Chapter III: Experiences of Pioneer Inventors of the Submarine (3)

Many of the troubles of inventors can be traced originally to certain semi-professional men who call themselves patent attorneys. There are two classes of patent attorneys, one class consisting of conscientious, honorable gentlemen, who consider it their duty, when an unsophisticated inventor comes before them with an idea which the inventor considers new, to tell him the truth about his invention and to inform him whether it is really an original invention or not, or merely a slight modification of some old idea on which no protection can be secured. There is another class of attorneys who have been more properly termed patent sharks, who will get a patent on anything brought to them; for by juggling words they are able to get claims which mean nothing, except that they serve the purpose of getting the attorneys their fees. Many an inventor has an idea which is original with him but which may be as old as Bushnell's submarine or entirely impractical. The patent shark will get him a patent on this, and the inventor then thinks his fortune is made. He is very likely then to sell his farm and go to New York and advertise in the papers that he has a valuable invention, there to fall into the hands of some unscrupulous promoter who secures all of his money without letting him know that the patent is worthless; or if he happens to have a valuable invention the promoter will in all probability arrange matters so that he himself gets the cream and leaves the inventor a mere pittance.

Since the war began, and there has been the general editorial demand by the papers of the country for some means to destroy or offset the submarine menace, I have received hundreds of letters asking advice, etc., regarding various devices. I have received visits from a number of people who have come from long distances, some from the West, others from Canada and from the South, to ask my opinion regarding certain attachments to be applied to submarines or on devices to capture submarines. Many of the ideas were old and some of them pitiful in the fact that they showed such ignorance of the laws of nature and of mechanics on the part of their projectors. One man sends me a copy of his allowed patent with a letter from one of these patent sharks acknowledging the receipt of final payment of a considerable amount for his having received an allowance of his patent. I will, without betraying the name, quote in part from his letter:

I would kindly ask if you would take hearing from me and take
notice of my new invention, which is called the Power Transmitting
Mechanism. The machine is started by spring or batteries; the
first start is the spin of the fly-wheel; the fly-wheel pumps on
the handle of the jack: one revolution to the one pound on the
fly-wheel drives the handle of the jack back and forth. The jack
will throw the crank one revolution with ninety-seven pounds. The
jack is the result of multiplying power, and the jacks can be used
in the same position as any and all cylinders. This machine will
nicely furnish you the power for your undersea liner. No fuel is
needed....

Now anyone can see that this proposition is nothing more or less than an impractical proposition mechanically, and that it is on the perpetual-motion order, yet this patent shark mulcts the poor man of a considerable sum to secure him some kind of a worthless patent. He is likely to expend much further sums in trying to get it on the market. A patent lawyer of that stamp should be put in jail for fraud, and should not be permitted to practise in an honorable profession.

I have already recited my own difficulties in attracting the interest of the United States Government to my work, and I call attention to the fact that it required many years of persistent endeavor and the expenditure of vast sums of money furnished by patriotic individuals, and also the recognition of my devices by several foreign governments, before our own government recognized any merit in my work. That has been the experience of almost every American inventor, so far as I am aware. We have seen how Bushnell was derided and driven from his home; and that Robert Fulton received no recognition from his home government, and that the only recompense he ever received for his submarine work was from the British Government. Strangely, the money paid him was not for the purpose of enabling him to develop his invention, but rather to suppress his inventive genius. Ericsson could get no recognition or assistance from the government when he presented his design of the _Monitor_. She was built by private capital, and her builders assumed all the risk, and it is stated that at the time she fought the _Merrimac_ and helped to save the United States from being divided internally, she was on a builder's trial and had not been accepted or paid for by the government. All readers of the life of Ericsson are familiar with the lack of consideration he received from the naval authorities of the United States at that time, and that his epoch-making invention was derided as a "cheese-box on a raft." It was strange that he received such little consideration, as at the time of his arrival in America he was an engineer of note and while still a young man had built the wonderful canals of Sweden. I had never really appreciated Ericsson's great engineering ability until I made a journey over these canals, which are virtually carried up over mountains, and offer one of the most interesting European trips a tourist can make. Maxim had to go to England and Hotchkiss to France to get their guns adopted. Sir Hiram Maxim told me of the heartbreaking time he spent in his native country, America--he was born in Maine--trying to get his inventions properly developed, and the lack of consideration he received here by our own government officers, while in England, on the contrary, he was received with open arms. The late King Edward visited him, and the English took up his invention and knighted him.

The Wright Brothers' first recognition and the first dollar they ever received as profits in their years of experimental effort came from France. I remember well when Wilbur Wright came to France with his flying machine and secured the recognition that the Wright Brothers had not been able to secure in the United States, their native country. The Wright Brothers and their and our own European representative, Mr. Hart O. Berg, occupied for a time one of the rooms in our suite of offices in Regent Street, London, as their headquarters, and I am therefore familiar with some of their difficulties in getting recognition in this country.

It has been said that Americans invent and the Europeans develop. This statement seems to be borne out in fact, so far as our military inventions at least are concerned. From the time the Wrights first introduced the flying machine in Europe all the important countries over there have been consistently assisting inventors in improving the construction of the planes and machinery for driving them, while our own country has stood almost at a standstill. Our government gave no aid to foster this American invention so that it could be gradually developed, but rather our authorities made the first requirements so difficult to fulfil that there was no incentive to work; which is a mistake often made by men with a theoretical rather than a practical education. A practical man may evolve something radically new in the arts or sciences, but to get it introduced into the government service it must first be passed upon and approved by men who at the country's expense have received, for the most part, a purely theoretical education; and nine times out of ten these men get some additional theories of their own which they insist must be incorporated in the machine or apparatus, and thus make it impossible of operation or delay its accomplishment. It is probably due to this cause that we are now forced to go to France for plans of our aeroplanes and their driving machinery to enable us to compete with the Germans' machines.

What is the reason for this lamentable state of affairs in respect to American military inventions? I believe that I can partially explain it. I believe it is because our army and navy officers are too busy with the routine of their profession to give the necessary time to a thorough investigation of devices other than those with which they are forced to become familiar by their training. I believe that there is not a single fundamental invention which has emanated from an army or navy officer during his service, although it is true that such men have made some improvements upon devices in their hands, based upon working experience. Their education and routine require them to be well-informed as to the _proved_ devices of which they make use in the service. On looking over the volume of text-books, rules and regulations covering in the most minute details all the methods of construction, tests of strength, chemical analyses, etc., with which officers are obliged to become familiar, I can fully appreciate the fact that they are too highly educated in the knowledge of accepted devices to be able to find time to look into the future.

I believe that the present Secretary of the Navy, Mr. Josephus Daniels, in his creation of a civilian board of advisers to the navy to pass upon new inventions of value to the navy, has taken an important step in the protection of this country; the creation of this board I consider one of the greatest achievements of the present administration.

The few inventions which have gained sufficient early recognition and have received governmental aid in their development have usually been forced on the Army or Navy by either political or financial interests. The intrigue and lobbying conducted in Washington to secure exclusive privileges would make volumes of interesting and spicy reading, and it is possible that the knowledge of these well-known intrigues makes officers very chary in recommending or taking up devices that may appear to have merit. The usual answer to inventors of untried devices who offer their plans to the government has been, "Well, if you try it out and it proves successful, we will then consider it"; and in such a case should the inventor have no means or financial backing the invention is lost to the United States and is adopted abroad.

This policy is "penny wise and pound foolish" when it so directly affects the safety of the nation. I was informed by Mr. Otto Exius, the managing director of the great Krupp Works in Germany, that the Imperial German Government has followed a far different method in fostering inventions that might be of benefit to the state. Mr. Exius informed me that when they undertook the development of a new invention for the purposes of national defence the government paid them for the cost of all material used and allowed them a sufficient percentage over labor costs to cover their overhead, plus a fair amount of profit. This probably accounts for the fact that Germany to-day is far ahead of us in her development of engines for the military submarine. There is no gainsaying the fact that the policy of our government has been to make up an ideally perfect weapon and then invite manufacturers to bid for the work. They have thus thrown the burden of development upon individual firms, many of whom have been forced into bankruptcy in their patriotic desire to furnish acceptable devices to the government.

We have the inventive genius in this country to _create and originate_ new machines and new methods of manufacture. In most commercial and industrial lines we are able to maintain a leading position, but in devices designed for the national defence we originate, and other nations develop and profit. Had we supported our inventors and held within this country as far as possible the knowledge of their devices, and withheld the secrets of their work from foreign powers, as indeed we should have, the United States to-day would be in a position of military effectiveness very different from that in which we are found. All this is due to the fact that the government does not foster and protect our newly created devices, and to-day we are behind the continental powers in our gunnery, our airplanes, in our dirigibles, and in our submarine engines, as well as in many other auxiliaries necessary to our national protection.

