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benefit of which, not having taken out a patent for the same, she was robbed after her husband's death by a neighbor, who procured a patent in his own name. Mrs. Manning also invented a clover cleaner which proved very profitable to her husband, who held the patent. The name of Mrs. Elizabeth Smith, also of New Jersey, appears as patentee of a device whereby knives can be adjusted upon a reaper or mower while the machine is in motion.

Among other inventions by women is that of a baby carriage, the patent for which a San Francisco lady sold for $14,000; the paper pail, invented by a Chicago lady; the gimlet-pointed screw, which was the idea of a little girl; an improved spinning machine and loom; a furnace for smelting ore; an improved wood-sawing machine; a space-saving clothes mangle; a chain elevator; a screwcrank for steamships; a fire escape; a device for correct pen holding, for use in schools; a wool feeder and weigher; a self-fastening button; a process for burning petroleum to generate steam; a spark-arrester for locomotives; a danger-signal for street crossings on railways; a plan for heating cars; a rapid change box, convenient for use at railway stations and ferries; syllable type, with the necessary apparatus for their use; machine for trimming pamphlets; writing machine; signal-rocket, used in the navy; deep-sea telescope, invented by Mrs. Mather and improved by her daughter, for bringing the bottoms of ships into view without raising them into drydock, and for inspecting wrecks, removing obstructions to navigation and making examinations for torpedoes;

improvements in sewing machines, and many other devices which are in common use.

The machine for making satchel-bottom paper bags, which has attracted much attention for its complicated mechanism and extraordinary ingenuity, is the invention of Miss Maggie Knight, who has since invented a machine for folding bags, and herself superintended the erection of the machinery at Amherst, Mass. A Hoboken lady, having had her dress spattered with mud by a clumsy street sweeping machine, invented the Eureka street sweeper.

The Metropolitan Elevated Railroad Co., of New York City, paid Mrs. Mary Walton ten thousand dollars for an invention which deadened the noise on their lines, and a royalty forever. She was fifty years old when she made the discovery of her inventive faculties. She is a widow, and has been accustomed to think and act for herself. She says:

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"My father had no sons, but believed in educating his daughters. He spared no pains or expense, and made great sacrifices to this end. We had the only piano in the whole neighborhood, for miles about us. At that time we lived not far from Philadelphia. My father's brother once said to him: 'Why do you waste so much money on your girls.' To which my father replied: My boys all turned out to be girls, and I am going to give them so good an education that some time they may turn out to be as good as boys.' This is not my first invention. Twenty-eight years ago I made what has proved to be a valuable invention. My husband was delighted with it, and brought one of his friends into the matter to consult with him. This intimate and trusted friend appropriated the idea and reaped

the benefit. This time I determined there should be no man in it. I heard that Edison was constantly going up and down the elevated railroad, listening to the noise, trying to find out the cause and the remedy. He was called by the men employed on the road "The Wizard,' as he always carried a stick with him. He was listening on a salary paid by the railroad, but had not found the something that would stop the noise. I had been thinking the matter over and over, and had about made up my mind what caused the noise. Once sure of that, I thought I knew what would stop it. So one evening of that summer I took my daughter, and for the first time made a trip on the elevated railroad. We were the only ladies on the train. For my purpose I wished to stand on the rear platform. That was against the rules. I said, 'Then, hundreds of gentlemen break the rules, as more stand outside on summer evenings than ride inside.' It shows how much more tender the company are of women's lives than of men's, and of how much more value they consider women, that they guard them so carefully However, in spite of obstacles, I made up my mind that night as to what caused the noise. I kept my own counsel, not one of my family knowing what I was thinking about. I bought two pieces of railroad iron, placed them on pieces of wood, raised them upon two barrels in my cellar, and set about experimenting. When I had perfected my plan I bought two shingles and made my model, supposing this to be necessary before going further; but, finding this was not necessary, I destroyed it. The railroad has asked me, as a favor, to make another model precisely like the first one, as they wish to place it in their office as a curiosity, and I have promised to do so. I then procured my patent, against the persistent and earnest advice of many men, from time to time. I have been discouraged in all possible ways, but I have pushed through, and the railroad company has paid me handsomely."

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CHAPTER XI.

Coloring Photographs.

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WRITER in a prominent weekly journal says that for the last twenty years there has been, in this country at least, a steady demand for the application of color to photographs, and to-day thousands of persons, chiefly young women, are devoting themselves to supplying the demand, with no prospect that the market will become dull. Thirty or more of these workers are in the school of the Cooper Institute, New York City, and the visitor who has had the privilege of seeing them, will remember how picturesque they looked in the midst of their gay and bright pigments, cardboards, and finished or partly finished photographs-one coloring a portrait, another a landscape, a third an interior, a fourth a genre-some of the works directly from life or nature; others from oil painting. They use water-colors exclusively, and are governed by most of the laws of the water-colorists' art. The technique of the business is very simple, and in two steps; first, the application of a wash or color; secondly, the knowledge of stippling. About one-fifth of the

members are earning ten or twelve dollars a week by executing orders; that is to say, they are more than paying their necessary expenses while acquiring an honorable and remunerative profession. After a two years' course of study many of these diligent young women will be able to earn more than that. Sometimes during their first year they succeed in earning as much. In 1865, just after the war for the Union, one of these resolute and clever sisters arrived in New York City from the South, almost penniless, with a father, mother, two grown up brothers and a grown up sister on her hands. Having received previously some little training in the art of photo-coloring before the war had wiped out the fortune of her parents, she determined to help herself and the rest of the family, and in a short time obtained work enough to provide for the support of the entire group.

Each art has its special difficulties, and those of the art of photo-coloring usually lie first in ignorance of drawing, which incapacitates the artist from producing form, and leaves her work either painfully flat or distorted, the cheeks in her portraits, the shoulders, arms, and busts as if silhouetted, or else misshapen; secondly, in ignorance of coloring, which makes her tints either dry or hard, and which prevents her from successfully covering up the troublesome and exacting little black places in the neighborhood of the lips and eyes of the photographic portrait; thirdly, in ignorance of

HOW TO SELL HER WORK.

Unlike some of her sisters who pursue "high art," the photo-colorist seems disinclined to convert her studio

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