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Friday, February 28, 2020

Local US Patent holders

© Mark Ollig


In 1995, I began my online search of the US Patent Office website, in hopes of finding copies of the three US patents my father filed during the mid-1950s.

The web was very young in 1995. Maneuvering through the first US Patent Office website, with its limited search term queries, was quite challenging.

I was using the Netscape Navigator web browser.

My US patent searches during 1995 required the software program, Visio to view the schematic drawings.

Today, it is much simpler performing searches and viewing those drawings.

But, I digress.

Recently, I searched the US Patent Office website for historical patents obtained by local inventors from Winsted, Howard Lake, Delano, and Cokato.

The earliest issued US Patent for Winsted I found was from Oct. 17, 1871.

This patent belonged to Eli F. Lewis, who many consider being the founder of my hometown.

Trivia: The lake in Winsted was initially named Lake Eleanor, in honor of Eli F. Lewis’ wife.

Winsted was also called Winsted Lake during its early beginnings.

His patent 119,933 is titled, IMPROVEMENT IN WASH-BOILERS.

“Be it known that I, Eli F. Lewis, of Winsted Lake, in the County of McLeod and State of Minnesota, have invented certain Improvements in Automatic Washers,” begins the first sentence on his patent.

Included in Lewis’ patent are two drawings.

Eli F. Lewis’s patent can be seen at https://bit.ly/2utHKIB.

US Patent 774,543 was registered as PARTY LINE TELEPHONE SYSTEM.

This patent was filed Nov. 20, 1903, by Felton Vollmer, a person whose name is well-known to those of us who grew up in Winsted.

Vollmer moved to Winsted in 1871. He was Winsted’s first mayor.

In 1877, he served in the Minnesota Legislature as House Representative of District 36.

From 1883 to 1886, he served as State Senator for District 35.

Vollmer’s patent description starts with, “Be it known that I, Felton Vollmer, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Winsted, in the County of McLeod and State of Minnesota, have invented a new and improved Party-Line Telephone System . . .”

He gives an accurate, detailed, and precise description of a telephone party-line, along with its method of operation, which this veteran telephone man can appreciate.

Three detailed schematic drawings are shown of Volmer’s patent.

Other pages describe the details of his invention, including the resistance wiring, contact-springs, magnets, and other parts.

Vollmer’s US Patent number 774,543 issue date was Nov. 8, 1904. It can be seen at https://bit.ly/32s91ri.

Enoch E. Ritchie of Howard Lake filed US Patent number 549,535 June 28, 1895, titled, WASHING MACHINE.

“The invention relates to improvements in washing-machines,” Ritchie stated in his patent application.

Ritchie went on to state, “The object of the present invention is to improve the construction of washing-machines, and to provide a simple and inexpensive one which will enable the operation of washing to be rapidly and thoroughly effected without injuring the fabrics, and at the expenditure of a minimum amount of labor.”

His patent includes two well-drawn diagrams of his improved washing machine.

Ritchie’s US Patent number 549,535 issue date was Nov. 12, 1895, and can be seen at https://bit.ly/2TbOsLP.

Stephen Woodard of Delano, filed US Patent 276,950 Sept. 5, 1882, titled, SIDING BRACKET.

Woodard’s patent description starts with, “This invention has for its objects to provide an improved bracket to be employed for supporting the sidings in the construction of frame buildings while they are being nailed to the framework of the building and adjusting them to any desired position accurately and without trouble.”

A complete drawing is included in his patent.

Woodard’s US Patent number 276,950 issue date was May 1, 1883, and can be seen at https://bit.ly/2PpdYfs.

US Patent number 461,543, which was filed Dec. 27, 1890, belongs to Charles J. Carlson, of Cokato.

Carlson’s patent was titled, CURRY-COMB AND CLEANER.

I am not up on my currycombs, so I checked the Oxford dictionary and found it is a brush used for horse grooming.

“The invention relates to improvements in curry-combs and cleaners. The object of the present invention is to provide a simple and inexpensive curry-comb and means for readily and effectively cleaning the same,” Carlson discloses on his patent.

