long after, when a business has been built upon it, and when the patent is tested in the fierce light of litigation. Therefore a good solicitor, in addition to having the necessary breadth of technical knowledge, must also be a competent lawyer, of experience in patent litigation, and familiar with the way courts interpret patents and alleged anticipating devices.

Least of all should the inventor attempt to prosecute his own application. It is worse than going into an apothecary's shop to mix his own drugs, for there he can at least avoid the bottles labeled "Poison;" but in the Patent Office nothing is labeled, and there is no knowing how he may damage his case.

People think of the Patent Office as the great assistant of inventors; and so it is, in a sense. By means of it, fortunes are made. The enormous industrial advance of the United States in the present and past century, is due largely to its beneficent influence. But in another sense the Patent Office is not the inventor's friend. Its examiners stand equally to protect the great non-inventing public who desire to use freely all fruits of inventive genius. To the hopeful applicant they seem more like obstructionists than promoters. They are fluent with reasons why his claims should be narrowed or abandoned. They drop never a hint how the claims might be broadened. If the claims presented lie within the area of advance made by the invention, they will be allowed; all the rest of that advance -including, perhaps, parallel ways to attain the same end-they quietly permit. to go unclaimed and thus be dedicated to the public. The inventor suffers no wrong in this. If he does not ask for all he might, that is not the Government's fault. It does, however, emphasize the need of having a good solicitor.

The extent of professional services that will be required to get proper patent protection, cannot be told accurately in advance. It depends upon what obstacles are raised by the Patent Office; and the action of the Office can never be foretold, unless, indeed, the claims are made deliberately narrow.

The Solicitor's Task

Proceedings in an application are conducted in writing. Letters from the Ex

aminer and from the applicant or his attorney are entered alternately in the file of the case; and the action of the Patent Office is based upon the written record. Ordinarily there is no occasion for the inventor to visit Washington; and he cannot facilitate the progress of his case in the least by so doing. It is believed that the Patent Office is entirely free from "influence" by Senators or Congressmen or other public officials.

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In almost every application, one or more claims are allowed early in the proceedings, the others being rejected on references cited by the examiners from the prior art. By canceling or narrowly limiting the rejected claims, the applicant can then have a patent—such as it is-issued at once. But let the inventor beware. Land in New Mexico and land in New York would both be conveyed by a deed;" but one might be worth a dollar an acre, and the other a dollar an inch. The fallacy of the "No patent, no pay" bid for business, thus becomes manifest. What the inventor really wants is not merely "a patent"-with his name at the top, and a blue ribbon, and an official red seal. Narrow claims are easy to get-and are usually not worth the cost of getting. A patent with claims too narrow is like a boat having one or more planks missing. Every plank in the boat serves admirably to keep water out at its particular place; but at the places where there is no plank at all, water comes through freely, and the boat is useless.

Claims broad enough to make the patent valuable have usually to be fought for, and sometimes demand the highest skill of the solicitor's art, both to perceive wherein the inventor's advance over the prior art really consists, and to frame and prosecute successfully claims covering that scope fully. The Examiners are not to be treated as infallible. The law provides for appeals to the Board of Examiners-in-Chief, to the Commissioner of Patents in person, and to the Courts. The official rejections of claims are not always based on reasons that are legally sufficient. The test of ability comes in determining what is the utmost that the applicant is legally entitled to have allowed out of the rejected matter; and in then presenting the rejected claims to the

Examiner anew-revised, if necessarywith such arguments as will command his assent. In such cases a clear vision and a courageous attack are needed, coupled, perhaps, with a skillful modification of the application.

If conflicting applications are filed by different inventors for a patent on the same invention, the Patent Office institutes "interference proceedings," which are conducted as in court to determine by means of evidence who was the first inventor.

Foreign Patents

When the application is finally allowed, it will be issued on payment of a final government fee of $20 at any time within six months. Meanwhile the papers re

main secret, and the inventor can avail himself of this delay to apply for patents in foreign countries. He may file his foreign applications earlier if he prefers -but not more than twelve months before filing the United States application, under penalty of having the latter refused. In most foreign countries, such application has to be made before the invention is described in print in any country. In some, it is sufficient to apply before a printed description reaches the country. In some countries the patent will be granted only to the inventor or his assignee; in others, to the first applicant. In England the saying facetiously is that "the man with the fastest cab-horse wins."

