Trying to Collect from the U.S.

Inventor Bert Adams demonstrated his new, nonrechargeable battery for the U.S. Army with understandable pride. Just as he claimed, it put out a steady current even in extreme heat or extreme cold. Worthless, said the military technicians. No, thank you.

Adams nonetheless patented his battery in 1943. Then ten years later, the Army got a patent of its own--without a word to Adams--and ordered more than a million batteries built to its own design. Sure that he had been bilked, Bert went to court. Six other men, who had backed the invention, joined the suit. Not until 1966 did the U.S. Supreme Court rule that Bert's patent had indeed been infringed. Last February the lawyers involved agreed that the Government should pay $2,500,000 in damages.

Painful Riders. Losers of damage suits are notoriously slow payers, and all too often the winner finds himself back in court fighting to collect what the law has said is rightfully his. But Adams' debtor, after all, was the U.S. Government. His money seemed practically in his pocket.

Far from it. Before the U.S. could settle, Congress had to appropriate the funds. A rider to that effect was at tached to an appropriations bill. Then another rider was attached, allocating funds for the Office of Economic Opportunity; that sank the whole bill. In due course, Adams' hopes were attached to another appropriations bill. But a request for highway funds was also added, and that bill was tabled.

Every Effort. A Congress notably wary of any kind of spending seemed utterly uninterested in the welfare of the retired inventor. Now 69, he has been living in Yuma, Ariz., primarily on social security payments. Then last month, in a surprising paroxysm of activity, Congress passed a bill appropriating his money. After paying his lawyer and splitting with his fellow plaintiffs, Adams and his wife received $517,442.92. Said Bert: "It doesn't mean a thing, really, except that it was right for it to come out this way. What's a man my age going to do with all that money?"

The Government has an idea. Tax it.

Bert and his lawyers are preparing to fight once more.

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