Patent Pending Blog - Patents and the History of Technology

Introduce Your Kids to Entrepreneurship

When my daughter Ciera was about 8 years old, we were hit with the usual school, team, and Girl Scout fundraisers.  In these, the kids would sell some cheesy sugar filled product to neighbors, and depending on how much they sold they would qualify for a super cheesy prize. 

Ciera sold hundreds of dollars worth of products, and got a $3.00 item for her efforts.  I thought it would be better if she sold a product that wasn't full of sugar, and that people would actually want to buy, rather than just buying to support the neighborhood kids, and where her efforts were fairly rewarded. What we came up with was a seed business. In the Spring, we bought wildflower seeds in “bulk”, as in bags of 4 to 16 oz, of about 10 different wildflowers. We got some tiny zip lock bags, which we discovered are available in coin stores. Then Ciera and her friend used a measuring spoon to place quantities of seeds into the bags. We made up package labels, with planting instructions and a photo, and a one page handout.

Then they hit the streets and sold their seeds for $1 per bag. They netted a few hundred dollars each for work that took place over a few weeks, and learned about paying for supplies, evaluating which flowers sold best, inventory, partners that don’t pull their weight, and advertising. She did the seed business for about 4 years, and then got too busy with other activities. It was a great learning experience, and when her 5^th grade class had a class assignment for each student to start their own fake business, with business cards and flyers, she had already had a real business for several years.  She didn't go on to become the Bill Gates of wildflower seeds, but it was an introduction. I invite you to try something like it with your kids. 

Ciera sold hundreds of dollars worth of products, and got a $3.00 item for her efforts.  I thought it would be better if she sold a product that wasn't full of sugar, and that people would actually want to buy, rather than just buying to support the neighborhood kids, and where her efforts were fairly rewarded. What we came up with was a seed business. In the Spring, we bought wildflower seeds in “bulk”, as in bags of 4 to 16 oz, of about 10 different wildflowers. We got some tiny zip lock bags, which we discovered are available in coin stores. Then Ciera and her friend used a measuring spoon to place quantities of seeds into the bags. We made up package labels, with planting instructions and a photo, and a one page handout.

Then they hit the streets and sold their seeds for $1 per bag. They netted a few hundred dollars each for work that took place over a few weeks, and learned about paying for supplies, evaluating which flowers sold best, inventory, partners that don’t pull their weight, and advertising. She did the seed business for about 4 years, and then got too busy with other activities. It was a great learning experience, and when her 5^th grade class had a class assignment for each student to start their own fake business, with business cards and flyers, she had already had a real business for several years.  She didn't go on to become the Bill Gates of wildflower seeds, but it was an introduction. I invite you to try something like it with your kids. 

Leon Bolee's Car

When Wilbur Wright went to Paris prove to the French and all of the world that his Flyer could really do the feats credited to it, he was befriended by Leon Bollee.  He stayed with Bollee's family, built the Flyer in Bollee's automobile factory, and they became fast friends.  L. Bollee was the son of Amedee Bollee, maker of early steam carriages. Leon carried on his father's automobile making interest, but began using small gasoline engines when they became available, beginning in 1895.  The three wheeled "voiturette" was entered in a 1896 Paris Merseille Paris race.  It had three speeds, of 6, 12 and 18 mph, and was one of the fastest entrants in such races.  Bollee had another vehicle that won the Paris-Deippe race in 1897 with a speed of 24 mph, and soon was winning races at 28 mph. 

The three wheeler below sat two people, had a single cylinder of 650 cc, and generated 2.5 hp.  Other models had a 3.5 hp engine, which is basically a lawnmower engine.  Getting 24 mph out ofa  lawn mower engine is not too bad.

Front Suspension Bike - 1889

Here is one method of front suspension for a bicycle that came out in 1889! This was patented by J. S. Copeland.  When the front wheel hits a bump, it can travel up in relation to the frame. It also has a cool spoon brake, which was the norm before caliper brakes were invented.

It is the same idea as shown in the Softride shock absorber stem above, which is also a parallelogram with a strong spring, to cushion some shock from hard bumps.  But in the Softride version, the wheel doesn't travel up, the handlebars travel down.  My friend Kurt inUtah really likes his Softride stem, and has used it for years.  If you like bicycle technology, be sure to check out the bicycle technology category.   

