On Jully 22, 1952, Frank L. Zyback was awarded U.S. Patent No. 2,604,359 on a Self-Propelled Springing Irrigating Apparatus — the center pivot irrigation system.

Zyback was a farmer from Nebraska who left school in the seventh grade to help at his father’s farm and blacksmith shop. Zybach became a skilled metalworker and an inventor earning nine patents (U.S. Patent No. 2941727, 2355773, 1731220, 1597648, 1727625, 1770569, and 1879733. and Canadian Patent No. 284294), and literally changing the landscape of America (and many other places). If you have ever looked out the plane window while flying across the country you have no doubt seen the thousands of green circles created by Zyback’s systems.

Valley Manufacturing acquired the patent rights from Zybach in 1954, improving the system. Renamed Valmont Industries, Inc. in 1966 the company is a global leader for center-pivot systems and other agricultural products, with $4.2 billion in sales, 11,000 employees, doing business in more than 100 countries. For his work greening up American and the rest of the world one circle at a time, Frank Zyback was inducted into the National Inventor’s Hall of Fame in 2022.