ATM Inventor Dies

John Sheppard-Baron, who is credited with inventing the ATM machine, has died.  This article from the Chicago Tribune has his obituary.  And oh, how times have changed with the ATM:

The first automated teller machine, or ATM, was installed at a branch of Barclays in a north London suburb on June 27, 1967. (An earlier mechanical device was installed at a New York bank in 1939, but it was soon dismantled when customers showed no interest.)

Instead of plastic bank cards, Shepherd-Barron's machine used special checks that were chemically coded. Customers placed the checks in a drawer, and after a personal identification number (PIN) was entered, a second drawer would spring open with a 10-pound note.

Inventors - Clorox Wants You!

 It appears that Clorox is seeking "new ideas for products that help consumers reduce the spread of bacteria, fungi and viruses that can cause illness. If a product concept is chosen through this campaign, the inventor will receive a $2,500 advance and other compensation based on sales."

However, "While submissions need not be limited to traditional home cleaning categories, Clorox is not interested in new ideas for personal care products, pharmaceutical drugs, or medical devices."

Full contest rules are available here.

Deadline is July 5, 2010, so get inventing!

Chester Carlson - The Copy Machine

I can't believe I've neglected to rave about the book Copies in Seconds, by David Owen.  I came across this book on Amazon a few years back, in my search for a good non-fiction read.  (And for some reason, I like reading about inventors and companies.)  This one talks about the struggle of Chester Carlson to get anyone to pay attention to his wonderful invention, which we all know as xerography.  Photocopies.  This is a fascinating book and it reads like fiction.  (Meaning, it is a very easy read, and maybe even a good beach read for you this summer!)

I was reminded of this book because I came across this article from the Contra Costa Times, which is also about Chester Carlson.  In part:

The first year of the Great Depression was a lousy time for finding jobs - even for a Caltech graduate. He went to New York where he accepted relatively menial office jobs at which he often was called upon to copy information, either by hand or using a highly inefficient photographic process.

From these tedious exercises grew the idea that an image could be transferred electrically to paper via a charged powder, or toner.

He patented his process called xerography - "dry printing" - in 1937 and offered the concept to IBM in 1940. Nobody seemed much interested.

I added the Amazon link so you can see the cover of the book, but I have no idea why this book is so expensive.  You can probably find a copy on eBay for cheap, or through one of the used sellers on Amazon.  If you have any good inventor book suggestions for me, please let me know in the comments! 

   

How to Get an Innovative Razor to Market

It can be difficult for a small time inventor to compete against a big corporation in order to break into the market.  The New York Times has this article about the approach taken by the ShaveMate inventors to get shelf space among giants like Gillette and Shick.  In part:

After years of research and development, engineering and patent work, the brothers took their razors to the military in 2002 because they had heard that soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan were dry shaving. That first product was rugged and featured two blades, with the shaving cream in the handle. The military became a repeat customer.

Still, the Tomassettis found American retailers reluctant to take shelf space from Gillette and Schick. Store managers encouraged the brothers to improve their product — add more blades, they suggested. So the Tomassettis did. With six blades, ShaveMate offers one more in-line blade than its competitors, and it is the only all-in-one razor on the market with shaving cream in the handle.

An interesting read, and a creative approach. 

Museum Exhibits Inventions that Have Changed Our Lives

If you live anywhere near the Polk County Historical Museum in Bartow, FL, you might want to check out their new exhibit (which runs through the end of June) on 20th century inventions that have changed our lives.  The exhibit appears to highlight such inventions as the gas mask, Life Savers, a graphophone, the radio, Bakelite plastic, the tape dispenser, Band-Aids, ballpoint pens, and many others.  You can find an article about the exhibit here.

A Turing Machine

Here's an interesting site, provided by someone who attempted to build a Turing Machine.  Wikipedia describes a Turing Machine as a theoretical device that manipulates symbols contained on a strip of tape, described by Alan Turing in 1937.  So, what do you think, as we all anxiously await the Supreme Court's Bilski decision -- should a Turing Machine be patentable subject matter?

FM Radio Inventor

Edwin Armstrong, inventor of the FM radio, who tragically committed suicide in 1954, gets some attention from the New York Times.  An archivist at Columbia University is working to organize his papers and materials.  Their blog, documenting the progress is available here. 

25 Inventions that Will Improve Your Life

Reader's Digest has published a neat slideshow on -- you guessed it -- 25 Inventions that Will Improve Your Life.  While not all of them are likely patentable, it's still a fun article.  Available here. 

IP Hall of Fame

is now online here. Among the first inductees are Thomas Edison (duh), Victor Hugo, and Thomas Jefferson.

Patent Auctions

Is this the wave of the future?

Chicago-based Ocean Tomo, a patent consulting firm that includes Ross Perot as an investor, will put on the auction block approximately 400 patents applicable to semiconductors, RFID (radio frequency identification), wireless communications, automotive technology, food, energy and the Internet. The patents will be grouped in 68 blocks ranging in estimated value from $100,000 to more than $5 million.

The High Media Patent

Another overbroad patent, perhaps? This article from Information Week describes the lay of the land on a patent which lovingly enough was granted on Valentine's Day:

A patent has been granted to a relatively unknown California Web-design firm for an invention its creator says covers the design and creation of most rich-media applications used over the Internet. The patent holder, Balthaser Online Inc., says it could license nearly any rich-media Internet application across a broad range of devices and networks.

