MONEY IN INVENTIONS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20472, 25 January 1930, Page 3 (Supplement)

MONEY IN INVENTIONS.

.THE a BRAINAVAVE ROOM."

NEW IDEAS IN LONDON.

ABOUT 40,000 EVERY YEAR,

Every year about 40,000 " inventions," some of which will make fortunes for their authors, pour into London. So overwhelming is the number becoming that an additional examining staff at the Patent Office is advocated.

"We are an inventive nation, and women often send most ingenious ideas," said Mr. G. Drury Coleman, secretary of the Institute' of Patentees, recently. " Little things often bring big profits. The man who invented the movable top to collar studs drew royalties of £SOOO a year for a long time. Every day we get something new for the " Brain-wave room." In America and Germany they are perhaps les3 conservative and more appreciative of new ideas than we are, but strange and even ridiculous-looking ideas often find a good market." The " brain-wave room " in a building in Victoria Street, Westminster, contains an interesting collection of novelties. Shelves mounting from floor to ceiling are packed with the inspirations of to-day. There were to be seen recently complicated mechanical apparatus which it would take a professor of engineering to understand; devices intended to revolu-

(ionise motor-cars; curious-looking effi- / ciency-claiming saucepans, and even such small but all-important things as detachable and dirt-defying cuffs. The room is part of the Institute of Patentees, and even into the private office of the secietary many of the newest bright ideas had overflowed, while parcels containing discoveries were still unopened on the floor. Mr. Coleman picked up a few of the latest arrivals. A clergyman had invented an egg-whisk from a stick, a piece of string, and a few inches of wire, the total cost of production being about a penny. There was a kind of Robot signalman to attach to motor-cars so that vehicles travelling behind could be told what they ought to do. If this is adopted drivers will touch a button and an arm shoot out with a notice saying, " Pass me," " Reverse," " Slow," or whatever instruction is wanted. If long hair comes into fashion again women will be glad to know that permanently fixed hatpins have now been invented. They need never be taken out of the hat, and they will always fit into exactly the same groove in the hair. Men will be interested in a new non-drip shaving brush, the " bristles " of which are mado of an absorbing sponge. For housewives there are numerous labour-saving devices. A geyser kettle produces instantaneous and continuous, hot water. A square protective tin, inside the walls of which all frying may be done, prevents splashing on stoves. A woman has invented a device for clipping a purso in a cuff or glove and thus making it thief-proof. A resourceful roan has provided for the papering of walls without splashing about with pails of. liquid and seemingly acres of paper. A one-armed man has a telephone stand. with a writing pad which shoots out automatically in the right place*