Three detailed drawn diagrams of the currycomb and cleaner are attached to Carlson’s patent.

Carlson’s US Patent number 461,543 issue date was Oct. 20, 1891; it can be seen at https://bit.ly/3ca60jQ.

It is surprising to learn of the many talented people from our area who obtained US Patents.

There are many devices used not only nation-wide, but across the world having US Patents originating from Minnesota, but this is the subject of a future column.

An excellent place to start your US Patent search adventure is https://bit.ly/3af4knN.

In 1959, my dad obtained US Patent 2909781. US Patents 2927324 and 2953787 were granted in 1960.

These patents can be seen at https://bit.ly/2HWOqlQhttps://bit.ly/2VktjS9, and https://bit.ly/2T14rxr.

Nearly 15 years ago, the Herald Journal did a feature story about his invention; you can read at https://bit.ly/2vcK47q.










Friday, February 21, 2020

Coronavirus concern cancels major tech tradeshow

© Mark Ollig

“Limitless Intelligent Community” was the theme for this year’s Mobile World Congress (MWC) annual tradeshow event in Barcelona, Spain.

MWC, scheduled for Monday, Feb. 24 through Thursday, Feb. 27, was to be the 15th year Barcelona hosted the event.

However, with the 30 largest telecom and other tech companies withdrawing their participation in this year’s MWC due to fears about the coronavirus, the annual tradeshow has been canceled.

A statement on the MWC webpage confirmed the cancellation of the 2020 Barcelona Mobile World Congress, “because the global concern regarding the coronavirus outbreak, travel concern, and other circumstances, make it impossible for the GSMA (organizer for the MWC) to hold the event.”

In 2019, more than 107,000 people from 205 countries attended the MWC. More than 2,400 mobile communication exhibits were on display.

This year, 110,000 people were expected to attend.

The MWC includes many mobile networking and other wireless technology exhibitions, and accommodates numerous conferences with many of the world’s most influential technical speakers participating in panel discussions.

This year’s event provided 394,000 square feet of exhibition space – 16,400 feet more than last year.

The loss of revenue to Barcelona, usually generated by the MWC event, will be substantial.

In 2019, $537.5 million was spent on hotel reservations, restaurants, taxis, bars, and apartment reservations in Barcelona during the MWC event.

More than 27,000 hotel rooms were block-booked by the organizers of MWC in 2019.

Barcelona has played host city to the MWC since 2006, and will continue to host until 2023.

To offset some of the revenue losses from the cancelation of the MWC 2020, the Barcelona city council and local businesses announced an initiative called Barcelona Opportunity Week.

This initiative will promote Barcelona’s free events, while also offering tourist packages for cultural venues, hotels, and restaurants to provide registered 2020 MWC attendees “incentives to come” to the city.

As of Feb. 19, there have been two confirmed cases of the coronavirus in Spain, and no related deaths.

Since the schools are currently closed in mainland China due to the coronavirus outbreak, teachers are using technology to reach homebound students by providing online classes.

In one video I saw on China’s People’s Daily website, a teacher at home is using a video live-streaming app on their smartphone to teach a class online.

The teacher’s smartphone hangs above a computing tablet used for the class.

A homemade “attachment device” suspends the teacher’s smartphone about 6 inches above the tablet.

The teacher is using a stylus pen to write on the computing tablet.

From their homes or quiet outdoor locations with network access, teachers are using their smartphone’s video recorders, laptops, and computing tablets to provide students with daily class lessons.

A student at home watches the daily lessons the teacher is broadcasting, using a video live-streaming app on their smartphone or computer.

Chinese teachers have begun calling themselves “network anchors,” as they are presenting their online classes like a television news program.

Feb. 11, the World Health Organization (WHO) named the disease, coronavirus disease 2019, abbreviated as COVID-19.

COVID-19 is a respiratory disease, and was first detected in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China.

China reported the first death from the coronavirus Jan. 11.

