What you should do, though it is easier to advise than it is to accomplish, is to so word the claims of your patent application that they will broadly cover not only your particular combination but every other form of it. Finally should your invention be one of considerable magnitude and great importance you must keep working on it all the time and making improvements and covering the last named with patents or the other fellow--the patent thief--will get you sure, and often he will do it anyway.
~What a Patent Consists Of.--~All through this chapter the words _drawings_, _specifications_ and _claims_ are used and now suppose we find out just what is meant by them.
Every patent application is made up of five parts and these are (1) the _petition_; (2) the _drawings_; (3) the _specification_; (4) the _claims_, and (5) the _oath_. The petition and the oath are separate papers and do not appear in the patent when it is granted. The drawings, specification and claims form the patent when it is granted.
_The form of petition_ by a sole inventor is as follows:
Your petitioner, ..............., a citizen of the United States and a resident of ......, in the county of ...... and State of ...... (or subject, etc.), whose post-office address is ........, prays that letters patent may be granted to him for the improvement in ............, set forth in the annexed specification.
Signed at ........., in the county of ....... and State of ......, this .... day of ......, 19..
Other forms by joint inventors, etc., will be found in the _Rules of Practice_.
[Illustration: FIG. 78. A PAGE OF DRAWINGS FOR A WIRELESS TELEPHONE ARC]
_The drawing_ or drawings come first and these are made on white paper the thickness of Bristol board and the size of the sheet must be exactly 10 by 15 inches with a line drawn 1 inch from the edges all round making the _sight_, that is, the space in which the drawings are placed, exactly 8 by 13 inches. A reduction of a sheet of drawing for the author’s _revolving arc_ for his wireless telephone is shown in Fig. 78.
The drawing or drawings, there may be one or more on a page and several pages if needs be, must show every detail covered by the specification and claims. The drawings may be made in _isometric perspective_ as described in Chapter II, or plan or elevation views can be used, or both of these kinds of drawings as long as the pictures show exactly what the invention consists of and how it works. Usually the different parts are numbered and these are referred to in the description of the invention.