Having secured his patent, our inventor sets his draughtsman to work and the drawings are made. Then follows the model, and ere that is completed it is discovered that there occur unexpected difficulties in the material construction which did not present themselves on paper. New contrivances must be resorted to, and the model is made and re-made many times over. It is at last completed, perhaps within a very few days of the time allowed for depositing the specifications, and fresh expenses are incurred by the necessity of paying highly those whose business it is to work against time. When all is ready the specification is deposited, and the inventor, perhaps, discovers that the title he has first taken will not cover his invention on account of its being different from his first contemplation. The title must, therefore, be altered, and the fees paid over again. He now sets to work to construct a full-sized sample of his invention, and all his patience is needed. At length the invention is in a state for practical trial. Up to this point all seems well; but practice soon discovers a defect, not in principle, perhaps, but in detail. A second experiment is made without success; and many more follow ere the invention is completed alike in principle and execution. Then begins the task of getting it before the public. Perhaps the inventor has been sanguine, and has attempted to introduce it to the public in an imperfect state, and the consequent failures have excited a prejudice unfavourable to his object. This prejudice has to be overcome by repeated and unceasing exertions, and at length, perhaps when half the period of the patent right has expired, the inventor begins to reap the fruits of his skill and industry. Public rumour is ever fond of exaggeration, and he is soon supposed to be realising a large fortune, though most likely he is only beginning to pay his expenses. Competition is then at work, and rivals who have been at no expense or trouble imitate his invention, or make just so much alteration in it as they think necessary to evade his patent right. He goes to law with the pirates, and then, perhaps, makes the discovery that his title or specification is imperfect, and that he has been labouring for years to bring to perfection an invention from which he can reap no more pecuniary advantage than if he had confined himself to an ordinary trade in which imitation alone was necessary.