. dyspeptic, and it is the only thing I can digest." Perky happended to be dyspeptic himself, and took advantage of the boiled wheat breakfast habit. He told his friends about it, and they told others, and the fad grew and grew. It was then that Porky realised that there must be thousands of people to whom such a diet would prove a godsend. He then financed the mechanical side of the project, and the result was a form of shredded wheat which became thp forerunner of many different patent breakfast foods.

The greatest inventions the -world has ever known have been small things. The -wonderful and complex machines of to-day are not the creatione of one man's mind, but have been built up by the addition of countless email improvements—each the invention of one man. For instance, to take a. common household example, the sewing machine; the original idea came to Jiarthelemy Thimnionier in the year 1829. His first machine was a primitive apparatus, made of wood and turned by a roj>e, producing only one stiteh a minute, but it was the beginning of the 800 stitches a. minute produced by some machines to-day. Like most inventors. Thimmonier found it hard to persuade folk that his idea was ■worth while, but faith in his. idea carried him through to euccees.