Monthly Archives: December 2024

December 3, 2024

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On December 3, 1912, William E. Storms received U.S. Patent No. D43,329 on a Motor Vehicle Body:

The patent was assigned to the Colonial Electric Car Company. This was not just a paper patent, but an actual product on the market (see below). Today we think of electric cars as something new, but they were a reasonable competitor to gasoline powered cars until technological developments allowed the gasoline engine to win out. As often happens, further technological developments have changed that calculus, and electric cars are again competitive — at least for some purposes. Inventors and inventions continue to change the world around us.

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December 2, 2024

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On December 2, 1879, George W. Goff received U.S. Patent No. D11529 on a Sleigh-Bell:

Co-incidentally, sleigh bells are the theme of Harness IP’s 2024 Holiday e-card, which will be published shortly. Sleigh bells actually performed an important function other than inspiring and performing in holiday songs. They would warn of the approach of a fast-traveling sleigh, which moved relatively silently on the snow. Perhaps they will make a comeback on electric cars.

December 1, 2024

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On December 1, 1936, U.S. Patent 2,062,755 issued to Frank F. Lyons and Ernest Brundin on a System of Water Culture:

Water culture, or hydroponics, involves growing plants without soil by using water-based mineral nutrient solutions in an artificial environment. The earliest published work on growing plants without soil was Sylva Sylvarum (A Natural History) by Francis Bacon, published in 1627 a year after the author’s death. Hydroponics remained a popular topic of research ever since.

In 1929, William Frederick Gericke of the University of California at Berkeley began promoting that the principles of hydroponics crop production. Dr. Gericke had warmed the nutrient solution of his tanks with soil-heating cables, believing that warming the nutrient temperature would increase growth. This was impractically expensive, but Brundin co-inventor of the ‘755 patent, proposed heating the solution with a steam boiler, and mechanically pumping the warmed solution to the growing beds, as disclosed in the ‘755 patent.

Brundin continued to make improvements to hydroponics, and obtained at least one more patent U.S. Patent No. 2,249,197: