Today’s patent of the day was not issued on the day, but is about the day. U.S. Patent No. 978489 issued to Malcolm Salmond on an Amusement Device:

The invention is a patriotic jack-in-the box, which is triggered by a fuse. Unlike traditional fireworks the device is much safe, and reusable, when the diaphragm and fuse are replaced.

On July 3, 1984, Jean St-Germain received U.S. Patent No. 4,457,509 on a Levitationarium for Air Flotation of Humans:

St-German essentially repurposed vertical wind tunnels which had been used for decades for aerodynamic research, for recreational purposes, allowing people to experience the feeling of flight. A steady vertical stream of air at about 120 mph is enough to allow a person to float.

In 1982 St-Germain sold his vertical wind tunnel concept to both Les Thompson and Marvin Kratter, both of whom went on to build their own wind tunnels. Soon after, St Germain sold the franchising rights to Kratter. St. Germain then helped build two wind tunnels in America the first in Las Vegas, Nevada, and the second in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. There were both operated under the name of Flyaway Indoor Skydiving.

In 1992, St-Germain obtained a second patent (U.S. Patent No. 5,318,481):

Other inventors, such as William Kitchen, joined in:

A number of competitions based on vertical wind tunnels have been created, including the FAI World Cup of Indoor Skydiving, the Windoor Wind Games, the Australian Nationals, the Polish Nationals, and the US National Championships.

On July 2, 1940, Enrico Fermi received U.S. Patent No. 2,206,634 on a process for the production of radioactive substances:

This patent on making radioactive elements through bombardment with slow moving neutrons, appears to be related to the work for which he won the 1938 Nobel Prize in physics. He would go on to earn thirteen more U.S. patents: U.S. Patent 2836554, “Air Cooled Neutronic Reactor,” issued April 1950; US Patent 2524379, “Neutron Velocity Selector,” issued October 1950; US Patent 2852461 “Neutronic Reactor”, issued September 1953; US Patent 2708656, “Neutronic Reactor”, issued May 1955; US Patent 2768134, “Testing Material in a Neutronic Reactor”, issued October 1956; US Patent 2780595, “Test Exponential Pile”, issued February 1957; US Patent 2798847, “Method of Operating a Neutronic Reactor”, issued July 1957; US Patent 2807581, “Neutronic Reactor”, issued September 1957; US Patent 2807727, “Neutronic Reactor Shield”, issued September 1957; US Patent 2813070, “Method of Sustaining a Neutronic Chain Reacting System”, issued November 1957; US Patent 2837477, “Chain Reacting System”, issued June 1958; US Patent 2931762, “Neutronic Reactor”, issued April 1960; US Patent 2969307, “Method of Testing Thermal Neutron Fissionable Material for Purity”, issued January 1961.

On a sad note, ten of these patents issued posthumously as Fermi died of cancer in 1954 at the age of 53 in November 1954. Apparently, Fermi always suspected that working near the nuclear pile involved great risk, yet he continued because he felt that the benefits outweighed the risks to his safety. Two of his graduate student assistants working near the nuclear pile also died of cancer.

On June 28, Frank L. Ogg received U.S. Patent No. D110257 on a Pennant Like Device:

As has been posted here many times, the patent collection is a fascinating historical record. The Golden Gate International Exposition was a World’s Fair held at Treasure Island in San Francisco, California. It operated from February 18, 1939, through October 29, 1939, and from May 25, 1940, through September 29, 1940, and drew 17 million visitors.

On the opposite side of the country, New York was holding a world’s fair, and here is the patent on the parachute drop amusement ride at the fair:

On June 27, 1989. Jeffrey Gorman and Marilyn Katz received U.S. Patent No. D301835 on a confection package:

However, Gorman and Katz are better known for the patent they didn’t get — on their application 06/882,480 for a utility patent on the product depicted in their design patent. The Patent Office rejected the claims of their utility patent were rejected in view of thirteen references. It seems logical to most inventors and may practitioners that if it takes 13 references to meet a claim that that claim cannot be obvious. However logical that may sound it is not the law.

