On September 17, 1901, electrical engineer and inventor Peter Cooper Hewitt of New York City received a serios of eight patents (Nos. 682,692-99). Also these lights had a peculiar blue-green color, these were commercially successful because of their improved efficiency over incandescent lamps, and were a precursor to fluorescent lighting. The mercury vapor lamp was often used in tandem with an incandescent lamp, providing a more acceptable color.

In 1902 Hewitt developed the mercury arc rectifier, the first rectifier that could convert alternating current power to direct current without mechanical action. He also worked on an early hydoifoil, and on a automatic airplane.

When Cooper Hewitt died in 1921 at the age of 60, he left 1/3 of his $4 million estate to his wife Maryon and 2/3 to his daughter Ann, with the proviso that should Ann die childless, her share would revert to her mother, inadvertently pitting mother against daughter. Shortly before her 21st birthday Ann came down with appendicitis, and Maryon had the doctor sterilize her daughter while removing her appendix, guaranteeing the reversion upon Maryon’s death. After discovering what Maryon had done, she filed the civil suit against her mother for $500,000 in January 1936, alleging that Maryon Cooper Hewitt paid the doctors to remove her fallopian tubes without her knowledge or consent. Soon after, the San Francisco district attorney charged Maryon and both doctors with “mayhem,” a rare charge that was “reserved for cases involving the act of disabling or disfiguring an individual . . . punishable by up to 14 years in prison.”

A lengthy, scandalous trial resulted in the charges being dropped against the doctors and Maryon, and Ann accepting a settlement of $150,000. Maryon died at 55 following a stroke a few years later in April 1939. Ann wound up marrying five times, before dying of cancer in February 1956 at age 40.

On September 15, 1885 U.S. Patent No. 326,281 issued to Constantin Fahlberg on an improved composition of the artificial sweetener saccharine.

A few months earlier, on June 2, 1885, he received U.S. Patent No. 319,082 on saccharine itself:

Saccharine is still widely used today as an artificial sweetener (the sweetener in Sweet ‘n’ Low). Fahlberg allegedly noticed a sweet taste on his hands after work, and connected this with the compound benzoic sulfimide on which he had been working earlier that day. Oddly, two other other artificial sweeteners were discovered the same way — tasting the same way. Cyclamate was discovered in 1937 at the University of Illinois by graduate student Michael Sveda, who was working on an antipyretic drug. He noticed that his cigarette, which he had put down on the lab bench, had a sweet taste when he put it back in his mouth. Aspartame was discovered in 1965 by James M. Schlatter at the G.D. Searle company. He was working on an anti-ulcer drug and accidentally spilled some aspartame on his hand, and noticed it had a sweet taste when he licked his finger. A third artificial sweetener, Sucralose (the sweetener in Splenda) was discovered by accident in 1976 by Shashikant Phadnis at Queen Elizabeth College (now part of King’s College London), who was told to “test” a chlorinated sugar compound, but allegedly though he was asked to “taste” it, thereby discovering its exceptional sweetness.

We should all be grateful for their sloppy laboratory procedures, and they should be glad the didn’t accidently discover a new poison.

On September 14, 1886, G,K, Anderson received U.S. Patent No. 349,026 on an Inking Ribbon For Type Writing Machines:

The typewritter ribbon, once ubiquitous in office environs, was long ago replaced by toner cartridges. However, before the age of popup windows and blinking lights, typists needed a warning that they were coming to the end of their ribbon. George Anderson provided that warning by coloring the ends of the ribbons differently, so the typist would notice the change in color and change the direction of the ribbon or replace it.

On September 13, 1870, U.S. Patent No. 107,304 title “Wrench” issued to Daniel C. Stillson (1826-1899), a mechanic at the Walworth Company, in Cambridge, Massachusetts:

This was improvement to the original pipe wrench that Stillson patented on October 12, 1869, (U.S. Patent No. 95,744):

In some places pipe wrenches are still called “Stillsons.”

