Author: Invention Geek

Invention Geek – Claw Game?

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Question from Jae D.:
Hello Geek..
I was wondering if you could tell me more about the invention of the arcade claw game. I love those games even if I never win.
Thanks,
Jae D.

The original version of these machines was developed in 1896 from a child’s game. In this version, the player had to dig up candy and other prizes using a mechanical control to steer the tiny crane. Playing one game on the Erie Digger cost a penny.

The digger game hit full production in the 1920’s. The original Erie Digger then had to compete with other versions of the game including the Iron Claw, Miniature Steam Shovel, Electro Hoist and Miami Digger. The Miami Digger was built by William Bartlett and was known for its original design and superior play. It appears that Bartlett was the first to apply for a patent for this new type of arcade game. He received US Patent 1,882,563 on October 11, 1932 for a Coin Controlled Vending Machine.

The popularity of these games continued to grow both as toys and gambling machines in the 1930’s and 40’s. Then in 1951, the days of the digger games were ended with the passing of a new Federal anti-gambling laws. In 1974, with changes made to the gambling laws, new crane games from Europe began to appear in the United States. These games cost 25 cents a play and were much more high tech that the original diggers. Today even more advanced versions of the game can be found anywhere from the arcade to sporting arenas to the movie theater.

Invention of the EKG Machine

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EinthovenOne of the greatest life saving inventions ever made was the EKG. To this day, variations of the original EKG machine help to discover heart disease and prevent heart attacks. An EKG machine picks up electrical pulses from the heart and records them in wave tracings. These waves help physicians diagnose cardiac abnormalities. The development of the first practical EKG began in 1889 at the First International Congress of Physiologists. Willem Einthoven saw British physiologist August Waller demonstrate recording the electrical activity of a heart using his dog.

Willem Einthoven, a Dutch doctor, began experimenting with the knowledge that the beating of the heart produced electrical currents. He expanded on the ideas of Waller. Starting in 1901, he began developing a series of prototypes of a string galvanometer. After 2 years of designing and experimenting, Einthoven perfected the practical EKG machine in 1903.

The machine used a very thin piece of wire which passed through electromagnets. The wire was connected to electrodes on the patient’s chest. The patient had to have his or her hands submerged in salt water baths to conduct electrical impulses. The electromagnetic field made the wire quiver ever-so-slightly as the heart beat. With the use of film and a light shining on the wire, the invention was able to precisely record both the strength and rate of the patient’s heartbeat. Einthoven’s machine weighed 600 pounds and was the size of a small room. Five technicians were needed to operate the machine. The machine was huge and cumbersome to work with but it was stable and extremely accurate. Continue reading “Invention of the EKG Machine” →

Design Patents: Form Over Function

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In part one of this series, we talked about utility patents and how they are the oldest and most common in the United States. American inventors have been able to patent their new, functional ideas and objects since 1790.

Now, if utility patents require an object to have some unique and different functionality, what do you do when you want to protect the distinctly unique ornamentation of your functional product?
…you apply for a design patent, of course!

Design Patents Offer Protection for the Uniquely Ornate

Administered By: USPTO
Available Since: August 29, 1842
Annual Applications: 30,467 (in 2011, a new record)
Total Patents Granted: 635,355 (as of April 2011) Continue reading “Design Patents: Form Over Function” →

Invention Geek – “Happy Birthday To You?”

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Question from Suzie Q.:
Hello Geek!
I’ve heard that the “Happy Birthday” Song is patented. Is this true? If so, what’s the background info on this?
-Suzie Q.

As a song, “Happy Birthday to You” is not eligible for a patent but it is copyright material which means that royalties should be paid every time the song is sang in public.

The melody of “Happy Birthday to You” is from a song written by two sisters, Patty and Mildred J. Hil in 1893 titled “Good Morning to All.” The song was published as part of the book Song Stories for the Kindergarten with the lyrcis:
Good morning to you,
Good morning to you,
Good morning, dear children,
Good morning to all.