The Federal Circuit in In re Gorman and Katz, 933 F.2d 982, 18 U.S.P.Q.2d 1885 (Fed. Cir. 1991), said:

The criterion, however, is not the number of references, but what they would have meant to a person of ordinary skill in the field of the invention. In Hybritech, Inc. v. Monoclonal Antibodies, Inc., 802 F.2d 1367, 1383, 231 USPQ 81, 93 (Fed.Cir.1986), cert. denied, 480 U.S. 947, 107 S.Ct. 1606, 94 L.Ed.2d 792 (1987), the court held that a combination of about twenty references that “skirt[ed] all around” the claimed invention did not show obviousness. In other instances, on other facts, we have upheld reliance on a large number of references to show obviousness. Compare In re Miller, 159 F.2d 756, 758-59, 72 USPQ 512, 514-15 (CCPA 1947) (rejecting argument that the need for eight references for rejection supported patentability) with Kansas Jack, Inc. v. Kuhn, 719 F.2d 1144, 1149, 219 USPQ 857, 860 (Fed.Cir.1983) (where teachings relied upon to show obviousness were repeated in a number of references, the conclusion of obviousness was strengthened). See also, e.g., In re Troiel, 274 F.2d 944, 947, 124 USPQ 502, 504 (CCPA 1960) (rejecting appellant’s argument that combining a large number of references to show obviousness was “farfetched and illogical”).

Gorman and Katz at least enjoyed the protection of a design patent for its 14-year term.

On June 26, 1797, U.S. Patent X177 on a plough, issued to Charles Newbold.

This was the first U.S. patent on a plough, and was followed a steady stream of improvements in agricultural technology. One of the more peculiar of which was the combination plow and cannon, patented by French & Fancher in 1862 (U.S. Patent No. 36600), which must have made the plow-horse very nervous.

On June 7, 2005, David P. Coughlin received U.S. Patent No. 6,901,925 on a Fireplace with Waterfall:

While it is not clear whether Mr. Coughlin had any success before his patent expired, the idea of mixing fire and water is a popular one with inventors:

On June 6, 1995, Peter and John Kockelman et al., received U.S. Patent No. 5,421,783 on a Human Slingshot Machine.

While a human slingshot is not for everyone, it is considerably safer than the human cross bow from U.S. Patent No. 562448:

I suppose that that is the march of progress (or perhaps OSHA).

On June 5, 1945, Frank W. Schwinn received U.S. Patent No. D141505 on a Tandem Bicycle:

Frank W. Schwinn was the son of Ignaz Schwinn, who founded the Schwinn bicycle company in 1895, Frank joined the company around 1918, taking over leadership of the company during the Great Depression, and running the company until his death in 1963.

Frank’s design was not the first tandem bicycles — which became popular in the 1880’s, and boomed in the 1890’s after Harry Dacre’s 1892 song “Daisy Bell” (The Bicycle Built for Two song). Nor was Frank’s design the first Schwin tandem bicycle — his father Ignaz had been manufacturing Tandem bicycles since the 1890’s. In fact, Frank’s design may never have been produced. in the 1940’s, Schwinn Tandem’s had a very different chain guard, as shown in this advertisement in the 1948 catalog featuring comedian Bob Hope:

Even if this design was never commercialized, Frank W. Scwhinn made numerous contributions to the design and manufacture of bicycles in a career spanning 5 decades, ending in his death in 1963, when the third generation of Schwinn, Frank V. Schwinn took over the company.

On April 22, 1924, U.S. Patent No. 1,490,987 issued to Harry E. Soref on a lock casing:

Soref’s innovation was making the lock body from a plurality of steel laminations secured together with rivets — a construction still widely used 102 years later.

Soref was born in 1887 Bilozirka, Ukraine, and emigrated to the U.S. where he worked as a lock smith. When he was unable to find a taker for his lock design, he co-founded the Master Lock company with two friends — Samuel Stahl and Phillip E. Yolles, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to build his locks. Mr. Soref held more than eighty patents for locks and lock-making machinery.

He died in 1957 in Phoenix, Arizona, aged 70.