Peteris Skorovs

1/3 On this day in 1824, Joseph Aspdin, an English bricklayer, received British Patent No. 5022 for an “An improvement in the modes of producing an artificial stone”. #OnThisDay #OTD #PatentHistory #Patents

2/3 He called the material Portland cement because, when hardened, it resembled the famous Portland stone.

1/3 On this day in 1994, Albert Cohen received US Patent No. 5,356,330 for an apparatus for simulating a “high five”, later marketed as the HI-5 Mechanical Arm. #OnThisDay #OTD #PatentHistory #Patents

2/3 The arm may not have been a breakthrough invention or a major commercial success, but Cohen achieved his personal aim of turning an idea into something people bought. His patent has since become a classic example of the unusual inventions found in patent records.

1/3 On this day in 1953, Swiss landscape architect Paul Bongni received Swiss Patent No. 293720 for a “Game installation” that helped shape modern minigolf. #OnThisDay #OTD #PatentHistory #Patents

2/3 A week earlier, he had filed a trademark application for “MINIGOLF”. Together, the patent and trademark helped turn his design into a system that could be licensed and reproduced.

1/3 On this day in 1868, Danish officer Johan Linnemann received US Patent No. 83,071 for an “Improvement in Spades”. #OnThisDay #OTD #PatentHistory #Patents

2/3 The invention achieved remarkably widespread adoption. Denmark, Austria-Hungary, Germany, France, Russia, Romania and the Netherlands were among the countries that equipped their soldiers with the spade or adaptations of it.

1/3 On this day in 1911, Henry Ford received US Patent No. 1,005,186 for a “Transmission mechanism” used in the Ford Model T, generally regarded as the first automobile affordable to the mass market. #OnThisDay #OTD #PatentHistory #Patents

2/3 The patent covered one of the car’s defining features, its compact planetary transmission.

1/3 On this day in 1962, Wilson Greatbatch received US Patent No. 3,057,356 for a “Medical cardiac pacemaker” designed to be implanted entirely inside the body. #OnThisDay #OTD #PatentHistory #Patents

2/3 The story began with the wrong resistor. In 1956, Greatbatch was building equipment to record heart sounds when he selected a component with the wrong resistance. The circuit produced a short electrical pulse, paused, and repeated.

1/2 On this day in 1942, Chester Carlson received US Patent No. 2,297,691 for “Electrophotography,” later known as xerography. #OnThisDay #OTD #PatentHistory #Patents

1/3 On this day in 1951, Alexander Salot, a shoemaker from Bremen-Blumenthal, received German Patent No. 815761 for “Football boots or the like with exchangeable anti-skid studs”. #OnThisDay #OTD #PatentHistory #Patents

2/3 Screw-in studs are often associated with Adi Dassler and Germany’s victory in the 1954 football World Cup final. Adidas supplied the boots, and their adaptable studs helped the players cope with the wet pitch in Bern.

1/2 I’ve just read the new book “Unfettered Invention: How the X Patents Sparked Early American Technology” by Scott Guthery, Julie Burke, and Michael Risch. #PatentHistory #Patents

1/3 On this day in 1981, German Patent No. 2205525 was granted to the toy company Geobra Brandstätter for a “Toy figure”, the Playmobil figure invented by Hans Beck. #OnThisDay #OTD #PatentHistory #Patents #Playmobil

2/3 The day before filing the patent application, Geobra had applied for design protection for the figure’s appearance. However, these rights protected particular features, not the wider commercial idea, leaving room for competing Play-Big figures.

1/3 On this day in 1921, Stanley Valinski received US Patent No. 1,392,095 for a “Man-catching tank”. Its intended destination was not a battlefield, but a bank lobby. #OnThisDay #OTD #PatentHistory #Patents

2/3 A watchman would sit inside an armoured, motorised box. When robbers appeared, he could drive towards the exit and swing curved metal arms around a fleeing suspect, holding him against the tank until help arrived. Gun ports provided another option.

1/2 On this day in 1877, fire devastated the U.S. Patent Office and destroyed tens of thousands of patent models. #OnThisDay #OTD #PatentHistory #Patents #USPTO

1/2 On this day in 1930, Johannes Ostermeier received US Patent No. 1,776,637 for a “Flash lamp”, a patent behind the first commercially successful flashbulbs. #OnThisDay #OTD #PatentHistory #Patents

1/2 On this day in 1955, Hugo Gernsback received US Patent No. 2,718,083 for a “Hydraulic fishery” designed to pump fish from the sea straight to shore. #OnThisDay #OTD #PatentHistory #Patents

1/3 On this day in 1968, An Wang received US Patent No. 3,402,285 for a “Calculating apparatus”, concerning the logarithmic technology behind Wang Laboratories’ early calculators. #OnThisDay #OTD #PatentHistory #Patents

2/3 But the underlying mathematical idea was centuries old. When HP later developed its 9100 scientific calculator using a similar logarithmic method, engineer David Cochran traced the approach back to Henry Briggs’s 1624 “Arithmetica Logarithmica”.