was some good ground for these patents, but I doubt if any better than was found in the case of the rubber tire, the large drive-wheel, or, particularly, the step for mounting the ordinary bicycle, and possibly no better than was found in the tubular construction. The American Patent Office and the courts more recently take the view that if a man has really done something in the art they will give him a patent. This is absolutely necessary under existing circumstances, as it is almost impossible, with the enormous number of patents that have been issued, to invent anything upon which the Office cannot find some sort of reference, and for this reason it is proper that the evidence of invention should rest largely on the fact of general success and value in the market. The courts are liable to ask, “Why, if a certain invention is so old and obvious and in such great demand, was it not used before?” The Patent Offices, both in America and in England, have become so utterly clogged with cycle patents that it takes great ingenuity to get in anything that is broadly new. The patents are necessarily on some detail of construction, except perhaps in the open field afforded by the innovation of the rear-driver, just as there has been some attempt to improve upon the “Rothigiesser system,” in which a German inventor claims to ride “hands-off”, as spoken of elsewhere. There is also a good opening in tandem bicycles and tricycles, and in the anti-vibration element of the rear-driver, but the field is rapidly closing in. THE CYCLE INVENTOR. Close upon the question of patents comes the idea of the cycle inventor. It is not my desire to in any way curtail the income of the respective governments of the world, or to embarrass the Patent Offices thereof, by causing a lack of new applications, but the cycle inventor, as well as inventors in other departments, might profit by a little advice from a personal stand-point. A glance at the numerous samples of patents illustrated in this book, and a thought of the total number issued, should be enough to convince any fair-minded reader that many useless fees are yearly dropped into the patent-slot at both the American and English offices. This fact, together with an extended experience in other departments of invention and a limited turn at the gridiron upon which the cycle inventor is grilled, has caused a few facts appertaining to inventors and patents to dawn upon me, which I now propose to inflict upon the reader. These things are not the discovery of a sore-head; they are related by one who has to thank the patent department of his country for all of his worldly financial success.