Patent Pending Blog - Patents and the History of Technology

The Walker Colt Revolver

The Colt factory had gone bankrupt in 1842, but Captain Samuel Walker of the Texas Rangers well remembered the revolvers that had proven very effective in skirmishes with Indians in Texas.  With a war brewing with Mexico, Capt. Walker went east to find the revolver's inventor, and to see about getting some more revolvers for U.S. Army troops.  When he contacted Colt, Colt wisely picked Walkers brains about how to improve the revolver, and together they designed a revolver that was better than the original. 

These drawings are from the patent for the 1850 Colt, but they sure look like the Walker, as well.  The Walker Colt shot a .44 conical bullet, using a cloth or paper cartridge and black powder.  It weighed a hefty 4 lbs 9 oz, and had a 9 inch barrel, with an overall length of 15.5 inches.  Referring to the Walker Colt, a popular saying was the "Abraham Lincoln may have freed all men, but Samuel Colt made them equal."  Capt Walker said that the Walker Colt was "as effective as a common rifle at one hundred yards, and superior to a musket even at two hundred." 

Walker helped Colt get a government contract for Colt's new revolver, and Colt was back in business.

Today 168 Walker Colts are known to exist, and they go for $100,000+, a price that has appreciated a good deal from the original $25 price tag.

Ancient Persia's Qanat System

As early as 3000 BC, a system of irrigation began in Persia called the qanat, also spelled quanat.  This system is still active today, and has 170,000 miles of active underground canals in Iran alone, and supplies 75% of the water used in that country.  Quanats are underground tunnels, with a canal in the floor of the tunnel, which carries water.  At regular intervals, well-like openings extend from the surface to the tunnel floor, and it is through these openings that the tunnels were built and through which they are maintained.  The underground nature of the canal reduces evaporation in the hot and windy desert, and allows 22,000 quanats to operate in Iran today.  Many others exist within the sphere of the ancient Persian Empire, which included parts of Turkey, Afganistan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and parts of the southern former U.S.S.R.  Quanats originate in highlands, with a mother shaft as deep as 400 meters, and the tunnel floor slopes at a gentle angle toward its destination, which can be 100 miles away. This aerial photo of Persipopolus, The Persian King Darius' capital, shows several quanat routes.  Below is the method of building a quanat. 

The difference between the quanat and a surface canal is that the quanat can get water from an underground aquifer, so a surface river or stream is not needed.  The quanat tunnel becomes humidified by the water, then further evaporation of water ceases.  Since it travels at a slope independent of the surface features, it can go in a straight line.  The water carrying canal in qanats were usually lined with stone or tile to reduce water loss. 

Another Reason Women Live Longer Than Men

This is wrong on so many levels...

Lets see now, electricity, water, aluminum ladder, barefoot, wet clothes, I don't think OSHA would have a problem with this job.  The only thing missing is an explosive.  Thank God he is wearing safety goggles!! 

One of Those Days

Did you ever have one of those days?

OK, the last photo is a fake, but its a fun sequence anyway.  The positions of the people, cars, and boats in the last photo are identical to their positions in the 4th photo.   Nice photoshop work, and it got a laugh out of me. 

The Roller Chain

Bicycles were first driven by direct drive cranks, but a new paradigm in bicycle drive systems was needed, in the late 19th century.  This need coincided with the arrival in England of a young Swiss man, Hans Renold.  Working around machinery, he soon invented the roller bush chain, in 1880.  This was just the power transmission device needed to power a rear drive bicycle, and was incorporated into the Starley safety bicycle.  This method of power transmisstion is an incredible 98% efficient, and is virtually unchanged in today's bicycles, even though the rest of the bike has been almost completely redesigned.  Matt D. Kidd and R.L. Rueben, of Hariot-Watt Univ., Edinburgh UK, have written a great paper on the efficiency of the roller chain. 

The Renold Company is still in business making chains and bearings for industrial use.