I feel that it lies within the province of the civilian board to correct the mistakes in our governmental policy, provided, of course, that Congress makes suitable appropriations to enable it to carry on investigations in a proper manner and to protect the inventors who submit new and original ideas. At the time Secretary Daniels created the board I wrote him, in part, as follows:

"I notice by to-day's _New York Herald_ that you are proposing to
appoint an 'advisory board of civilian inventors for a Bureau of
Invention and Development,' to be created in the Navy Department,
and that you have asked Mr. Thomas A. Edison to be the chairman of
said board.

"I wish to congratulate you upon this conception. I believe such a
board, if its work is properly systematized, can be made of great
and permanent value to the nation.

"Many illustrations could be found in which other nations have been
the first to take up and reap the benefit from American inventions.
It is doubtful if Morse, Edison, Bell, the Wrights, or any other
pioneer American inventors have received any reward whatever from
many countries whose own citizens have grown rich and prosperous
by taking up and manufacturing American inventions without giving
consideration to them.

"When I first submitted my plans of a submarine boat to the Navy
Department in 1893 I had no company back of me and did not make
a proposition to the department to build a boat. I suggested to
them that I would coöperate with the Navy Department in a way
satisfactory to them.

"My hope was, at that time, as I was only a youngster, to receive
some sort of a commission in the United States Navy and to be
placed in charge of the development of the submarine, but the
submarine was a discredited machine in those days, and after I had
spent several days in trying to interest the authorities at that
time in my proposition I failed, and felt very much discouraged,
and did not again return to the Navy Department until called there
in 1901 by a telegram from Senator Hale, who was then chairman of
the Senate Navy Committee.

"Since that time I have been offered a splendid position with very
large financial backing if I would take charge of the development
of submarines for a foreign government. This I refused to do,
because I had a natural desire to receive some recognition in my
own country.

"The principal aim and ambition in my life has been to be able to
make sufficient money to endow an institution for the protection of
American inventors.

"I tried to interest Enoch Pratt in this scheme twenty-three years
ago in Baltimore. I have given a great deal of thought to such an
institution. It does not look now as if I should be able to carry
out my plans. If I had had sufficient financial backing in the
early days of my experiments and development of the submarine to
have protected myself fully by foreign patents, all of the European
countries to-day would be paying me royalties, as they are all
using a number of features in their boats which I originated.

"While I regret that the probabilities are that I will not be
able to carry out my ambition, your proposition would, if carried
out, go a long way toward improving the opportunities of American
inventors to secure proper recognition of their inventive genius so
far as they could be applied to the protection of the nation.

"I can, however, foresee certain oppositions to this scheme: first,
there will be opposition from the vested interests who have held
for years control of certain lines of manufactured articles and
material used in the service.

"The scheme would also fail unless it would be possible for this
board to secure the entire confidence of the American inventors.
Very few inventors have had large business experience or know how
to protect themselves from the various parasites who thrive upon
them.

"A man gets an idea--it may be an old one, but he considers it
original--and becomes obsessed with the idea that he has made a
great discovery. He may be a farmer, a mechanic, a clergyman, or
any other form of good American citizen, but not an experienced
business man. In many cases he becomes a prey to people who live
entirely upon their wits and the inexperience of others.

"First, if he is unfortunate enough to fall in the hands of an
unscrupulous patent attorney, he will get all the money he can out
of him by securing him a worthless patent. Probably 75 per cent. of
the patents issued are not worth the paper they are written upon.
After securing the patents he will then give up his farm or his
position, take his savings and go to New York or some other city,
and fall into the hands of an unscrupulous promoter, who makes the
inventor believe he can place his patents, or, if he has a good
invention and falls into the hands of an unscrupulous promoter, the
invention is taken away from him, or he is given a mere pittance
for it.

"I know of one case where an inventor of one of the most successful
typewriting machines on the market, who spent his life in
developing it, is receiving the munificent sum of eleven cents
from each machine as a royalty. There is a large number of these
machines being manufactured, and of course he is receiving a
comfortable income even at this small rate, but the promoter who
had nothing to do with its origination and who only happened to
know the capitalists to go to, and the capitalists, are receiving a
princely income.

"So many instances of inventors being deprived of a fair
remuneration for their inventions have occurred that as a class it
will be found that many of them will hesitate to submit their ideas
to the board.

