"WANTED--THE MILLENIUM"

The British Institute of Patentees has inaugurated a system which should prove invaluable to humanity. In a "What's Wanted" book are to be published suggestions as to inventions needed by the world, for the guidance and inspiration of future Edisons. Already a terrifying collection has been accumulated, including "practical ways of utilizing the tides", "a process to make fiannel unshrinkable", and "glass that will bend". Although this last commodity has been put on the market before, it has failed to make a place for itself along with "Pyrex" and pop-bottles, and so it is up for election again.

But when all the genius of the world is available for solving such problems as may be suggested, the possibilities seem limitless. When a maxim silencer has been invented for airplanes, and non-clogging pipe-stems have become actualities, inventors and scientists can turn their attention to the making of articles once suggested in joke. Stephen Leacock's "Man in Asbestos" may yet come into being, dressed in a suit of everlasting knickerbockers, and cating concentrated food pills for nourishment. "Hole-proof Hosiery", now named with optimistic exaggeration, will some day be made so as to defy even the attacks of army boots. Safety razors will be designed which will have regard for the quality of mercy, and will leave the pound of flesh uncut. Some new kind of heel will be developed that will make walking a real pleasure.

But even if this book of suggestions does not prove a means of introducing the millenium, it should accomplish a vast amount of good by diverting creative energy into truly useful channels. If inventors will direct their resourcefulness toward carrying out the sane suggestions in "What's Wanted", they will not only spare themselves much profitless labor, but they will relieve the jammed Patent Offices everywhere. The hordes of perpetual motion machines, trick safety-pins and mechanical dolls that flood these departments represent untold effort by their perpetrators, and no less wasted energy on the part of those who have to catalogue them and search the archives for previous patents. Wisdom in the choice of a subject is certainly as important as subsequent ingenuity in design.