On July 28, 1942, U.S. Patent No. 2,291,158 issued to Axel Harald Holstensson and Svante Philip Arvidius on a Talking Machine for Playing a Plurality of Records in Succession:

Today, some might be confused by the phrase “Talking Machine” machine in the title, but that was a common name for the phonograph invented by Edison in 1877. Early on its principal use was for dictation, and not for recording and replaying music, although that obviously changed over the years.

On November 4, 1954, (twelve years into the 17-year patent term) Holstensson sued V-M Corporation, a manufacturer of record players, for infringement of the ‘158 patent. V-M denied infringement and charged that the patent was invalid. The District Judge held the patent was valid and infringed by V-M. The proceedings were still on-going when the patent expired on July 28, 1959, so the relieft sought was limited to the damages allegedly suffered prior to the patent’s expiration. VM appealed, and more than nine years after suit was filed, and more than four years after the patent expired, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals held that the Holstensson patent “is without validity as a combination patent and is likewise void for overclaiming.” Holstensson v. V-M Corporation, 325 F.2d 109 (6th Cir. 1963). At least in this case the wheels of justice appeared to turn slower than a record player.

On July 27, 1999, Tabor W Browder received U.S. Patent No. 5,926874 on an Automatic Bed Maker:

Tabor was not the only inventor to pursue this universal problem. In On April 10, 1984, Peter J. Yascarella received U.S. Patent No. 4,441,222 on an Automatic Bed Maker:

More recently, Marc-Ajdre Lemieux received U.S. Patent No. 11,564512 on a Self-Making Bedding System , Method and Kit Thereof:

A month later, Jason Hilton and Tina Hilton received U.S. Patent No. 11,571,074 on Bedding Device for Handling The Bedding of a Bed:

On July 26m 1904, Degar Oyrbell Hooley received U.S. Patent No. 765975 on an Apparatus for the Preparation of Tar Macadam.

Tarmacadam or tarmac is a road surfacing material made by combining tar and macadam (crushed stone and sand). It is more durable and dust-free than compacted stone macadam invented by Scottish engineer John Loudon McAdam. Today “tarmacadam” and “tarmac” are also used for a variety of other materials, including tar-grouted macadam, bituminous surface treatments and modern asphalt concrete.

July 25 is National Carousel Day aka National Merry-Go-Round Day. The designation was created by the National Carousel Association (N.C.A.) as a way to mark the issuance of the first U.S. patent for a carousel — U.S. Patent No. 117,336 issued ti Willhelm Schneider of Davenport, Iowa:

Schneider’s carousel was a two-stories, with a staircase between them. As the title of the patent (Improvement in Carrousels) suggests, this was not the first carousel in the U.S. — that honor appears to go to Franz Wiesenoffer who built a carousel in the 1840’s in Hessville, Ohio. However, carousels were build and being operated at various fairs and gatherings in Central Europe since the early 18th Century..

On July 24, 1866, George W. McGill, received U.S. Patent No. 56587 on an office staple — literally — Improvements in Metallic Paper Fasters.

McGill’s device employed separate steps of making a hole in the paper and forming the “staple” inserted into the hole. Eleven years later, Henry R. Heyl received U.S. Patent No. 195,603 on Devices for Inserting Metallic Staples, which was the first Stapler that inserted and formed the staple in a single step.

On February 18, 1879, George McGill was back with U.S. Patent No. 212,316 for the McGill Single-Stroke Staple Press, the first commercially successful stapler:

On July 21, 1987, John D. Geddie received U.S. Patent No. 4,681,244 on a portable bar.

While perhaps the apogee of cephallic-based mixology, Geddie was not the only person, or even the first person to work on wardrobe-dispensed potables. Consider, for example, U.S. Patent No. D 283,268 from April 8, 1986 on a Combined Helmet and Beverage Container Holders:

U.S. Patent No. 6,105,827 issued August 22, 2000, for a beverage Dispensing Helmet Apparatus:

U.S. Patent No. D448,527 issued September 25, 2001, on a Combined Helmet and Drink Holder

U.S. Patent No. D527846, issued September 5, 2006 on Headgear:

U.S. Patent No. D617535 issued June 15, 2010, on a Combined Top Hat and Beverage Holder:

U.S. Patent No. 9,179,724 issued November 10, 2015, on Beverage Dispensing Headwear:

U.S. Patent No. D892,443 issued August 11, 2020, on a Beverage Helmet:

U.S. Patent No. D892,442, issued August 11, 2020, on a Beverage Dispensing Umbrella Cap:

U.S. Patent No. 10,952,487 issued March 23, 2021 on Beverage Dispensing Umbrella Headwear:

U.S. Patent No. 11,350,686, issued June 7, 2022, on a Visor with Integrated Drinking Vessel:

U.S. Patent No. 11,707,659, issued July 25, 2023, on a Beverage Dispensing Ring Toss Game:

On July 20, 1999, U.S. Patent No. 5,294,732 issued to Dennis Olsen on an In-Line Skate Sail:

The idea of using a sail on skates was not a new one, even if Mr. Olsen’s particular construction was new. Fifteen years earlier. U.S. Patent No. 4,489,957 issued on a Tool for Sailing with Skates etc.:

U.S. Patent No. 4,311,324 issued on Skating Sails

U.S. Patent No. 4,978,140 issued on a Hand-held Skate Sail:

U.S. Patent No. D613360 issued on a Multi-purpose Body-sail with Swallow Tail:

U.S. Patent No. 7,726,694 issued on a Personal Sail Assembly and Method for Use in Conjunctions with a Mobile Device:

On July 18, 1939, John Tjaarda received U.S. Patent No. D115826 on a Combination Kitchen Unit:

Johan Tjaarda was born in the Netherlands on February 4, 1897. He studied aircraft design in the United Kingdom, and then became a pilot in the Royal Netherlands Air Force. Tjaarda emigrated to the United States in 1923, changed his name to John, and he started building custom car bodies. He worked for coachbuilder Locke and Company as a design engineer, then for the Art and Color Division of General Motors with well-known designer Harley Earl. He joined the Briggs Manufacturing Company in 1932 where he continued to work on cars, eventually becoming their chief designer. where he became chief designer over time.

In 1935 Tjaarda designed a “Kitchen of Tomorrow” — a futuristic metal kitchen that featured a circular kitchen island. He also designed the kitchen unit that is the subject of today’s patent of the day. Briggs metal kitchen units and kitchen cabinets were popular for many years.

As a result of a patent dispute, Tjaarda abruptly left Briggs in 1941, and years of legal battles followed. In 1942 he set up his own design studio: John Tjaarda and Associates where he continued as an automotive and industrial designer, trying to design, finance and manufacture his own automobile, the Cortez. In 1961, he joined rocket manufacturer Aerojet General as a technical advisor, but died a year later on March 20, 1962.

On July 17, 1951, H. Joseph Gerber received U.S. Patent No. 2,561,020 on an Instrument for Measuring, Interpolating and the Like:

This device was dubbed the most important engineering tool next to the slide rule. Its inventor’s story is remarkable. Gerber was born April 17, 1924 in Vienna, Austria, and early on showed his technical aptitude building his own radio when he was eight. Following Germany’s annexation of Austria in 1938 he was imprisoned in a Nazi labor camp, but eventually released. In 1940 he and his mother fled to the United States, eventually settling near Hartford, Connecticut.

In Hartford, Gerber completed high school in just two years while simultaneously learning English and working to support the family. He matriculated to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute on a scholarship, and graduated two and one-half years later with a Bachelor of Science degree in aeronautical engineering. During his junior year he invented the Gerber Variable Scale, inspired by the elastic waistband of the pajamas his father gave him before he and his mother emigrated.

With a $3,000 investment, Gerber patented his Variable Scale and founded the Gerber Scientific Instrument Company in Hartford, Connecticut, to produce and market the device. He went on to obtain more than 650 patents in his lifetime. His life was the subject of the 1950 Broadway play Young Man in a Hurry, written by Morton Wishengrad and starring Cornel Wilde. In 1953, Gerber was one of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s “Ten Most Outstanding Young Men in America.”

Of his immigrant experience, Gerber once observed that he “learned that in USA it was true you could accomplish things if you were willing to work because then people, recognizing not only your abilities but your earnestness, will give you of themselves beyond belief to help you.”

He died August 8, 1996. His son David chronicled his life in The Inventor’s Dilemma: The Remarkable Life of H. Joseph Gerber. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-12350-0.