No one knows exactly when the lyrics of the song were adapted to Happy Birthday to You but the song first showed up in print in 1912. Between then and 1934, the songs was published in various song books but none of these books had a copyright notice for the song. Because of this lack of copyright, Jessica Hill working with the Clayton F. Summy Company, was able to copyright the song in 1935 siting the similarities to “Good Morning to All.” The Clayton F. Summy Company was bought by Birch Tree Group, Ltd. who held the copyright until 1998. In 1998, the company was purchased by Time Warner. Today, Time Warner holds the copyright for “Happy Birthday to You.” In 2008, the royalties for the use of the song in movies, ads, television, radio and any public event were $5,000 a day. The copyright for the song will expire in 2030.

The validity of the copyright of the song is often questioned. Many have said the song is not an original work worthy of copyright for many reasons. These reasons included that the melody was very similar in nature to many other popular songs of the time and there is no proof of who actually wrote the lyrics. They were mostly likely improvisations of children who had heard the original song. Still since it first copyright no one has brought the question of the validity to court and probably never will so until 2030 royalties will still be paid for the use of “Happy Birthday to You.”

Sewing Machine Wars

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Sewing MachinePeople attempted for decades to design a properly functioning sewing machine. There were many machines designed and patented which simply did not work. Then in 1830, Barthelemy Thimonnier, a French tailor, developed a successful model. This machine caused fear and outrage among tailors in France. Afraid that they would lose their livelihoods to this invention, a group of tailors destroyed the plant where Thimonnier was producing his sewing machine.

Walter Hunt was the first American to build a working sewing machine. He did not patent his device though. He believed the invention would cause tailors and seamstresses to lose their jobs.

Elias Howe first heard of sewing machines when working for Ari Davis. Here he fixed nautical equipment and many versions of sewing machines which were constantly in need of repair. These faulty machines inspired him to begin working on a machine that would actually fill the needs of seamstresses. Watching his wife work on the sewing she did to earn extra money for the family, he realized that he could never duplicate the motions of hand sewing. Instead, he began to work on a machine that would use thread supplied from two different sources.

After five years of working on the task, Howe perfected his invention and the first Automatic Sewing Machine was invented. Elias Howe’s machine created a lockstitch. The machine had a needle with an eye at the point. The needle was pushed through the cloth and created a loop on the other side. The second thread was slipped through the loop which created the stitch. The first US patent for a sewing machine was issued to Elias Howe on September 10, 1846. He received US patent 4,750 for an Improvement in Sewing-Machines. Continue reading “Sewing Machine Wars” →

Invention Geek – Fire Grenade?

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Question from Frankie del Fuego:
Hello Geek!
I was wondering if you could figure out when the first fire grenades were patented in the US? I saw some on an antiques show the other night – little glass ‘bombs’ that contain a chemical to help put out fires.
Also, could you tell me where the idea came from? That is, were we the first ones to make these things or is it an older idea?
Thanks a million!
-Frankie del Fuego

Fire grenades were small glass bottles filled with salt water or carbon-tetrachloride and sealed with a cork and cement. These bottles were meant to be thrown into a small room or area at the base of the fire. The glass bottle would then hopefully break and then the contents would put out the fire. When the grenade was filled with carbon tetrachloride, the contents would vaporize immediately into immense volumes of fire extinguishing gas in which combustion can not possibly exist.

Fire grenades were developed around 1860 and they were in use until about 1910 when they were replaced with extinguishers closer to what we use now. The first United States patent for a fire grenade was issued to Samuel B. Johnson on August 8, 1871. He received Patent #117,891 for an improvement in fire-extinguishers. The Harden “Star” Hand Grenade Fire Extinguisher was the most popular brand of extinguisher.

Today the colorful bottles with ornate designs are popular with collectors. They are rare since the bottle was meant to be destroyed. Fire grenades is good condition can be worth upwards of $2,000.

