by
Mark A. Ollig
Yours
truly was researching inventions patented during the week of Jan. 26.
Surprisingly,
there were some very interesting ones to be found.
For
instance, on this day 140 years ago, the first electric dental drill was
patented by George F. Green, of Kalamazoo, MI.
Green’s
dental drill used an electromagnetic motor.
This
electric dental drill provided faster relief from the tooth pain a patient
normally experienced back when hand-operated, mechanical dental tools were
being used.
It
also assisted in preventing future tooth decay, by filing and polishing teeth.
“My
invention relates to implements for sawing, filing, dressing, or polishing teeth,
for drilling holes and preparing cavities, and for plugging the same. Its
objects are to render dental operations more convenient, more rapid and less
painful than they have heretofore been; to which ends my invention consist of
an electro-magnet motor, as hereinafter more fully explained,” Green wrote in
his patent application.
So,
we need to thank Mr. Green, in part, for our having less tooth decay and
brighter smiles, because of his invention.
George
F. Green’s application was filed on Jan. 13, 1871, and was awarded US Patent
159,028 Jan. 26, 1875.
Here’s
a photo of Green’s drawing taken from his patent: http://tinyurl.com/nmeonsw.
It
was 135 years ago this week, when the patent for the first electric lamp was
awarded to T. A. Edison.
Yes
indeed, folks, Thomas Alva Edison’s application was filed Nov. 4, 1878, and was
approved with US Patent 223,898 Jan. 27, 1880.
“The
object of this invention is to produce electric lamps giving light by
incandescence, which lamps shall have high resistance, so as to allow of the
practical subdivision of the electric light,” Edison wrote in his patent
application.
A
photo of Edison’s drawing taken from his patent is here:
http://tinyurl.com/l6x45jf.
This
next patent is not for a device, but for a process.
The
famous French chemist, Louis Pasteur, was awarded a patent for his improvement
in the brewing of beer and ale, 142 years ago this week.
“Be
it known that I, Louis Pasteur of the city of Paris, France, have invented
certain new and useful improvements in the Process of Making Beer, for which
Letters Patent were granted me in France on the 28th day of June, 1871,” wrote
Pasteur in his US Patent application.
The
patent for Pasteur’s better beer brewing process was awarded US Patent 135,245
on Jan. 28, 1873.
A
photo of the drawing from Pasteur’s patent is here: http://tinyurl.com/jvzey3g.
Many
of my readers, on a hot summer day (I know, it’s January), no doubt enjoy
eating a couple of scoops of ice cream placed inside a round, tasty, wafer
cone.
We
have Carl R. Taylor to thank for inventing a waffled, cone-shaped wafer to hold
our ice cream.
His
Cone-Rolling Machine, patented 94 years ago, first produced these now familiar
ice-cream cones.
“This
invention relates to machines for forming thin freshly baked wafers while still
hot into cone shaped containers such as commonly used in dispensing ice cream.
Generally, the object of this invention is to provide a machine capable of more
efficiently forming cone shaped containers from flat wafers,” Taylor wrote in
his patent application.
Carl
R. Taylor filed his application Feb. 16, 1921, and was awarded US patent
1,481,813 Jan. 29, 1924, for his ice-cream cone-rolling machine.
Taylor’s
drawing from his patent can be seen at: http://tinyurl.com/njwrucn.
Growing
up, many of us boomers will remember observing the clerk at the local store
operating a large mechanical, paper cash register machine, when ringing up the
sale.
In
the early 1880s, James Ritty and John Birch worked on an improved cash
register, and wrote the following in their patent application:
“Our
invention relates to an improvement in cash registers and indicators designed
for the use of store-keepers and others as a means of accurately registering
the total cash receipts for any given period of time – as a day, for instance –
and for indicating to the customers that the amount paid has been registered by
disclosing to their view such amounts upon figured tablets.”
James
Ritty and John Birch filed their application Feb. 15, 1882, and were awarded US
patent 271,363 Jan. 30, 1883, for their improved cash register machine.
So,
the next time you nostalgically remember the sound of “cha-ching” from an
old-fashioned cash register drawer being operated, you’ll think of Ritty and
Birch.
Here
is a photo from their patent drawing: http://tinyurl.com/l3a82k6.
