Oon July 8, 1913, U.S. Patent No. 1,066,809 issued to Alfred C Gilbert on Toy Construction Blocks:

The invention was what adults of a certain age would recognize as an erector set.

Alfred Gilbert, a magician, founded the Mysto Manufacturing Company in 1909 in Westville, Connecticut, and marketed its “Mysto Magic” magician’s sets from the 1910s until the 1950s. In 1911 Gilbert invented the erector set, allegedly inspired by railroad girders used by the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad. Gilbert and his wife Mary made cardboard prototypes to get the sizes and shapes just right, and introduced the Mysto Erector Structural Steel Builder that same year at the New York City Toy Fair. In 1916, he changed the name of the company to A. C. Gilbert Company.

Over the years A. C. Gilbert Company also sold radio receivers, chemistry sets, and toy trains. In what sounds like a Saturday Night Live Skit, in the 1950’s the Company also sold the Gilbert U-238 Atomic Energy Laboratory with a Geiger counter, and radioactive samples. The Government halted product in 1951, and five decades later Radar Magazine named it one of the “10 most dangerous toys of all time,” although the IEEE Spectrum later stated that the risks may have been overstated

On July 7, 1914, Robert H. Goddard received U.S. Patent No. 1,102,653 on a Rocket Apparatus (the first multistage rocket):

Robert Hutchings Goddard was born October 5, 1882, recognized for his pioneering work in the field of rocketry. His early work dramatically improved the efficiency of solid-fueled rockets, and he moved on to build the world’s first liquid-fueled rocket, which he successfully launched on March 16, 1926. Two of his 214 patents covered a multi-stage rocket (U.S. Patent No. 1,102,653), and a liquid-fuel rocket (U.S. patent 1,103,503) — important milestones toward spaceflight.

NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center was named in his honor, and he is a member of the International Aerospace Hall of Fame, the National Aviation Hall of Fame, and the International Space Hall of Fame.

On July 7, 1953, the Wayfarer sunglass design was patent by Raymond F. E. Stegman, then working for Bausch & Lomb, the parent company of the popular glasses brand, Ray-Ban.

The style quickly grew in popularity throughout the 1950s and early 1960s, favored by by music and film icons such as Buddy Holly, Roy Orbison and James Dean., especially after James Dean wore a pair in 1955’s Rebel Without a Cause. The design’s popularity has waxed and waned over the years. In 1999, Bausch & Lomb sold Ray-Ban to Luxottica Group S.p.A. of Italy for $640 million. Wayfarers have been updated, but the basic shape remains.

On July 6, 1869, U.S. Patent No. 92379, issued to Charles Singer on a Rocking Chair:

This was no ordinary rocking chair, the rocking motion operates a bellows that blows air on the user — a pretty good idea for a hot July day

On July 5, 1910, U.S. Patent No. 963677 issued to Edward H Amet on a Hair Drying Fan.

As the patent explains, the double handles are jointed to allow the user to dry hair on the sides and back of the head.

Amet was born in Philadelphia in 1860. His first patent, age seventeen, was for an improved telephone. In 1884 Amet settled in Waukegan, Illinois, and became a consulting engineer, obtaining patents for coin-operated weighing machines. He designed a clockwork motor for Edison’s phonograph and developed his own phonograph. He also developed a motion picture projector, and other film making equipment, and even produced some films.
Amet eventually settled in California, and by 1911 had filed the first of a series of patents for a synchronised sound camera and projector (US Patent No. 1,065,576). He also worked in 3-D projection, gliders, and a guided torpedo. Edward Amet died 16 August 1948 in Redondo Beach, California.

His hair dryer was probably not his most technical invention, but it is today’s Patent of the Day.

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 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.

On June 30, 1838, U.S. Patent No. 821 was granted to the brothers Philos Blake, Eli W. Blake, and John A. Blake, of New Haven, Connecticut, on a furniture caster.

The inventors were nephews of Eli Whitney, with Eli W. being his namesake. The brothers established a hardware casting and furnace works in 1835 in the Westville section of New Haven. The company manufactured door locks, latches, hinges, and other items of domestic hardware — many of which they eventually patented. The brothers no doubt gained valuable engineering skills at the Whitney Armory, their uncle’s arms factory, which they continued to run for 10 years after Whitney’s death.

A little more than seven year later, the brothers had their patent reissued: