JUVENILE INVENTION.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 6489, 8 April 1908, Page 8

JUVENILE INVENTION.

Quo of the meat interesting exhibits in the I T -S. Government's model loom is *ts collection of miniature steam engines. • Models of tho engines of Hera of Alexandria, of Newconmen. and pt Watt illustrate tho successive stops in {,h*> development of what has become tim giant of our modern industry. There is shown a model of tho ear»v nngim upon which boys wore employed to’turn tho cocks that, alternating, let tho steam on and shut it off. Ono of those bovs, Humphrey Porter by name, instead of settling down like a machine to tho monotonous work, kept his eyes opon. Ho discovered that a certain beam above his head worked in unison with the cocks which ho opened and closed. He accordingly connected the two, and after seeing the device worked pronerly ran off to play. Hia employers began to notice a much greater regularity in tho movement of tho engine than before; this led to the discovery of his secret, end to the subsequent adoption of Hs device everywhere. An examination of the model of the engine to which tho scoggan was applied lends ono to wonder, not that the boy should think of it, but that anybody, before him should have failed to do so. This is the ''afterthought**, of a great many notable in\ cations. Opponents of the notent system often raise the point that all great inventions are "in the air/* that tho same suggestion sooner or later will como to a great many different men. and hence that tho patent is simply a reward to tho one who happens to arrive first. ,

Patent experts acknowledge consnVrablo basis for this contention. They say, also that tho lament, frequently spoil in.+ho newspapers, "His invention died, with him. referring to a secret process, is rarely borne out by events