Washington Letter

Froni our Regular Correspondent. Washington, D. C, Jane, 1 1883. Today there will be a sale of mort thai sixteen thousand models in the Unitet States Patent office. These represent as many rejected applications for patent and a pile of ruined hopes, dreams, an( calculations that cannot be computed by numbers or by any units of ineasuremen known to science. Fourteen large cases filled with modela In the model room, ani as many "benches"' or series of suelves in the room over the south pórtico, will be submitted for sale to those who thiuk they can find a use for what the Goverment is anxious to be rkl of. These models, representing the rejected cases since 1872, have at last come to occnpy so much valuable room that there must be a complete house-cleaning. They have beet kept by the Goverment, in some cases for the convenience of the applicants, and ii many cases because their owners have been too indifferent to send for them. As may be supposed they represent abou every class and order of inveution. Case No. 4 contains electrical apparatus aiu MWlng machines, and is the most interesting of them all. A model of a tele graph system by the well-known W. E Sawyer, of New York, attracts attention on account of its inventor's repntuüon There are telephones without number electrical lire detectors, burglar alarms electric candles, lamps etc. An electric appliance for curing vicioushorses is most original and interesting. Two wires extend from the vehicle to the horses' hint legs. Tliese can be charged instantly sending a shock intothe horse'shind legs that would convince any horse of average reasoning powers that continued misconduct was unadvisable. I haveseen within the last year electricity applied to a balkj horco witli tho happiost oil'uot. jV. smal battery was placed in the buggy, and wires we re attached to the harness saddle. Tht horse, an incorrigible balker, went of like a machine when the charge was applied. A very ingenius little machine is in case number 4. It is the invention o a woman. It consists of three groovec rollers working on one another, while in the angle thus formed a spiral needie revolves in the grooves. Women, by the way, make no small figure in the inventive world, and there has been within the last five years a large number of patents granted to women. Their patents consist to a large extent of improvements in articles of wearing apparel, but they have secured patents in many other classes, such as household furniture, devices peculiar to the laundry and to the dairy, surgical instruments, and medicines. Case No. 5, also possesses interest to those who care Tor the curious. It contains measurlug nstruments, and is generally devoted to lorology and opties. There are some very mgenious instruraents for measuring time. liquids, counting money, changing it, and performing similar functions generally supposed to be done ouly with the fingers. A prominent object is a night clock, consisting of a white glass globe with the lours marked upon it around it. It is lluminated, and slowly revolves past a certain upright bar of metal, thus enabling one to teil at a glance the hour of the night. As a rule the metal models are all well made, but some of these constructed of wood are atrociously put together. It would seem as though the models themsclves wereenouLh to cotmemn the application. At the last sale, eleven years ago, the total amount realized wasabout $525, representing seventeen different purchases and vary ing in amount from $2 to $124.50.