"I have received many letters from inventors throughout the country
who had all sorts of schemes for improving submarine boats, for
detecting their presence under water, for destroying them, for
protecting battleships against them, etc. In some cases they were
accompanied by plans and descriptions, and they are usually old
ideas, in many cases already patented. In other instances I have
received letters stating that they had ideas which they would
submit to me if I would pass upon them or coöperate with them in
developing or introducing them to the Navy Department. My practice
has always been to refuse to consider any device or invention
unless the inventor had made application for a patent, as I did
not want to be accused of taking another man's ideas, as he might
submit to me ideas similar to my own and which I might have already
had either patents pending in the Patent Office for same, or had
made similar plans upon which I might expect to take out a patent
at some future time.

"This feeling of uncertainty may cause inventors to hesitate to
send their ideas in, but I think that could be overcome by having
certain rules of procedure; that is, any idea submitted must be
put into form, sworn to as original by the man who submitted it,
which must be attested by witnesses. It could then be sent to
examiners--first, to find out if it was an original idea; second,
to find out if it was a mechanically operative idea; and, third, to
find out if there was any need for such a device.

"I think your naming Mr. Edison as the head of such a bureau will
go a long ways toward creating confidence in the mind of the
inventors, that they would receive proper consideration. Most every
one knows of Mr. Edison's perseverance in his early days in getting
his inventions upon the market. A great many people know that
he himself has not received a fraction of the reward that he is
entitled to because of his great inventions. He is, without doubt,
the greatest inventor the United States has produced. While I have
never met Mr. Edison personally, I have always been a great admirer
of him, because he is the man most responsible for raising the
title of 'inventor' from that of crank to that of honor. I was such
an admirer of him in my youth that I named my son after him. I do
not think you could have made a better choice than he to head this
bureau.

"If the bureau is organized, permit me to suggest that there should
be some definite inducement held out to the inventors in the way
of a royalty compensation or some other form of compensation for
such ideas as the government might take up and utilize. The plan
which I had in mind for my inventors' institution was to erect
buildings, machine shops, laboratories, with a staff of patent
experts, draftsmen, and engineers, so that the crude idea could
first be investigated to see if it was original, then passed on
to the engineers, who would coöperate with the inventor, and they
would see that proper plans were made covering the proper kinds
and strength of material to accomplish the purpose, and then it
would be sent to the shops, all this work being charged up to the
invention, or to the inventor if he was in a position to pay for
it, at cost.

"The institution would, in consideration of its placing all
these facilities available to the inventor, receive a certain
percentage for its part of the work. In that way a properly endowed
institution would probably be self-supporting. It might be possible
to work that idea into your scheme. Take, as an illustration,
the submarine boats. Something new and revolutionary might be
introduced in the way of propulsive means which would enable
submarines to make very much greater speed, both on the surface and
submerged. As soon as the submarine has the speed of a battleship,
it will be able to drive the battleship from the seas. Without
battleships to cover the landing of troops from transports, no
invasion of one country by another country, from the sea, can be
made. Therefore, no more wars between maritime countries.

"Such a propulsive means, therefore, will become a great and
valuable adjunct to any nation. If the government developed such
a machine it would be only right for them to pay a royalty to the
inventor. On the other hand, this same machine would undoubtedly be
very valuable for a great many other industrial purposes. If it was
used for other purposes, it would only be right that the inventor
pay the government in return a royalty or percentage of his profits
in consideration of the government having developed it for him.

"I hope you will not think I am officious in offering these
suggestions. Having given so much thought to the matter in the line
as above referred to, I felt that you were entitled to have my
thoughts for what they were worth.

"I certainly hope you will be able to get the support of Congress,
the naval officers, and the inventors in carrying this scheme
through to a successful conclusion, which, if done, I believe
will be one of the greatest constructive pieces of legislation
accomplished in years."

A larger institution along the same lines might well be endowed by a number of America's bright business men who have made fortunes based upon the ideas of some poor, unsophisticated inventor who has not been brought up to worship wealth, but who had an original idea of value to the world and to the individuals who had the business capacity to get the money out of it.

Original ideas are creations, and the creation of ideas may become possible by constant study and research. In this class are all the professional inventors; but many good ideas are spontaneous and occur in brains not educated along mechanical or scientific lines. The establishment of such an institution as above outlined would conserve these spontaneous inventions for the benefit of the nation, as well as assist the professional inventor in his research.