{"id":5309,"date":"2026-07-14T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/?p=5309"},"modified":"2026-07-14T20:09:00","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T01:09:00","slug":"july-14-2026-patent-of-the-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/?p=5309","title":{"rendered":"July 14, 2026, Patent of the Day"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>On July 14, 1868, U.S. Patent No. 79965 issued to Alvin J. Fellows on a Tape Measure:<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/image-22.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"540\" height=\"782\" src=\"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/image-22.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-5310\" srcset=\"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/image-22.png 540w, https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/image-22-207x300.png 207w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 540px) 100vw, 540px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>The first spring-loaded tape measure was invented nearly fifty years earlier in England, but it was too expensive to be a practical workman&#8217;s tool.   In 1864, just four years before Fellows secured his patent, another Connecticut man William Bangs Jr. became the first American to obtain a patent for a spring-loaded tape measure:<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/image-23.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"527\" height=\"787\" src=\"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/image-23.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-5311\" srcset=\"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/image-23.png 527w, https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/image-23-201x300.png 201w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 527px) 100vw, 527px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>Fellows improved Bangs\u2019 design in two significant ways: First, Fellows adding a locking mechanism to hold the tape in place until released.  Second, Fellows enclosed the entire tape measure in a compact metal case.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On July 14, 1868, U.S. Patent No. 79965 issued to Alvin J. Fellows on a Tape Measure: The first spring-loaded tape measure was invented nearly fifty years earlier in England, but it was too expensive to be a practical workman&#8217;s &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/?p=5309\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-patent-of-the-day"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5309"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5309\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5312,"href":"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5309\/revisions\/5312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}