On July 4, 1944, Lloyd V. Lamb received U.S. Patent No. D138207 on a Patriotic Photograph Mounting Card:
At the height of World War II, with 16,112,566 Americans in service, and eventually 407,316 killed and 671,278 wounded, a patent on a patriotic picture frame issuing on July 4 was auspicious timing.
On July 2, 1929, U.S. Patent No. 1,719,460 issued to Raymond Armbrecht on a Toy:
The toy allows the user to “shoot” a plane from the Statue of Liberty to the Eifel Tower, no doubt inspired by Charles Lindbergh’s flight two years earlier.
On July 3, 1984, U.S. Patent No. 4,457,509, issued to Jean St-Germain on a Levitationarium for Air Flotation of Humans
As the patent explains, “[t]his invention relates to an installation to levitate human beings by an upward flow of air, and in particular, to a levitationarium in which air flotation of humans is produced, either for the sole fun and enjoyment of users and spectators or for training, such as to practice free fall by parachutists.”
On July 1, 1980, U.S. Patent No. 4,210,141 issued to Raymond Brockman and William Nadeau on Hiccough Treatment Appliance:
The appliance for treating hiccoughs includes a container portion adapted to hold a quantity of liquid, a dispensing portion for dispensing the liquid, and a tongue-depressor portion adjacent the dispensing portion for projecting into the mouth of a person drinking liquid from the appliance to depress the person’s tongue while the liquid is being swallowed.
Twenty-one years later, on October 16, 2021, Italian Giancarlo Ciolfi received U.S. Patent No. 6,302,112 on a Device for Inducing a Prompt Recovery from Hiccoughs:
For most hiccoughs are a minor annoyance, but for some they can be much more than that. Take for instance Charles Osborne, who since an accident on June 13, 1922, hiccoughed nonstop for 68 years until they suddenly stopped in 1990 – a year before his death in May 1991.
Only about 76 US patents mention hiccoughs, while 2138 US patents mention hiccups, and 33 US mention both spellings.