OK, you know that photo is just too good to not be a fake.  Here is the story, from the National Geographic Site :

"A photograph that has been circulating on the internet showing a shark leaping out of the water to attack a helicopter, is a fake. The composite image, which claims to be National Geographic's "Photo of the Year," was spliced together from a U.S. Air Force photo taken near San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge and a photo of a shark from South Africa.                                        

The photo of a breaching great white shark was taken by South African photographer Charles Maxwell [see the link to his Web site at the bottom of this page]. The Air Force photo of an HH-60G Pave Hawk helicopter was taken by Lance Cheung. They were spliced together by an unknown person, and reportedly began making the rounds on e-mail in August 2001.

"I'd like to make contact with the person who did this—not to get him or her into trouble, but because it's a lot of fun and it is a good job," Maxwell said. "However, I must make clear that I would not like to see this happen to one of my photographs again. It is wrong to take images from a Web site without permission." Maxwell said he has sold quite a few photographs as a result of the attention the hoax has drawn to his work.

 

Elwood Haynes' Automobile

Elwood Haynes was a high school principle in Portland Indiana.  He went back to graduate school and studied chemistry and biology, and moved back to Portland when natural gas was discovered there, to manage the gas company.  He later moved to Kokomo Indiana to manage the gas company there.  When he was 34 he became interested in building an automobile, and a few years later, in 1893, he bought a 1 cylinder, 1 HP gasoline engine.  He hired some help to build the automobile he envisioned, the Apperson brothers.

Haynes and the Apperson's tested the vehicle on July 4, 1894.  They towed it out of town, so they wouldn't stampede the horses on the streets of Kokomo.  Haynes drove the car 6 miles at about 6 mph, becoming one of the first automobiles in the U.S. to achieve this distance and speed.  Then the Apperson's and Haynes formed a partnership to make automobiles.  Later the partners split, and made Haynes and Apperson vehicles as seperate companies.  Both makes of autos made automobiles in Kokomo into the 1920s.

Haynes was a contemporary of the Duryea brothers, who obtained a patent on their vehicle. Besides his automobile, Haynes invented a carbuerator, the use of aluminum in automobile engines, the muffler, and stainless steel. 

Bike Pulled Canoe Trailer

Todd at Stokemonkey has started a great new blog, with information about his product, the electric assist to Xtracycle bikes, as well bike related information, philosophy and opinion.  He has a link to a canoe trailer pulled by a bike that looks like a great idea. 

Simon Lake, Submarine Pioneer

From Pleasantville New Jersey, Simon Lake was an inventor at a young age, having invented a windlass for use as an oyster dredge.  When the U.S. Navy announced a submarine design competition, he decided to enter.  His submarine designs were designed around use for marine salvage, and included wheels to crawl the ocean floor, a conning tower, a periscope, an escape hatch, and compressed air to drive the screw propeller and wheels underwater.  When surfaced, the submarine would operate using a steam engine.  Lakes submarine would not move forward when rising or sinking in the water.   A Lake submarine prototype was built and used to salvage wrecks in Chesapeake Bay, then was taken on an open ocean trial.  When the sub was hit by a storm on the open ocean, it submerged and sat on the bottom till the storm passed.  Lake used his submarines to salvage wrecks along the Long Island coast.

More information about Simon Lake is at The Submarine Heritage of Simon Lake, by Edward G. Whitman.  Lake was a contemporary of Joseph Holland, and in competition with Holland for Navy contracts.  A collection of watercraft technology is in the Watercraft Category of this blog.

Optimus Camp Stove Windscreen

Here is a nice windscreeen and cooking stand for a gas stove, patented in 1922 by the Nystrom, and assigned to the Optimus company of Sweden.  This is not too different from the Svea Optimus stoves offered by Brunton Stoves, with the Optimus 123 shown below.  More on the history of Svea Optimus is here.

The NeoDymic "Bicycle to Moped" Upgrade

If you want to extend the range of your bike, or use the bike for more serious load carrying, or just have fun blasting around town, you should look at the product made by NeoDymic.  It replaces the front wheel of your standard bike, and suddenly you have a powered front wheel.  Installation is simple, and is basically just replacing the standard front wheel with the NeoDymic unit. 

Range is 20-30 miles on a charge, and different power packs are possible.  Once installed, the power controls are easily accessible, and intuitive in operation.  See more at the website of the inventors, at NeoDymics.  A speed of 20 mph is available with the unit.  Price and availability?  Talk to Jeff at NeoDymics.