Jan. 30, the WHO declared COVID-19 a public health emergency of international concern.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said COID-19 continues to increase its presence worldwide.

CDC also acknowledges the risk is high; the disease may spread further.

The WHO said they need to be “extremely cautious” about calling the coronavirus a pandemic, or “worst-case scenario.”

The real issue, they said, is whether there are appearances of community transmission outside of China; at present, they are not observing this.

WHO reports, “The scientific community has managed to isolate it, sequence it, identify it, and develop a diagnostic test.”

WHO states current coronavirus cases reported in other parts of the world still have a direct link to China.

Their main objective “is to contain the virus, not the people.”

Currently, there are no vaccines for the coronavirus.

The World Health Organization website has detailed information, including how the disease spreads, and protections a person can take.

Daily audio situation reports and press briefings by the World Health Organization doctors and professionals regarding the coronavirus disease are here: https://bit.ly/2P5pYCv.

The World Health Organization website page dedicated to news and information about the coronavirus is at https://bit.ly/2UYXmyJ.

The latest information on the coronavirus from the CDC is at https://bit.ly/2Hw227c.



A teacher at home is using a video live-streaming
 app on their tablet to teach a class online.
 The laptop is the "chalk board."






































A teacher at home is using a video live-streaming
 app on their smartphone to teach a class online.
The tablet acts as the "chalk board."

A student at home watches the daily lessons the teacher
 is broadcasting, using a video live-streaming app on their smartphone. 























Friday, February 14, 2020

YouTube celebrates its 15th anniversary

© Mark Ollig 


It seems, most important discoveries are invented inside someone’s garage, and Chad Hurley’s garage is where YouTube originated.

The domain name, www.youtube.com, was established Feb. 14, 2005, at 9:13 p.m., by three PayPal employees: Chad Hurley, Jawed Karim, and Steven Chen.

Hard to believe it has already been 15 years.

Of course, 15 years might seem like an eternity to the younger people; however, for those from my generation, it’s like yesterday.

Trivia: What was the first video to be uploaded to YouTube?

“Me at the Zoo” was uploaded by YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim (username: jawed) April 23, 2005.

Karim’s 19-second video clip was taken at the San Diego Zoo in front of a corral containing a few elephants.

During this short video, a 25-year-old Karim says the following:

“All right, so here we are in front of the elephants. The cool thing about these guys is that they have really, really, really, long trunks, and that’s cool. And that’s pretty much all there is to say.”

As of Tuesday, “Me at the Zoo” had 84.8 million views and 2.7 million comments.

Just 19 months after that first YouTube video, Karim, Hurley, and Chen sold their interests in YouTube.

At the time, YouTube was based in San Mateo, CA, and later headquartered in San Bruno.

Those interested in buying YouTube included Yahoo! Inc., Microsoft, and Google.

The final offer accepted was from Google.

Google also had its start from inside a garage, and was incorporated Sept. 4, 1998, in Menlo Park, CA.

The deal was done with the Google and YouTube folks, sitting in a booth at a Denny’s restaurant near YouTube’s headquarters.

“This is the next step in the evolution of the Internet,” said Eric Schmidt, Google’s chief executive officer, about the YouTube acquisition.

Google purchased YouTube for $1.65 billion Nov. 13, 2006.

Imagine all the Denny’s Super Slam breakfast specials one could buy with $1.65 billion.

At the time of the YouTube acquisition, Google operated an online video service at www.videogoogle.com. This website went online three weeks before YouTube was founded.

“The videos submitted contribute to this ever-growing online video vault,” I wrote in an October 2006 column about YouTube.

Not only are those cute kitten and doggie videos posted on YouTube popular, but there are also countless educational, historical, product reviews, and various tutorials on every subject imaginable.

During the last five years, Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR) videos have become popular, as well.

For 2019, the top video categories watched are comedy, music, entertainment/pop culture, and “how to.”

Three years after the purchase of YouTube, video.google.com stopped accepting video uploads and instructed its users to migrate their videos over to Google’s YouTube website.

