CHAPTER 15

THE NECESSITY OF COMPETENT ENGINEERING FOR SUCCESSFUL INVENTION

Having done that much, now do not make a "bee line" for the Patent Office. Do not imagine that the goal of your ambition, or the end of your tribulations lies in the Patent Office, that the obtaining of some kind of a patent places an "Aladdin's Lamp" at your disposal. You have not got anything positive as yet to get a patent on--the fact is you only think you have something--but your judgment may not be the very best on the subject for your own good. Take your sketches and your specifications and consult a competent, reputable engineer, and he will tell you what are the prospects and probabilities of your invention. If your invention is a valuable one, engage his services to re-design it for you, and to make it practical. Don't think that because you are an inventor you are necessarily a "natural born engineer." They don't grow that way. But be wise enough "to know what you don't know," and to get the right services from the right man. After your engineer has incorporated your invented idea in a suitable body, try to get your protection in the Patent Office on the form in which you intend utilizing your idea. No patents are granted on ideas.

You will find the money spent on engineering your invention well spent, as very often large sums of money would be saved in making models and experimenting, and litigation would often be avoided if the inventor would have the practical "horse sense" to go to a competent engineer when in need of engineering skill.

In designing and inventing a machine for doing certain work on a certain article which is otherwise done by hand, it does not necessarily follow that the machine must imitate in its actions the method employed by hand in accomplishing the same ends. That is very often not the only or the best method of doing it. While it is desirable for the machine to accomplish as good, or better, results than is accomplished by hand process, it may be far from desirable for the machine to imitate in its action the HAND PROCESS in doing it. That may be a very roundabout way of doing it, and may not lend itself to simple and desirable mechanical manipulation. For that reason the inventor of a labor-saving machine may often have to first invent a new process for bringing about certain results on the substances on which his machine is to operate, that may be radically different from the method employed by hand.

It is therefore obvious that, to invent a labor-saving machine successfully, it is first necessary to determine the executive method of operation, and often to invent a more suitable and adaptable one before inventing the means for accomplishing the same, as the executive part of his contemplated machine is his problem, and the ease or difficulty of its solution depends upon its simplicity. The intelligent and prudent inventor will carefully note his own special capacity, aptitude, taste, education, training, experience, and opportunity in certain directions. He will carefully weigh and measure so far as possible in advance his proposed undertaking, and when finally decided upon, he will set himself to work enthusiastically on the lines laid down in this article, and with all the devotion and tenacity that is in him, knowing no defeat, learning and finding new means to solve the problem from every set-back and apparent failure, until he will bring it to a successful accomplishment, and actually tear Victory from the Jaws of Defeat.