Patent Pending Blog - Patents and the History of Technology

The Sikorsky Le Grande

Igor Sikorsky started his airplane designing career designing aircraft for the last Tsar of Russia, Nicolas II.  In 1913, ten years after the Wright brother's first flight, Sikorskiy proved the critics wrong by building and flying a huge airplane called the Le Grande.  It had a wingspan of 92 feet, 3/4 the length of the Wright brothers first flight.  It weighted 9000 pounds, with 4 100 hp engines.  Experts of the day did not think that something that large could ever become airborne.  The Le Grande had a balcony in front of the pilot cabin, and a passenger cabin for eight. The Le Grande flew flawlessly through54 flights, until it was hit by an airplane engine falling from another airplane during an airshow.  By piloting the Le Grande, Sikorsky was the first person to fly a multi engine airplane.

Sikorsky's Amphibian

In 1929 Igor Sikorsky patented a two seated amphibian airplane.  He had left Russia at the time of the 1917 revolution, and had spent years in the United States teaching mathmatics before he finally got back into the airplane business. When he was in Russia he had designed and built many airplanes, including in 1913 a 4 engine giant, which had an 92 foot wingspan and a 9000 gross weight.

The Invention of the Crank, The Crank Powered Bicycle

The crank is such a simple device that one could assume it is as ancient as the wheel.   The function of the crank was performed in the ancient world by handspikes which would be inserted in holes to move a capstan, and moved periodically to new holes aroung the cylinder of the capstan. 

In about the first century AD cranks were used on Roman medical devices, but it was not until 850 AD that proof of a crank in Europe is found, in a picture of a man sharpening a sword on a grindstone turned by a crank.  Other references show the crank in use in certain regions by about 1100 AD, and use in a variety of tools in Europe was widespreak by 1600 AD.  Of course, the Chinese had used the crank since 100 BC. 

The Frenchmen Pierre and Ernest Michaux added cranks and pedals to the existing form of the bicycle, by adding them to the front wheel in 1861.  Some people believe that this modification of the Dandy Horse makes the Michaux brothers the inventor of the bicycle.  However, the version made by John Starling was much closer to the modern version of the bicycle, and most people credit him with the invention of the modern form of the bicycle.  Other contenders for earliest bicycle invention include Kirkpatrick MacMillan in 1839.

The Michaux brothers partner was Pierre Lallement, who may also have been the original inventor or collaborator in the crank powered bicycle. Lallement immigrated to the U.S. and got a patent on his crank powered bicycle, which was the first U.S. patent on a bicycle, in 1866.   

Duryea Automobile

The brothers Charles and Frank Duryea were in the bicycle manufacture business when the brothers developed an interest in designing a motor car.  The brothers designed one motor car in 1893 , and by 1895 had developed a much improved design.  They had the perfect chance to prove their design when a race was announced from Chicago to Evanston and back in 1895, a distance of 54 miles.  The 6 competitors included the Duryea's motor car, two electric powered cars, and three autos from the Benz factory in Germany.  Driven by Frank Duryea through snow from a Thanksgiving snowstorm, the Duryea buggy was triumphant, mostly due to its big two cylinder motor.  The Duryea Motor Company was the first company founded for the purpose of making motor cars.

The Wright Flyer

The Wright brothers used their bicycle factory in Dayton Ohio to fund their research into powered human flight.  They built the first wind tunnel in history to do research on the best shape for their propeller.  Since different sections of the propeller would be traveling at different speeds, depending on how far from the center it was, then each point needed a different shape to create the most lift at that speed.  So they made the first propeller in which the shape constantly changed along its entire length.   Using a gasoline motor of their own construction, they achieved powered flight on December 17, 1903, having flown 852 feet in 59 seconds. 

Mauser '71, Bolt Action Rifle

One of the earliest bolt action rifles was developed by brothers Paul Mauser and Wilhelm Mauser.  At that time a U.S. patent could not be obtained if a foreign one had already been filed, so they filed a U.S. patent first, before filing in Germany.  The patent lists their home as "Oberndorf on the Necker, in the Kingdom of Wurtemburg", and was issued in 1868.  This was a single shot rifle, and shot an 11 mm bullet.  The next big improvement would be the introduction of a magazine and repeating bolt action rifles.

The First Paintball Gun

The first paint ball gun patent seems to have been by James Hale, in 1974.  It was intended for use by foresters marking trees and by farmers marking livestock.  Maybe the farmers and cowhands had so much fun shooting cows, they started shooting each other, and somewhere along the line, paintball guns became primarily used to shoot humans, for fun. 

Mauser Recoil Operated Rifle, 1899

Paul Mauser patented a recoil operated rifle in 1899, 45 years before the M1 Garrand was adopted as the first recoil operated main battle rifle by any army.  It would be interesting to compare the M1 and the 1899 Mauser, and see the similarities.

The Daisy Air Rifle, BB Gun

Although Clarence Hamilton had started Plymouth Air Rifle with his partner Cyrus Pinckney, and the pair got two patents on air rifles, Hamilton took his third design to a company in which he owned stock, Plymouth Iron Windmill Company.  He proposed to the company president that they give an air rifle away with each purchase of a windmill.  The president, Lewis Cass Hough, took Hamilton's prototype, and shot a BB into the wastebasket in his office.  Zing!  It was an impressive shot.  Next he took the gun outside and shot into a wooden shingle, and zing, the bb went through the shingle.  Hough said "that's a Daisy!", and the name stuck. It wasn't long (1894) before the company dropped windmill sales, and changed the name of the company to Daisy Manufacturing. 

The First BB Gun

Clarence Hamilton made an improved airgun over the existing and very successful model made by Markham Air Rifle Co.  He partnered with druggist Cyrus A. Pinckney and with a loan on Pinckneys drug store, started the Plymouth Air Rifle Company, in Plymouth Michigan.  Their first model was based on the version patented by Hamilton in 1888.