TOPICAL READING.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8169, 27 June 1906, Page 4

TOPICAL READING.

It is said that intending patentees frequently affirm that the services of a patent agent are superfluous. Direct application to the Government office appears simple and safe, and suoh an application has the meirit of initial cheapness. Though in some instances no subsequent trouble may occur, few inventors .appreciate tbe pitfalls of amatuer patent agenoy, or realise that the effectual protectiou of tbe inventor is the patent agent's special trade. If the*inventor is to be secure, an intimate knowledge of all similar patents is essential to tbe preparation of the specification and its claim. In this connection it may be of interest to mention arecent Supreme Court case, in the oase referred to (Osborne v. Horne), Mr Justice Denuiston held that though the plaintiff's patent was novel, ingenious and of great public utility, aud related to a patentable subjeot matter and the defendant had infringed it, yet tbe patent was bad owing to the inclusion in the specifications of claims which were bad.

The National Review contains a lengthy criticism of the Far Jilaßtero war from the pen of the author of "The Influence of Sea Power." It- will be read with intense interest by members of the military and naval professions. To the general public the writer's dosing proposal will appeal most strongly. Captain Mahan asks most strongly how long the present race of size in shipbuilding is to be continued. There is he says no logical „or practical en d to it in sight. Yet it canuot endure indefinitely. ''Sooner rather than later" the overtaxed people will insist through, their reoresentativos on ohanges "more radical than beneficial." As there is no biggest ship beyond which a bigger is not practicable a limit must so the writer seems to argue be found elsewhere than in the nature of things. If only the question of size could be eliminated be would expeot the qualities to fall into their proper portions. But how is this elimination to take place? He sees "no way save by international agreement;

as for instance an accepted limitation that no naval vessel abduld be built exceeding a certain displacement."

In the course of the discussion, at the North island Dairy Convention at Pultoerston North last week, of a motion palling upon the Government to proceed without further delay with the establishment of a dairy experiment station, Mr Kinsella, Dairy Commissioner, was asked for bis views, fie declared that many times during the proceedings he had been asked questions which he could either answer not at all 01 by giving the results of experiments or investigations in Canada or the United States, as he had no meios of carrying out either in this colony. An experiment station and dairy school had been promised ever since he first came to New Zealand, and the continued neglect} to provide this great necessity of the dairy industry made his position worse every day. The motion was carried unanimously.

Within three days, less 33 minutes, Mr Harriman, the American railway magnate, and financier, crossed the continent from the I aciflo to the Atlantio, a distance of 3,306 miles, thereby oonstitating a reoord. His special train, which only ran from Oakland, California, to Buffalo, State of New York* where be took the usual express to that city, made an average, including stops, of 46 miles an hour, which is considerably below some of the best long-distance runs made in England, but is splendid time over so broad a continent. The greatest speed attained was 83 miles an hour, and over one traut of 137 miles an average speed of 66 miles an hour was maintained. Miss Roosevelt's famous run across the continent on her return from her voyage in the Orient last year, which attracted so muob attention frum the public, and a peremptory telegram from ttie President ordering the young lady to slow down, ocoupied two hours longer than Mr Harriman's.

What is an American college? The term is used for such a multitude of institutions that the definition adopted by tbe trustees of the Carnegie foundation for the advancement of teaching will be found useful. They will limit the distribution of their favours from the £2,000,000 fund at their disposal to institutions having at least six professors giving their entire time Co the college and university work, a course of four full years in liberal arts and sciences after the usual four years of high school preparation. The trustees are now engaged in the arduous task of compiling a list of colleges coming within the conditions of the trust. Amung the professors themselves of such colleges great hopes have been excited by tbe settlement of the pension question, one of the first subjects taken in hand by the trustees in the initial year's work. Tbe ppnsions will range from £2OO to £6OO a year on the attainment of the age of 65, and after at least 25 years' service. It has been decided to pay the widow of a professor half his pensiDn, provided she was his wife for ten years while he was in active servioe.