LEARN TO INVENT

FIRST STEPS FOR BEGINNERS
YOUNG AND OLD

Practical Instruction

Valuable Suggestions

TO

LEARN TO INVENT

PREFACE.

The booklets "Mental Nuts" and "A Book of Maxims" have met with so much favor I have decided to try again. I submit this little effort to those young and old who desire information and suggestions on the subject, in the form of a "first step" or introduction, for those who would learn to invent.

Though it is entirely a subject for the deepest study, I favor a personal talk, digressing at times in an effort to interest and instruct, to enliven and cheer. I see little hope for the casual reader. "As ye sow so shall ye also reap." My faith rests in the careful, persevering student. I sincerely hope that as a whole the effort may prove helpful to many. As to the future, may you all realize.

"Full many a pupil has become more famous than his master."

Philadelphia, Pa., Sept. 3, 1907.

INTRODUCTION.

Invention is the fountain source of material progress. It would indeed be a fruitless effort to try to express in adequate language its wondrous possibilities and practical worth to mankind. Its field of action surpasses all others. It is most apparent in our daily walks of life. Every human effort owes it homage. The fame of many inventors has encircled the earth. They have been feted and honored in many ways, their names indelibly inscribed on the roll of the earth's greatest men. Fortune and fame have been showered on them with a lavish hand, and yet little or no effort is made to direct thought into this vast and unlimited field for study, that people may learn to invent. The whole subject is left quite in the dark. It is on the go-as-you-please, hit-and-miss plan. People become inventors by mere chance, and are viewed as possessing a special gift of nature. I hold that invention is just as tangible as any of the sciences and can just as well be taught. The human mind is naturally inventive. The trend will improve and grow or it will wilt and die, according to the attention it receives. To learn to invent we should apprentice ourselves, as it were, to the inventor, take up his invention and study the original lines of his thought, as the young artist studies the master work. First learn to imitate, and the creative thought will follow and develop. I shall be content to confine my effort to the simplest forms of devices I can call to mind, a first step. But don't mistake nor be discouraged. To the average man and the particular people to whom I hope this pamphlet will appeal the small and simple devices are the cream of the field. They are easily handled, quickly turned, and many pay fabulous sums. Oftentimes the idea will flit before the mind like a will-o'-the-wisp or its zephyr-like touch is not realized. I believe many people have experienced a semi-consciousness of the presence of opportunity and allowed it to pass unheeded by, that had they taken it up intelligently and properly studied and developed it they would have become famous.

We should inform and prepare ourselves. Be ready to act on the slightest intimation. "There is a tide in the affairs of men which, taken at the flood, leads to fortune; omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries."

LEARN TO INVENT

SMALL TALK.

Since we will interest ourselves in the very small affairs that hang like a great cloud of fringe on the science of invention, I think it well to make a note of some of the bright little things that have been brought forth. Many of these little mites have proven to be veritable gold mines to the fortunate originator or patentee. They are too numerous to classify. They appear so very simple, embodying but a single thought, we naturally associate "'luck." Indeed, many did come to mind uninvited, but it was to an observing mind, a thinking mind. If we desire to participate in and avail ourselves of these wondrous opportunities we must observe and think.

The dents on the old tin tobacco boxes, one on the box, the other on the lid, placed to register with and thus secure it when closed, was certainly very simple.

It is said a man was sewing and the needle would often slip off the end of the thimble when he would attempt to push it through. He became vexed and struck the thimble a blow on the end with a hammer. It was first convex, but the blow from the hammer made it quite flat on the end. Upon renewing the sewing he found the thimble worked splendidly; the needle did not slip. He became interested and finally took out a patent for a thimble with a concave end.

Certainly, to any one who would attempt to get up a machine to do sewing it would appear as a mere matter of force of circumstance to use a needle with the eye in the point, since necessarily the other end would be attached to the machine.

The return ball, in homely language a wooden ball with a rubber string fastened to it, was certainly simple enough; also the metal toe cap formerly extensively used on children's shoes to prolong their wear.

The little wheels on the end of the pole on the trolley cars would have been a bonanza were it not that the introduction of the trolley system was so slow. The seventeen years for which patents are granted passed by before the system became in general use. This slowness to become general has ruined many grand opportunities. It is a fact to be reckoned with.

Many successful inventors have had their hopes blasted at times by the apathy of the people in adopting their inventions in time for them to reap their just reward. While the inventor