Stillson’s pipe wrench is often confused with a monkey wrench, but (1) a pipe wrench usually has serrated or toothed jaws; (2) the upper jaw moves on a pipe wrench, while it is the lower jaw that moves on a monkey wrench; (3) the handle of a monkey wrench is usually round and made of wood; and (4) while monkey wrenches are more versatile, pipe wrenches (because of the serrated jas, grip pipes better.

On September 9, 1843, Nancy M. Johnson, received U.S. Patent No. 3,254 on an artificial freezer useful in Art of Producing Artificial Ice — making ice cream.

Among other things, the invention focused on more efficient use of ice, and recovery and reuse of salt.

Ice cream freezers received a lot of attention from inventors, U.S. Patent No. 5601, issued May 30, 1848; U.S. Patent No.28449, May 29, 1860; U.S. Patent No. 30256, issued October 2, 1860; U.S. Patent No. 44851, issued November 1, 1864; U.S. Patent No. 51468, issued December 12, 1865; U.S. Patent No. 55960, issued June 26, 1866; U.S. Patent No. 69833, issued October 15, 1867; U.S. Patent No. 79349, issued June 30, 1868; and many more.

On September 8, 1868, William H. Hinds received U.S. Patent No. 82,000 on a Candlestick.

His device provided “an adjustable candlestick, which may be used as a candlestick, or, by means of the attachment, used as a nurse-lamp, or which, by means of the globe or chimney, may be used as a lamp; also, by means of the slide or sleeve h, it may be made long or short, to suit the kind of candle used; also, by means of the thumb-piece and slit, with notches in the side, large or hard candles may be used; also, by means of the lamp, oil or fluid can be used equally as well as candles; also, by means of the snuffers, the wick may be trimmed equally as well without removing the globe; also, by means of attaching the reflector and nurse-lamp attachment to the upper or sliding part of the candlestick, the said reflector and nurse-lamp attachment will always be at the same distance from the flame, whatever the height of the candlestick.”

On September 4, 1888, George Eastman received U.S. Patent No. 388,850 for a camera shutter that was part of the first successful roll-film hand camera:

Eastman started out experimenting to create a flexible film roll that could replace plates altogether. In 1885, he received two patents for a film roll U.S. Patent No. 306,470 “Photographic Film”, issued October 14, 1884, and U.S. Patent No. 306,594 “Photographic Film”, also issued October 14, 1884. He then focused on making a holder for these film rolls, for which he received U.S. Patent No. 317,049 for “Roll Holder for Photographic Films”, issued May 1885. Finally, he focused on a camera to use the his film, which resulted in the patent he received 136 years ago today. His camera was sold loaded with enough roll film for 100 exposures. When all the exposures had been used, the photographer mailed the camera back to the Eastman company in Rochester, along with $10. The company would process the film, make a print of each exposure, load another roll of film into the camera, and send the camera and the prints to the photographer. Eastman thus made photography available to everyone, coining the slogan: “you press the button, we do the rest.”

On September 4, 1888. He also received U.S. Reg. No. 15,825 on the trademark KODAK Eastman explained: “I devised the name myself. The letter ‘K’ had been a favorite with me — it seems a strong, incisive sort of letter. It became a question of trying out a great number of combinations of letters that made words starting and ending with ‘K.’ The word ‘Kodak’ is the result.”

Eastman continued to improve photography during his lifetime, and was extremely generous with his fortune, Wracked with pain from a spinal condition, he committed suicide on March 14, 1932, leaving a note: “To my friends, my work is done – Why wait? GE.” For many years after his technology let us record our lives. Now almost completely supplanted by digital photography, and in particular the cell phones with cameras, one wonders what he and Alexander Graham Bell would think of what became of their inventions. Although both inventions have been supplanted by later technologies, theirs were crucial stepping stones in the path of technology, and leading the way for others to follow.

On September 3, 1895, Robert Stevens received U.S. Patent No. 543743 on a Combined Telescope, Microscope, and Camera:

Today we are used to carrying around cell phones with amazing capabilities, but back in the 19th Century, not so much. Mr. Stevens’s invention made valuable scientific tools available and readily portable, although it is not clear how popular his invention was at the time.

In his own words,