T

HE present war between Russia and Japan, and in particular the sailing of the Baltic fleet for the scene of hostilities in the Orient, not only show the importance of having numerous coaling stations, which must be strongly fortified and garrisoned and made self-defending, but also indicate the necessity of having ample means for ccaling at sea when great distances must be traversed and when neutral harbors are not open for coaling purposes.

Many plans have been proposed for coaling ships at sea, a large part of which are considered unsafe by prominent engineers. During a heavy sea it is gen

of the tow-line parting, the lines of the cableway would clear themselves.

A marine cableway permits a fighting vessel to stay in the fighting line, and allows a fleet of war vessels to arrive off the enemy's coast with bunkers full instead of being displenished. No navy can have too much coal, or too many ways of obtaining it, in time of war.

One of the most important improvements in coaling ships under the marine cableway system, has been in the method of delivering the coal after it reaches the deck of the vessel. Until recently, as on the U. S. S. Massachusetts, a pair of shears were erected and guyed, supporting a large canvas chute, through which the bags of coal were dropped. This has now been dispensed

ping drum will develop a rope speed of about 1,700 feet per minute, and will lift a load of half a ton. These winches operate the load carriage between the collier and the warship, one winch carrying the loaded carriage toward the warship, the other drawing the empty carriage back to the collier. For this purpose, a single wire rope, about 2,000 feet in length and 3 inch in diameter, is employed. In many cases both winches are operated by electric motors, and run all the time in the same direction, the ropes being always taut. The friction of one slipping drum overpowering the other gives the reciprocating motion to the load carriage. The rope is being wound up on the drum of one winch, while it is being paid out by the other drum under

is wound in when the ships approach each other. It is essential, however, that the rope speed of these winches be greater than the speed at which the ships approach each other.

It may be of interest to note some details of the electrical equipment of one of the Russian battleships for taking a supply of coal while at sea.

The ill-fated battleship Retvizan, disabled by the Japanese at Port Arthur, was equipped with the LidgerwoodMiller marine cableway, which is an American system of coaling at sea. This system is operated by two electric winches, the slipping drum being

LOAD OF COAL IN TRANSIT APPROACHING HAUL-DOWN BLOCK ON WARSHIP.

A load is being lowered at the same time.

mounted on the armature shaft of the electric motor. The drum has a diameter of 14 inches, and gives a rope speed varying from 1,200 feet per minute at full load to 2,000 feet per minute at half load. The first warship to be completely equipped with the marine cableway, was the U. S. S. Illinois. Its equipment wil permit that battleship to take coal at sea from any masted vessel that it may meet in any quarter of the globe. The British collier Muriel, on several sea trials, delivered from 35 to 40 tons of coal per hour in a moderate sea and half a gale of wind

to H. M. S. Trafalgar. The battleship towed the collier at speeds varying from eight to eleven knots an hour. The same collier also coaled H. M. S. Empress of India at sea at the same rate; and at one of the English trials, ViceAdmiral Sir G. H. Niel had his fleet of seventeen ships witness the operation for the benefit of the officers on board. The accompanying illustrations show the method of coaling the Russian battleship Retvizan at sea from a collier which it is towing. By having warships equipped in this way, it is claimed that the question of coal supply is largely solved, since vessels can coal directly from any collier and are not dependent upon coaling stations. Any masted ship, either sailing vessel or steamship, can do duty as a collier, and deliver its coal at sea to any warship equipped with a marine cableway. Even a destroyer could be coaled at sea by a collier, when properly equipped. Capt. E. M. Shepard, U. S. N., Light-House Inspector at Tompkinsville, N. Y., has stated that "out of 365 days ending November 30, 1900, the log book of the

COAL LOAD CARRIAGE IN CON-
TACT WITH HAULING-DOWN
BLOCK A FEW INCHES ABOVE
DECK OF BATTLESHIP.

Sandy Hook light-vessel shows that the sea was smooth 121 days, moderate 196 days, rough 47 days, and very rough one day." It is claimed that coaling at sea could have been accomplished 317 days out of the 365 off Sandy Hook.

The load starts out from the collier on a down-hill route, continuing so for more than half the distance. When the load is just clear of the center of the span and in its lowest position, the man on the quarter-deck of the warship commences to pull down the block. By the time the bags reach the haul-down block, they will be trailing on the deck. The operator will stop for an instant, the lowering will continue for a foot or more, the load will be unhooked from the car