Excerpt from The Story of My First Invention Sometimes when I let my mind wander back to the time I made my first invention, twenty-odd years ago, the circumstances surrounding it seem like the memory of a vivid dream. How well I remember my varying moods of hope and despair, the pleasure of expectation, and the bitterness of failure; my original idea of the soundness of my beliefs, and at last the conviction of my erring judgment; the strong impression I held at first that the Legal Aspect (the Patent) was the all-important factor, but which slowly died, to be replaced eventually by an unalterable belief, which years of practical experience have confirmed, that I was wrong. My subsequent business life - inventing, manufacturing, and selling - combined with my professional duties, proved to my satisfaction that the Commercial Aspect, rather than the Patent, is of primary and greatest importance. I can smile now and charge it off to experience, the kind of experience worth while, because dearly bought, and in my case profited by, but, oh! how serious it was then. No one, unless he has been through a similar experience, can realize the mental anguish I experienced when I came to a full appreciation of the fact that, instead of being well started on the road to fortune, I had been wending my way along a blind alley which terminated in a brick wall. I had spent every dollar of my money, and all I could borrow of my friends, and at the end had nothing to show for it but two sheets of parchment paper tied with a blue ribbon, with a red seal affixed; in other words, what Uncle Sam designates as "Letters Patent," the most deceiving document (to the ordinary individual) of any "grant" issued by the United States Government, one which, while seemingly giving you the exclusive right to "make, use, and vend" your invention, qualifies that right by that tantalizing word - If - which, while not expressed in print may stand like a sentinel to restrain your progress. On page 2 is shown a reduced fac-simile - a reproduction of one of my patents - showing where the words "exclusive right to make, use and vend" appear. The underscoring is by the author, to enable you to more easily find the location. I also call your attention to the words "an alleged" and "improvement" around which I have ruled a line just above "Eye Glasses," the title of the invention. The restriction carried by this implied word If, combined with the inability of ordinary Patent Attorneys to appreciate the all important Commercial Factor of invention, and thus help to guide their client in the right direction, has proven to be two of the principal reasons for the undoing financially of verily tens of thousands, and mentally of many hundreds of honest men, trying to acquire a competence from the creations of their own intellects. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.