Patent Pending Blog - Patents and the History of Technology

The Dymaxion

Buckminster Fuller is remembered as the inventor of the geodesic dome, but he also invented a unique automobile, called the Dymaxion Car. The Dymaxion was a three wheeler, with the rear wheel doing the steering. Because of the rear wheel steering, it could do a U turn in its own length. Unfortunately, its length was 20 feet. It was a real torpedo of a car, seating 11 people, and capable of doing 120 miles per hour on the freeway. It weighed less than 1000 pounds, and got 30-50 mpg. Invented in 1933, it was completely revolutionary. I have a personal connection with the Dymaxion car, as Fuller lived in Wichita Kansas when he built it, where my uncle lived. Fuller started parking it in my uncle's unused garage, until my uncle asked for a parking fee. After that, he parked it somewhere else.

Why Women Live Longer than Men

The First Automobile in the US

You may have thought that Henry Ford made the first car in the U.S., or Duryea, or Olds. However, the first patent on an internal combustion on a 4 wheel vehicle was filed in 1879, and issued in 1897. George Selden was a civil war veteran, with skills and interests in engineering and law. After the Civil War, he entered engineering school, but had to drop out. He later took up law, and filed his patent. He knew that he would not be manufacturing cars before the term of the patent expired, so he did all he could to delay its issuance. It finally issued in 1897, at a time that other car makers were in production.

He licensed his patent, and the company that owned the rights to it licensed it to the other car makers. Selden also began making cars, the Selden Motor Car.

Henry Ford refused to pay the license fee on the Selden Patent, and lost an infringement lawsuit. He appealed the decision, and won. The Selden patent was accused of not being "enabling". To determine if the patent enabled one skilled in the art to build it, a mechanic used the Selden patent as the blueprint to build a car, the first Selden car ever built. It ran, barely, but Selden's patent was determined to cover only the three cylinder, two stroke engine that it disclosed. Ford and all the other car makers used a four stroke engine, and so were not infringing. When the lawsuit was over, the Selden patent only had one year to go before it expired anyway. Over the years, licensing the Selden patent had been a real money maker for Selden. Selden later made automobiles, then trucks, and his company lasted as the Selden Truck Sales Company into the 1930s.
    Ford also had another car built from a patent, a gasoline car patented by Lenior in 1860, a Belgian.  Ford's goal was to show that Selden's patent was invalid, because a car had been patented earlier.  Both Lenoir and Selden were only the first gasoline powered cars, because earlier steam cars had been built by Evans in the U.S. in 1805 , Gurney in the U.K. in 1829, Bollee in France in 1875 and Cugnot in France in 1768.  The Duryea Brothers car was the first production car, first designed in 1893,

How About a Screw Car?

Well, this is not exactly an Archimedes screw, not exactly an automobile, not your usual snowmobile, and not patented that I know of, but wouldn't it be a fun vehicle? These are Russian screw vehicles, which seems to be an area in which they did some development.

New Blog on Biotech

Cece Gassner has a new blog dedicated to biotech law, which is the area that she specializes in. She is fairly new to Boise, and has great connections at the new crepes restaurant downtown, which her boyfriend co-owns with his brother. Check her blog out at http://lifetech.blogs.com/bionanoblawg/

The DeLorean Motor Car

If you ever wondered who designed the DeLorean automobile, it was Giorgetto Giugiaro. The DeLorean was designed with a great look, and off the shelf engine and parts. The body was stainless steel, so it should last forever. About 9000 of the cars were manufactured at the DeLorean plant in Ireland before John DeLorean was busted in a drug selling sting. DeLorean got off from the drug bust for entrapment, and served no jail time. He did create one beautiful car! These figures are from U.S. Design Patents 283882, and 257834.

The Baghdad Battery

Western civilization generally credits Count Allessandro Volta with the invention of a simple battery, in 1800. However, a small jar about the size of a fist, found in the ruins of an ancient settlement near Baghdad, appears to predate Volta's battery by about 2000 years!

The small earthenware jar has an asphalt seal on the lid, and has an iron rod with a copper cylinder around it. Reproductions of the jar, when filled with any acid such as vinegar, produce about 2 volts of electricity. The jar is thought to have been used to electroplate small items. By electroplating, silver or other jewelry could be plated with gold, or copper plated with silver. One source states that local craftsmen in Iraq still use a primitive method of electroplating to plate jewelry.

This is a Crackup!

If you missed out on the great little political comedy video by Jibjab, to the tune of "This Land is Your Land", be sure and visit their site and check it out, at www. jibjab.com. They have a great new one out titled "Good to be in DC". You have to temporarily disable your anti popup software to view it. It takes awhile to load, but is worth it.

Parthia and The Parting Shot

The Parthian Empire was a Middle Eastern empire that lasted 500 years, and was at its peak during the time of the Roman Empire.  Although Rome had desires to conquer the known world, as had Alexander the Great, they could never conquer the Parthians.  Parthia covered the area now known as Iraq, and parts of Turkey, Iran, Israel, Syria, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Armenia and Georgia.  The Parthian cavalry was what kept Rome at bay, and they had a special weapon: a small recurved bow.  The Parthians also had a special tactic they used with the bow.  They would attack an enemy force, then flee in full retreat.  The enemy would follow.  With the enemy in hot pursuit, the Parthians would turn in the saddle, and fire their bow to their rear with great effect.  This became known as "the Parthian shot", which we still refer to when we say someone has "the parting shot" in an agrument.

Sketch of Scythian or Persian style bow, found in China. From the website: http://www.atarn.org/chinese/scythian_bows.htm  Scythian Style Bow Discovered in Xinjiang, by Bede Dwyer.  The Scythian's were nomads of Southern Russia, and were related and allied with the Parthians, and their bows were also a short recurved bow adapted for use from horseback. The site www.atarn.org is a site dedicated to ancient archery.

Rome sent a legion under the wealthy Senator and General Crassus to conquer the Parthians.  They were met far in the desert and decimated when surrounded by Parthain archers on horseback.  The Roman cavalry chased the retreating Parthian light cavalry away, until the Parthian cavalry led them to a confrontation with the Parthian heavy cavalry waiting in a trap.  The Romans had never faced an armored cavalry, with large war horses covered with armor and armed with lances.  The Roman cavalry was stopped cold by the Parthian heavy cavalry, and picked off by the archers of the light cavalry.  Most archery assaults are limited by an eventual lack of arrows, but the Parthians were supplied with caravans of camels carrying arrows, so the Parthians never ran out of arrows.  The Roman legion was routed, with 20,000 killed, and the only survivors were stragglers in the desert.  One of those survivors was a Roman named Brutus, who later conspired with other Senators to kill Julius Ceasar.

Parthian Heavy Cavalry, from Ridpath.

Thomas Edison's Ticker Tape Patent

Using his experience as a telegrapher and tinkerer, the young (22 year old) Thomas Edison had invented and patented the ticker tape machine, and he was in the office of an executive that he hoped to interest in buying it. He was thinking of asking $3500 for the machine, but was hesitant, since he had no college degree and this was his first attempt to sell an invention. Instead of asking for $3500, he asked what the executive wanted to pay for it. He said $40,000, which Edison accepted. He used the money, which would be closer to $1,000,000 in todays dollars, to start a research facility at Menlo Park, and his career as a professional inventor was launched. This was U.S. patent number 96,567, shown below.