View the patent here.

Tumble Puffs?

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Dryer AdDid you ever wonder why you have to wait until the final rinse to add the fabric softener to your laundry? Laundry detergent and fabric softener can’t be mixed because the mixture causes a chemical reaction which forms a solid.

Conrad J. Gaiser invented a product to make it is easier for his wife, Audrey, to do the laundry. The couple lived on the top floor of a four-story building with the laundry room on the ground floor. In order to add fabric softener to the laundry, Audrey had to run down the stairs to catch the final rinse cycle.

Gaiser put his years of experience with soap and detergent to work. He wanted to change the process of adding fabric softener to the laundry. He decided to devise a product in which you would add the fabric softer to the drying process instead. The first prototype was fabric softener applied to a piece of flannel from his wive’s sewing room. When the sheet was put in the dryer, heat and moisture warmed up the fabric and the softener was released onto the other clothes. He called this first prototype Tumble Puffs. Continue reading “Tumble Puffs?” →

The Utility Patent

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Patent ModelDid you know intellectual property protection in America is about as old as America itself?

It’s true.

In 1787, the Constitution empowered Congress to “promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.” Less than three years later, with the ink barely dry on the Patent Act of 1790, George Washington signed the very first patent ever issued in the United States.

While the patent system itself has evolved in many ways – now ornamental designs and even plants can be patented – the law remains conceptually unchanged since its inception.

Utility Patents: The Oldest of US Intellectual Property Protection

Administered By: USPTO (since 1836)
Available Since: 1790
Annual Applications: 482,871 (in 2009)
Total Patents Granted: over 8 million (since 1836) Continue reading “The Utility Patent” →

Invention Geek – Aspirin?

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Question from Margot L.:
In a previous post, you stated that aspirin used to be a trademark name. Where did the name aspirin come from?
-Sarah W.

Aspirin was the brand name given to acetylsalicylic acid by Bayer Corporation of Germany. The name aspirin was derived from the ingredients in the drug. The “a” came from the first letter of the product’s scientific name, acetylsalicylic acid. The “spir” came from the plant Spirea ulmaria, the meadowsweet plant, which was the original source of the compound. The “in” used for the ending was a common ending for medicine at the time.

Bayer was forced to give up trademark rights in U.S., England, France, and Russia in 1919 as part of the Treaty of Versailles. Today, aspirin is the common named used for acetylsalicylic acid in many countries.

Going Up? Now It’s Safer – Invention of the Elevator

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Elevator PatentThe first passenger elevator was designed for France’s King Louis XV for his personal chambers in Versailles in 1743. Called the “Flying Chair” the elevator only went one floor, connecting the king’s chambers to his mistresses’ on the second floor of the palace. The king entered his elevator through his balcony and a arrangement of weights and pulleys hanging inside a chimney were pulled to raise or lower the chair.

Elevators became more and more common in the early 19th century. By 1850, steam and hydraulic hoists were being used in factories and mines. It was in 1852, that elevators were changed forever. Elisha Otis invented the safety elevator. Otis was working to convert an abandoned sawmill into a bedstead factory. His employer needed a way to get the equipment and people to the upper floors of the building quickly and safety. Otis had, of course, heard of hoists that were being used but he was also aware of the safety concerns of such devices.

Otis was a tinker and inventor and wanted to make a device that would be safer to use, one that would not fall. He finally came up with an answer. He invented a brake for the elevator using a tough, steel wagon spring meshing with a ratchet. He put the wagon spring on top of the hoist bar and ratchet bars attached to the guide rails on both sides of the hoistway. If the cable on the hoist snapped, the tension from the wagon spring would be released and engage the ratchet bars which would securely lock the hoist platform in place and prevent it from falling. For this invention, Otis received United States Patent 31,128 on January 15, 1861 for an improvement in hoisting apparatus. Continue reading “Going Up? Now It’s Safer – Invention of the Elevator” →