On April 15, 1997, U.S. Patent No. 5,621,640, issued to Bertram V. Burke on an Automatic Philanthropic Contribution System:

This was the first of four patents on the idea of rounding up a purchase and contributing the add-on to one or more charities. The others U.S. Patent No. 6,088,682, 6,876,976, and 7171270. They were all assigned to Every Penny Counts, which unsuccessfully tried to assert them against various banks and credit card companies. See, Every Penny Counts, Inc. v. Am. Express Co., 563 F.3d 1378, 90 U.S.P.Q.2d 1851 (Fed. Cir. 2009).

Bertram Burke was a retired psychoanalyst who related his “invention” back to an experience he had buying ice cream: after he paid for an ice cream cone, he was given 52 cents in change and he thought that this small amount of change was practically worthless. He considered putting the change in a canister on the counter ostensibly intended to raise money for a charitable cause, but he did not trust that the money in the canister would actually be devoted to charity. He describes his invention as a way of solving this “problem of loose change.”

The big question on Tax Day is how do you deduct these microdonations?

On April 14, 1914, Stacy Gulick Carkhuff received U.S. Patent No. 1,093,310 on a Vehicle Tire:

Carkhuff’s tire was literally and figuratively non-skid, with raised letters spelling out NON-SKID providing the increased friction that improved traction:

Carkhuff was the Secretary of the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company from 1905 to 1943, and a driving force behind its success. His tire design was a brilliant combination of functionality and marketing:

On April 13, 1869, George Westinghouse received U.S. Patent No. 88929 on a Steam Powered Brake:

This system worked, although less than optimally because of the delay in operating the brakes at the back of the train. Westinghouse patented the solution to this problem a few years later on March 5, 1872 (U.S. Patent No. 124405):

On April 2, 1889, Charles M. Hall received U.S. Patent No. 400664 on a Process of Reducing Alumina from its Fluoride Salts by Electrolysis:

before Hall’s invention, aluminum was very expensive to produce — so much so that its price was near that of precious metals such as silver and gold. When the Washington Monument was completed at the capping ceremony of December 6, 1884, a pyramid of solid aluminum 22.6 cm high, 3.9 cm at its base, weighing 2.85 kg, and costing $225 was installed at the top, forming part of the monument’s lighting protection system.

Today’s patent of the day did not issue on April 1, but it is appropriate nonetheless. On February 16, 1932, Sam Adams (no, not that Sam Adams), actually Soren S. Adams, received U.S. Patent No, 1,845,735 on a Joke Buzzer:

Sam was born Søren Adam Sørensen in Denmark in 1879. His family emigrated to the US when he was two years old, settling in Perth Amboy, New Jersey. When he was 25, he was working as a salesman for a dye company when he noticed that one of the products he sold caused workers to sneeze. He isolated the sternutation-inducing ingredient, and called this new powder Cachoo, launching the Cachoo Sneezing Powder Company in Plainfield, New Jersey.

Within a few years, Sam began innovating new products, and changed the name of the company to S.S. Adams Co. to reflect that it was no longer a one-product company. The exploding cigarette box, the snake nut can, itching powder, the stink bomb, and the dribble glass all entered the Adams Company product line.

In 1928, Sam created the prototype of what was to become the joy buzzer, and had a tool and die maker in Germany make tooling to make the novelty buzzer. The joy buzzer as a success, allowing him to expand his operation in Neptune, New Jersey.

of the item allowed him to greatly increase his staff and purchase the former Symphonion music box factory building (constructed in 1893, demolished 2017) in Neptune, New Jersey, all during the Great Depression. Sam and S.S. Adams Company went on to create many more successful novelties including the bar bug in an ice cube, the money maker, the squirting nickel, the jumping coin, the laughing tissue as well as a line of magic tricks and puzzles. Sam claimed to have devised over 600 different items, and patented about 40 of them. He continued to lead S.S. Adams Company until his death in Asbury Park, New Jersey in 1963 at age 84.

An interesting side note to his novel career, in 1930, the JEM Rubber Co. approached him with the whoopee cushion, but rejected the idea because it “seemed too indelicate” and would never sell. JEM Rubber eventually found Johnson Smith & Company, and the whoopee cushion because a tremendous success. Sam later released his own version calling it the “Razzberry Cushion.”

On March 30, 1858, U.S. Patent No. 19,783, issued on a Pencil & Eraser:

Hymen L. Lipman was born March 20, 1817, and immigrated to the U.S. with his parents in 1829, arriving in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was in the stationery business when he invented a pencil with an attached eraser. In 1862 he sold his patent to Joseph Reckendorfer for $100,000, who then sued Faber for infringement. In 1875, the Supreme Court found the patent invalid because the invention was merely a combination of two preexisting components without any change in their function or operation.

On March 26, 1895, Henry Latimer Simmons received U.S. Patent No.536,360 ona Railroad Train that would allow on train to pass another on the same track:

Although the idea seems pretty far-fetched, several years later the Leap Frog Railway at Coney Island provided the concept:

On March 25, 1902, Irving W. Colburn received U.S. Patent No. 696,008 on a Glass Working Machine:

Irving Wightman Colburn was born May 16, 1861, and died September 4, 1917. His first patent (U.S. Patent No. 620,642) for a “Glass Working Machine” that could make bottles issued March 7, 1899. His later ‘008 patent was for a process for the production of continuous flat glass disks which made the mass production for window panes possible. He formed the Colburn Machine Glass Co. in August 1906 but by 1911 he was bankrupt. Toledo Glass Company bought his patents in 1912, and Colburn worked with Toledo Glass to perfect the technology. Toledo Glass eventually became the Libbey-Owens Sheet Glass Company.

On March 23, 1982, U.S. Patent No. 4,320,756 on a Fresh-Air Breathing Device and Method:

This principle was featured in the 2015 Kingsman: The Secret Service where the agents in training breathed through a toilet when the room they were in flooded.

On March 22, 1960, U.S. Patent No. 2,929,459 issued to Gordon Spitzmesser on a Combustible Gas Powered Pogo Stick:

This was apparently not the first patent on a powered pogo stick, Richard J. Mays received U.S. Patent No. 2,510,509 on a Mechanical Jumping Stick issued June 6, 1950:

Nor was it the last, for example David Samiran obtained U.S. Patent No. 3,495,671, issued February 17, 1970, on a Power Assisted Pogo Stick: