On January 16, 1900, Theophilus Van Kannel received U.S. Patent No. 641,563 on the revolving door.

Actually there had been revolving doors before, including those shown in Van Kannel’s earlier U.S. Patent Nos. 387,571, 588,620, and 588,888, but his improvement was to allow the door to be collapsed “when direct ingress or egress is desired.”  For his work Van Kannel was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2007.

On January 15, 1861, Elisha Graves Otis received U.S. Patent No. 31,128 on a Hoisting Apparatus (an elevator, to non patent attorneys).

His achievement was not so much the lifting people and things — this had been done for some time — but providing a brake so that if the rope snapped, the passengers wouldn’t plunge to their deaths (ironic for a man whose middle name was Graves).

On January 14, 1964, U.S. Patent No. 3,118,022, issued to Gerhard Sessler and James West on the electret microphone.

On January 13, 1943, Henry Ford was granted U.S. Patent Nos. 2,269,451 and 2,269,452 on the construction of a plastic automobile.

Ford hoped to make automobiles from renewable agricultural plastic panels of soybean and hemp, developed by George Washington Carver.  World War II brought automobile production to a halt, and after the war interest in the car waned.

On January 12, 1960, Arnold Junker, was issued U.S. Patent No. 2,920,841 on a Helicopter with Body Attaching Means.

Perhaps the most remarkable thing about the patent is how happy the test subject looks facing certain doom.

On January 11, 1994, Elaine Rossignol and Michael Kominsky obtained U.S. Patent No. 5,277,148 on the Wearable Pet Enclosure.  This was significant because it allowed crazy cat people to become mobile.

On January 10, 1843, Charles T. Sage obtained U.S. Patent No. 2,906 on a syringe, much to the chagrin of enetophobics everywhere.  Sage used the syringe to cure hernias, which is even scarier.

On January 9, 1979, U.S. Patent No. 4,133,315 issued to Edward J. Berman and George A. Rowe for a Method and Apparatus for Reducing Obesity.  Ed and George inflate a bag in your stomach to make you feel full.  There has to be a better way to keep your New Year’s resolutions.

On January 8, 1889, Herman Hollerith was issued U.S. Patent Nos. 395,781, 395,782, and 395,783, on the art of compiling statistics.  Hollerith’s cards were first used in in processing the 1890 Census.  He later founded The Tabulating Machine Company, which was one of the four predecessors of IBM.

Once ubiquitous, punch cards are now relegated to employee time keeping systems by those who “punch the clock” and of course some voting system (think “hanging chad”).