Google shut down www.video.google.com Aug. 20, 2012.

Today, almost 5 billion videos are watched on YouTube every day by 1.3 billion people.

There are 2 billion registered users on YouTube.

YouTube ranks second as the most popular social media platform; Facebook is first.

YouTube supports 80 different languages, so users all over the world can navigate through it.

In 2019, 62 percent of businesses used YouTube to post their video content.

More than 70 percent of YouTube videos are watched on mobile devices.

Some 720,000 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every day, which breaks down to 30,000 videos each hour.

For you couch potatoes out there, this means it would take nearly 82 years to watch all the videos uploaded to YouTube in a single day.

During an average month, eight out of 10 people 18 to 49 years old are watching YouTube.

The current value of YouTube is estimated at upwards of $40 billion.

Google got a good return on their investment of $1.65 billion.

Today, Google’s net worth is around $300 billion.

Alphabet Inc., a multinational conglomerate and the parent company of Google, has a current value of just over $1 trillion as of Jan. 16.

Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft are also trillion-dollar corporations.

Will YouTube be here 15 years from now to celebrate its 30th anniversary?

Stay tuned.


“Me at the Zoo” was uploaded by YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim (username: jawed) April 23, 2005.
(First YouTube video)



Friday, February 7, 2020

Holding the internet in your hands


© Mark Ollig

Rumors at the time said it could be named the iSlate or the iTablet. 

We didn’t officially know until Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs walked out onto the stage Jan. 27, 2010, at the Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco, to make the dramatic announcement.

I recall watching the live-streaming video of this event as it took place. 

Jobs was dressed in his traditional laid-back blue jeans and comfortable-looking black turtleneck sweater.

He spoke to the audience about our use of laptops and smartphones, and whether some middle computing device could be used.

 At the time, I thought the netbook was the middle device. 

Jobs seemed to know what I was thinking, and said, “Some people had thought that’s a netbook. The problem is netbooks aren’t better at anything.”

This remark drew laughter and brief applause from the audience.

“They are just cheap laptops,” Jobs continued. “We don’t think they are a third-category device,” he said.

There was a moment of silence.

Jobs broke the silence, saying, “But, we think we’ve got something that is, and we call it the iPad.”

He then smiled and held up a half-inch thick, tablet-like device with a large display screen.

I recall the audience erupted in applause.

“iPad is our most advanced technology in a magical and revolutionary device at an unbelievable price,” said Jobs.

The first iPad weighed 1.5 pounds and had a 9.7-inch LED-backlit, multi-touch display screen.

It included built-in Wi-Fi, with the higher-priced models including the 3G capability for internet access via the AT&T cellular phone network.

Yes, 10 years ago, we were using 3G.

Jobs sat down in a chair on stage with the working iPad and demonstrated its features and how easy it was to get on the internet.

He accessed the online New York Times newspaper and scrolled through the front page.

Jobs described how pleasant it was seeing the whole webpage at one time.

At each website visited, he mentioned how effortless it was to navigate a webpage by only using the touch of a finger; no need to use a mouse.

The first iPad was available in 16, 32, or 64GB flash drive sizes and was powered by Apple’s 1 GHz A4 custom-designed processor.

Its internal rechargeable lithium-polymer battery provided up to 10 hours of use.

Jobs displayed the high-resolution, full-color, back-lit screen with crisp, easy-to-read text. The colors were bright and vivid.

He proclaimed how “phenomenal” it was to “hold the internet in your hands.”

At the time, someone called the iPad a “media consumption device,” which it ultimately became.

Before the iPad could be sold to the public, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) needed to approve it.

The first-generation iPad (Wi-Fi model only) became available April 3, 2010, and could be purchased by the public.

Some 300,000 iPads were sold the first day, and my oldest son purchased one; it was the iPad 16GB model A1219.

The Wi-Fi + 3G iPad model became available April 30, 2010.

Apple discontinued manufacturing the first-generation iPad March 2011.

Backside of the first-generation iPad

Close-up of the information on the backside of the first-generation iPad.