Thomas Alva Edison (more than 1,000 patents) (http://www.nytimes.com/ learning/general/images/ small/0211_bday.jpg) Edison's October 18, 1931 Obituary: http://www.nytimes. com/learning/ general/ onthisday/bday/ 0211.html

INVENTIONS: New Product Markets

Interesting Dates

July 31, 1790 - The first U.S. patent was granted to Samuel Hopkins of Vermont for a process for making potash (used as an ingredient in soap and fertilizer) and pearl ashes; granted for a term of 14 years and signed by George Washington. Hopkins did not get Patent #1 as thousands of patents were issued before the Patent Office began to number them. Congress had passed the Patent Act on April 10, 1790. Only two other patents were granted that year - one for a new candle-making process and the other the flour-milling machinery of Oliver Evans.

July 13, 1836 - John Ruggles, of Thomaston, Maine, received patent Number 1 from U.S. Patent Office for "Traction Wheels" ("improvement or improvements on locomotive-engines used on railroads and common roads by which inclined planes and hills may be ascended and heavy loads drawn up the same with more facility and economy than heretofore"); new system for numbering patents (before Ruggles, 9,957 non-numbered patents issued); Ruggles was Chairman of Committee on Patents of the U.S. Senate, instrumental in patent law reform.

December 15, 1836 - The Patent Office was completely destroyed by fire; estimated loss of 7,000 models, 9,000 drawings, 230 books; all written records lost.

August 29,1842 -The design patent, a new form of patent, was authorized by Act of Congress. The first U.S. design patent was issued for typefaces and borders to George Bruce of New York City on November 9, 1842.

October 28, 1868 - Thomas Edison applied for his first patent, the electric vote recorder.

December 23, 1870 - Thomas A. Edison was issued a U.S. patent for an "Improvement in Magneto Electric Machines"; object of his improvement was to increase the effectiveness and cheapen the construction of the revolving armature.

August 8, 1876 - Thomas A. Edison received a patent for his mimeograph.

February 19, 1878 - Thomas Edison received a patent for his phonograph.

January 27, 1880 - Thomas Edison received a patent for his electric incandescent lamp.

November 15, 1883 - Edison received a patent for his two-element vacuum tube, the forerunner of the vacuum tube rectifier.

February 12, 1884 - Thomas A. Edison was issued several U.S. patents: "An Electric Generator or Motor," "Insulation of Railroad tracks Used for Electrical Circuits," "Incandescent Electric Lamp," and an "Electrical Meter."

August, 31, 1887 - Thomas A. Edison received a patent for his ''Kinetoscope,'' a device that produced moving pictures.

February 12, 1889 - Thomas A. Edison was issued two U.S. patents: "Method of Winding Field Magnets," and a "Phonograph."

September 30, 1890 - Thomas A. Edison was granted U.S. patent for telegraphy, for a phonograph; for a phonograph-recorder; for a "Method of Making Phonograph Blanks"; for a "Propelling Device for Electrical Cars"; for a phonogram blank.

August 24, 1891 - Thomas Edison filed a patent for the motion picture camera.

February 16, 1892 - Thomas A. Edison was issued two U.S. patents, for a "Converter System for Electric Railways" and a "Commutator Brush for Electric Motors and Dynamos".

February 1, 1893 - Thomas A. Edison completed work on the world's first motion picture studio, in West Orange, NJ.

February 12, 1895 - Thomas A. Edison was issued several U.S. patents: "Filament for Incandescent Lamps," "Induction Converter" and an "Incandescent Electric Lamp."

January 22, 1907 - Thomas A. Edison was issued a patent for an "Apparatus for Grinding and Separating Fine Materials".

August 20, 1912 - Thomas A. Edison received U.S. patent for a "Phonographic Apparatus," and for a "Storage Battery."

January 10, 1922 - Thomas A. Edison was issued a U.S. patent for a Storage-Battery Electrode and the Production of Same.

(Bell), Roger Burlingame (1964). Out of Silence into Sound; The Life of Alexander Graham Bell. (New York, NY: Macmillan, 146 p.). Bell, Alexander Graham, 1847-1922.

(Bell), Robert V. Bruce (1990). Bell: Alexander Graham Bell and the Conquest of Solitude. (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 564 p. [orig. pub. 1973]). Bell, Alexander Graham, 1847-1922; Inventors--United States--Biography.

(Bell), James Mackay (1998). Alexander Graham Bell: A Life. (New York, NY: Wiley, p.). Bell, Alexander Graham, 1847-1922; Inventors--United States--Biography. 

(Bell), Charlotte Gray (2006). Reluctant Genius: Alexander Graham Bell and the Passion for Invention. (New York, NY: Arcade Pub., 480 p.). Bell, Alexander Graham, 1847-1922; Inventors--United States--Biography. Creation of the device, projects pursued once his future was secured. 

(Electric Light), Francis Arthur Jones (1931). The Life Story of Thomas Alva Edison. (New York, NY: Grosset & Dunlap, 405 p.). Edison, Thomas A. (Thomas Alva), 1847-1931.

(Edison), William A. Simonds (1934). Edison; His Life, His Work, His Genius. (Indianapolis, IN: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, 364 p.). Edison, Thomas A. (Thomas Alva), 1847-1931.

(Electric Light), Matthew Josephson (1959). Edison: A Biography. (New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 511 p.). Edison, