INVENTIVE GENIUS

Hawera Star, Volume LIV, 18 September 1934, Page 6

INVENTIVE GENIUS

What Annual Report of Patent Office Reveals BUSY NEW ZEALANDERS WIDE RANGE OF ARTICLES As a rule, it is probably not realised by the majority of people what a wealth of inventive genius is at large in the co.nmiunity. Most business men, however, can tell tales of inyeuters who have approached them in the hopes pf being able .to interest them—-financially, of course —in their inventions. Some of the ideas thus hawked round are crazy, to say the least of them. Not long ago a certain gentleman was making endeavours to sell pn epoch-making invention —a shirt which would button up the back as well as down the front. The idea behind it wps that as -goon as the front of the shirt became soiled the garment could be reversed, and! what was previously the back exposed to the public gaze. It would only be necessary to evolve a necktie and a collar that could be worn back to front ■or vice versa and there would 1 be no telling at a distance whether the wearer was coming or going. -Little success was met with in selling this idea. Another gentleman not -long pgo produced an egg-top remover. This was like a miniature merry-go-round, a complicated affair of revolving knives which would have cost at least thirty shillings to make and which would have added at least ten minutes to the time usually taken for washing-up. Needless to .say, in this case also the inventor found it impossible to get financial backing.

OPTIMISTIC STOCK. However, inventors as a whole seem to be bred from an optimistic ptock, and year by year they approach the Patent Office with inyentio'ns which they wish to patent and protect. Some, one may presume, have visions of fortunes awaiting them from their inventions, and in rare cases perhaps this dream is fulfilled. One hundred years ago who would have guessed what can’ be accomplished ip these days by pierely pressing a button or turning on a switch? Mpny modern marvels ape the outcome of comparatively simply inventions, so why should pot the inventor be an optimist?' It is not the function of the Patent Office to argue with the inventor about the value of his invention. All it is concerned with is the validity of the claim for protection. If that is all right and the requisite fee is paid, whether a fortune accrues from the invention.' or not is the concern solely of the inyentor.

New Zealand for the size of its population keeps the Patent Office pretty i busy. Comparatively few crank® come J along with perpetual- motion machines which will not work or with devices-for causing water to flow uphill. The majority of ideas patented are not the products of a mind inclined to lunacy. Unfortunately the annual report of the Patent Office coniines itself almost solely to statistical information, and only gives slender clues to the interesting story of the Dominion’s inventive genius which lies behind these statistics. CLASSES OF INVENTIONS.

A sign of the times is the yearly increase in the number of patents taken out relative to radio. Over 300 patents were taken out last year in ISTef .Inland under this heading, ovqr a hundred more than the previous yegr. Ebbing and freezing inventions also shpwed a big increase, as did inventions dealing with the dairying industry. Brewing and distilling inyentious jumped from six in- the previous y.ear to 21 last year, and inventions relating to pipes, tubes, and hose (not there is any connection) frqpi 21 to 33.

There was a decided slump ip. ip* ventive genius relating to aeronautics, building-construction, cultivating arid tilling, electricity and magnetism, furniture, indicating and calculating machines ,and xnedieal and surgical appliances. Railway and frapnypy inyeptions, as well as inventions relating to vehicles, were fewer than ,u® 3 ual. Washing, cleansing, cleaning, polishing, drying inventions have also decreased the Dominion possibly haying reached y the zenith of cleanliness.

The 17-61 applications for patents .received during tfie year by the jjorpip* ion Patent 'Office did not pll come from New Zealanders. Just over 1600 did. From Great Britain came 320 applications, 124 from Germany, 70 from th.c United States, and 182 from Australia. There was one resident of Gpatempb?who thought it worth while to patent his invention in New Zealand} the first time that this has happened.

TRADE MARKS REGISTERED. Trade marks registered during the year numbered 8.14, a falling off from the previous year. Of this number 453 came from residents in New Zealand; Great Britain, Australia, add the United [States contributing a large percentage of the remainder of applications. There were isilated .ones, thoJVCyer from many countries such as Jhpan, Poland, Finland," Italy} eta Most trade marks registered referred ;to substances used as food, chemicals and articles of clothing coining next. It is not so much what the ’Patent Office annual report, slates as the .Suggestions it makes as to ivhat may be read between the lines -that makes it such an interesting document. The report, too, must be a pleasing document for the Government, for a surplus is shown as is invariably the case.