On November 29, 1932, Laurens Hammond (of Hammond organ fame) received U.S. Patent No. 1,889,729 (one of his more than one hundred patents) on a Card Table with Automatic Dealing Mechanism:
The table was designed to automatically deal four bridge hands of 13 cards, and was actually manufactured:
On November 28,
Herman Casler was a pioneering American inventor and motion-picture engineer best known for co-founding the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company and for creating several foundational early-cinema technologies. Trained as a mechanical engineer, Casler first gained prominence in the 1890s when he developed the Mutoscope, a hand-cranked “flip-card” motion-picture viewer that displayed moving images by rapidly flipping a sequence of photographs mounted on a circular drum. [U.S. Patent No. 549,309, issued November 5, 1895, and (U.S. Patent No. 683,910, granted October 8, 1901)]. Cheaper and more durable than Thomas Edison’s Kinetoscope, the Mutoscope became wildly popular in amusement parlors and helped establish Biograph as one of the most influential early film companies.
Casler’s inventive contributions extended well beyond the viewer itself. He designed the Mutograph camera, a large and robust motion-picture camera that used wide, high-quality film, giving Biograph productions their famously sharp images. He also developed improvements to film perforation, camera mechanics, and projection systems that shaped the technical standards of early cinema.
Today’s patent of the day is from May 10, 1927, when U.S. Patent No. 1,628,121 issued to Nathan Covel on a “Package” for cand shown decorated with Thanksgiving imagery:
It always seems a bit macabre to depict a turkey next to a tree stump chopping block and an ax, but Happy Thanksgiving anyway!
On November 12, 19985, U.S. Patent No. 4,551,857 issued to Aaron A Galvin on a Hot Weather Hat:
Providing cooling in a hat has been a hot topic for inventors.
On November 21, 1967, U.S. Patent No. 3,353,191 issued on a Cooling Unit for a Hat:
On December 22, 1970, U.S. Patent No. 3,543,415 issued on an Air Conditioned Helmet:
On November 20, 1984, U.S. Patent No. 4,483,021 on a Thermo-Electric Cooled Head Gear:
On November 11, 1856, U.S. Patent Np. 16082 issued to Henry Bessemer on the Manufacture of Iron and Steel:
Bessemer’s steel-making process was the most important technique for making steel in the nineteenth century. Bessemer system involved blowing air through molten pig iron to remove the impurities, make steel easier, quicker and cheaper to manufacture. Bessemer also made at least 128 other inventions in the fields of iron, steel and glass. He was knighted for his contribution to science in 1879, and in the same year was made a fellow of the Royal Society.
On November 10, 1964, U.S. Patent No. 3,156,177 on Food Preheating, Cooking and Warming Device issued to Harlan Sanders:
A few years later, the Colonel received a second patent, U.S. Patent No. 3,245,800 on a Process of Producing Fried Chicken Under Pressure:
Interestingly, in the Process of Producing Fried Chicken Under Pressure it is the chicken that is under pressure, not the poor cook behind the counter.
On November 9, 1842, U.S. Patent No. D1 issued to George Bruce on a type face. While the text of the patent survives, the actual type face does not:
Since then, thousands of typefaces have been patented, including U.S. Patent No. D262037, which protects the typeface used in the Star Trek franchise:
On November 8, 1910, U.S. Patent No. 974785 on an Electric Insect Destroyer issued to William M. Frost:
However electric bug zappers go back even further. 20 years earlier, on April 1, 1890, Francois Scherer received U.S. Patent No. 424729 on an Electric Trap:
On November 2, 2004, U.S. Patent No. 6,812,392 issued to Marlon Brando — yes, THAT Marlon Brando — on a Drumhead Tensioning Device and Method:
This was actually the fourth patent Brando received on this improvement in tuning conga drums, following U.S. Patent Nos. 6,410,833, 6,441,286, and 6,667,432. While his invention made it easier to tune conga drums, it would make the drums more expensive, and unfortunately it didn’t have a chance to catch on before his death in 2004.
On November 1, 1988, Claude G. Coots received U.S. Patent No. 4,780,985 on an Electric Mouse Exterminator
The metaphor “Build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door” originated in a different form with Ralph Waldo Emerson, who in 1855 wrote:
If a man has good corn or wood, or boards, or pigs, to sell, or can make better chairs or knives, crucibles or church organs, than anybody else, you will find a broad hard-beaten road to his house, though it be in the woods.
In 1882, a month after his death, the following quotation was attributed to Emerson by The Cincinnati Enquirer:
If a man can write a better book, preach a better sermon or make a better mouse-trap than his neighbors, though he builds his house in the woods, the world will make a beaten path to his door. If a man has good corn or wood, or boards, or pigs, to sell, or can make better chairs or knives, crucibles or church organs, than anybody else, you will find a broad hard-beaten road to his house, though it be in the woods.
Whoever edited Emerson to add “mouse trap” knew what he was doing — the USPTO has issued more that 4400 patents, on mouse traps, the most recent being U.S. Patent No. 12,446,567, on a Rodent Disposal Device, which electrocutes the rodent and projects the rodent out with a spring:
