On June 5, 1984, Ronald D. Kay received U.S. Patent No. 4,452,364 on a Safety Closure Device for Medicine Container:

Perhaps inspired by the infamous Chicago Tylenol murders just months before he filed his application on February 7, 1983, Kay provided a medicine container that could not be opened without revealing that the container had been tampered with.

Since 1976 more than 8000 U.S. patents have issued on tamper indicating packaging. Necessity is often the mother of invention, although in this case the necessity is sad (and disappointing).

On June 1, 1869, Thomas Edison received the first of his 1093 U.S and 2332 total patents. U.S. Patent No. 90,646 on an Electric Vote-Recorder:

The vote recorder was intended for use in legislatures to quickly and accurately record the yea and nay votes of the legislators.

On May 31, 1898, Thomas Edison received U.S. Patent No. 604,740 on a Governor for Motors:

With this control, Edison claimed that he could run a motor at any speed.

On May 15, 1979, Norman Betros, Jr. received U.S. Patent No. D251,862 on a Round Chessboard or Checkerboard:

Outside of the novelty of the shape, presumably chess would be largely the same, with eight ranks and eight files, although things get curvier toward the edges. Circular chess has been known for centuries, played on a ring-shaped board, which requires a special arrangement of the pieces,

On May 10, 2011, ody Akana, Bartley K. Andre, Daniel J. Coster, Daniele De luliis, Evans Hankey, Richard P. Howarth, Jonathan P. Ive, Steve Jobs, Duncan Robert Kerr, Shin Nishibori, Matthew Dean Rohrbach, Peter Russell-Clarke, Christopher J. Stringer, Eugene Antony Whang, and Rico Zorkendorfer, received U.S. Patent No. D637596 on a Portable Display Device (the iPad):

On April 15, 1997, U.S. Patent No. 5,621,640, issued to Bertram V. Burke on an Automatic Philanthropic Contribution System:

This was the first of four patents on the idea of rounding up a purchase and contributing the add-on to one or more charities. The others U.S. Patent No. 6,088,682, 6,876,976, and 7171270. They were all assigned to Every Penny Counts, which unsuccessfully tried to assert them against various banks and credit card companies. See, Every Penny Counts, Inc. v. Am. Express Co., 563 F.3d 1378, 90 U.S.P.Q.2d 1851 (Fed. Cir. 2009).

Bertram Burke was a retired psychoanalyst who related his “invention” back to an experience he had buying ice cream: after he paid for an ice cream cone, he was given 52 cents in change and he thought that this small amount of change was practically worthless. He considered putting the change in a canister on the counter ostensibly intended to raise money for a charitable cause, but he did not trust that the money in the canister would actually be devoted to charity. He describes his invention as a way of solving this “problem of loose change.”

The big question on Tax Day is how do you deduct these microdonations?

On April 14, 1914, Stacy Gulick Carkhuff received U.S. Patent No. 1,093,310 on a Vehicle Tire:

Carkhuff’s tire was literally and figuratively non-skid, with raised letters spelling out NON-SKID providing the increased friction that improved traction:

Carkhuff was the Secretary of the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company from 1905 to 1943, and a driving force behind its success. His tire design was a brilliant combination of functionality and marketing:

On April 13, 1869, George Westinghouse received U.S. Patent No. 88929 on a Steam Powered Brake:

This system worked, although less than optimally because of the delay in operating the brakes at the back of the train. Westinghouse patented the solution to this problem a few years later on March 5, 1872 (U.S. Patent No. 124405):

On April 2, 1889, Charles M. Hall received U.S. Patent No. 400664 on a Process of Reducing Alumina from its Fluoride Salts by Electrolysis:

before Hall’s invention, aluminum was very expensive to produce — so much so that its price was near that of precious metals such as silver and gold. When the Washington Monument was completed at the capping ceremony of December 6, 1884, a pyramid of solid aluminum 22.6 cm high, 3.9 cm at its base, weighing 2.85 kg, and costing $225 was installed at the top, forming part of the monument’s lighting protection system.