PATENTED IDEAS

Hokitika Guardian, 15 September 1931, Page 8

PATENTED IDEAS

A YEAR’S SUMMARY

INVENTIVE GENIUS' OF THE PEOPLE.

The figures dealing with the year's operations of the Government Patent Office show upon analysis that about one New Zealander in every thirteen hundred annually gets a brain-wave, turns to and invents something, and patents it, either .provisionally or permanently, states the Wellington “Post.” What the report does not reveal, because it is not its business, is how many New Zealanders have made a fortune out of some patented idea. Neither does the report dilate upon the humour and’ absurdity of some or the ideas that are brought to the office with a view to obtaining a patent. The Department has its secrets, like other Departments. Residents in countries other than New Zealand who wished to have their inventions protected in the Dominion live as far afield as the. Argentine, Fin., land, Ireland, Kenya, Norway and Rhodesia, other European countries and Australia' supplying a fair quota. The value of having an invention patented in New Zealand is drawing more and more upon inventors elsewhere, although this year, owiing probably to the general depression, there has been a, slight decrease. Applications from overseas numbered during tire year 999: one more, statisticians will ascertain, would have made a round thousand.

INTERESTING ANALYSfS. Tlie classification of the various inventions patented during tire year is an interesting indication of tire trend . of modem civilisation. Why registrations under some headings should show an increase and others a decrease is not always easy to explain. The list of classified inventions is headed bv “telephony and telegraphy,” which includes radio and gramophones. These number 233, as against 242 in the previous . year. Then comes “electricity and magnetism,” 121 (146). Vehicles come a good third, 112 (147). Inventions dealing with “boxes, cans and casks” number 84 (58), Being followed closely by “calculating, indicating, and measuring,” 80' (74). Amusements and games are the subject of 72 inventions, 16 more than in the previous year. There were only nine patented inventions last year as regards steam boilers, as against 22 in the previous year, but engine patents increased from 47 to 63. There was an. increase in the number of inventions relating 'to. cutting and sawing, tools, harvesting and grading implements, kitchen utensils and cooking appliances, and in medicine. In advertising and displaying signs, aeronautics, building construction, penny-in-the-slot machines, film dressing, and printing and photography there was a falling off in the number of inventions.

The Patent Office should be beloved by all Governments, for each year ?ts financial operations show a nice little surplus. Last year’s was the highest since 1922. Tt does not advertise the act or paint the finger of scorn at other less fortunate Departments, but it is proud of its accumulating . surpluses, which, since 1890, have amounted to the tidy little sum of £166,586.