Potentially tens of thousands of businesses--not only software makers employing its business processes but companies offering rich-media on their Websites--could be subject to licensing fees when they use rich-media technology over the Internet.

***

The patent, No. 7,000,180 or 180 for short, is entitled Methods, Systems, And Processes For The Design And Creation Of Rich-Media Applications Via The Internet. It contains 83 claims that encompass a wide range of rich-media Net application methods, systems, and processes.

Thanks for the Whip Cream

Robert Rich, inventor of frozen non-dairy topping, died on February 15th, aged 92. His obituary is an fun read into an area of food I never thought much about:

Few revolutions have been made with a hand-beater. But Mr Rich's was one. Before he began to experiment with flaking and precipitating soyabeans, whipped cream was a hit-or-miss affair. It would not keep, especially in the humid South. Nor would it freeze. Over-beating produced a buttery mess, and ambitious decorations sank gradually into gloop. To top it all, in wartime, heavy whipping cream was a banned substance. All available milk was needed fresh for the people, or dried and condensed for the troops. To dream of an éclair or a cream puff, even of a modest dollop nestling a cherry or topping off a sundae, was close to a traitorous act.

The Next American Idol?

It seems that Simon Cowell is up to his old tricks, with a new show airing on ABC on March 16 called "AMERICAN INVENTOR, The Greatest Search For America´s Next Big Invention." It is described as:

AMERICAN INVENTOR, the embodiment of the ultimate American dream, will uncover the hottest new product and make one struggling inventor´s dream come true. With one million dollars at stake, AMERICAN INVENTOR will celebrate the best in homespun American ingenuity.

I'm a huge reality TV fan, and think this could prove to be interesting. Article here.

Breathing Underwater

This article discusses a cool new invention for all you scuba divers out there...

Future Inventors of America

Kids invention competition in San Diego:

I like this one:

Flip-flops were augmented with a cardboard shield in the front to keep out dirt and sand.

But here's the full scoop:

"Inventions go as simple as a button on your clothes to more complicated than an atomic submarine," said Martin Teachworth, a physics teacher at La Jolla High School. He organized students to staff the two-day display of projects, held Wednesday and yesterday in the Scottish Rite Center in Mission Valley. About 10 percent of all entries come from La Jolla High. This was the 19th year of the event. It began after Jo Anne Schaper, then a science teacher in the San Diego Unified School District, heard a presentation by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office lamenting that fewer Americans were getting patents compared with foreigners and urging efforts to stir students' interest. Schaper persuaded the district to let her start the competition.

Who Invented Baseball?

This article from The Saratogian ponders the issue. In part:

In 1907, a special baseball commission recognized Doubleday as baseball's founder based on the testimony of a boyhood friend named Abner Graves. 'It's all part of American mythology and folklore, like Paul Bunyan and John Henry,' said Jim Gates, library director at the National Baseball of Fame & Museum in Cooperstown. 'But folklore is an important part of the American story.'

Google Google Google

Google's latest patent, a "Information Retrieval Based on Historical Data" is analyzed here at the SEO Blog. In part:

Google is in the midst of sweeping changes to the way it operates as a search engine. As a matter of fact, it isn't really a search engine in the fine sense of the word anymore. It isn't really a portal either. It is more of an institution, the ultimate private-public partnership. Calling itself a media-company, Google is now a multi-faceted information and multi-media delivery system that is accessed primarily through its well-known interface found at www.google.com .

Tivo's Patent Portfolio

I want Tivo. Desperately. But I haven't gotten it yet. I guess the main reason is that I'm afraid if I get it I will never leave my house again...

But Tivo's patent portfolio is ridiculous. See this article. In part:

The DVR pioneer has been amassing a patent portfolio to boost its licensing business and fend off new entrants to the DVR market. However, TiVo hasn't yet been able to turn its intellectual property into significant financial success.

Early last month, TiVo was granted five patents from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The company has 76 patents, with 106 still pending.

Jurassic Park

This article states:

The US Patent Office issued Patent # 6,872,552, "A Method of Reconstituting nucleic Acid Molecules" today to Burt D. Ensley, Ph.D, Chairman of MatrixDesign, and CEO of DermaPlus, Inc. The patent covers methods for recovering and reconstituting genes from "degraded" DNA samples, and could allow scientists to reassemble everything from prehistoric, extinct animals to unsolved crime scenes.

****

By reconstituting nucleic acid molecules that have been degraded but still contain useful information scientists at MatrixDesign are able to create a template from which to multiply the genetic material. That process is repeated until the genetic material is substantially representative -- at microscopic levels -- of the species from which the degraded sample was obtained.

The Helicopter

The inventor of the helicopter's son gave a speech at Utah Valley State College on Wednesday, where he discussed the invention of the helicopter. An article about the speech is located here, and in part, the article states:

Throughout it all, he explained the role his father played.

"There's a secret to this that the birds have been trying to teach us for a million years," he quoted his father concerning the invention of helicopters. "It is far more intelligent to stop and then land than it is to land and then try to stop."

Sikorsky's father was a Russian-born scientist who started the idea of the helicopter as a student in Paris. After building his first two models in 1909, and failing to get either one off the ground, Igor Sikorsky turned his attention to fixed-wing aircraft.

*****

It wasn't until 1939, 30 years after his first attempt, Igor Sikorsky made the worlds' first successful helicopter.

"Anything, anything that one man can imagine, other men will later make true," Sikorsky said, quoting his father.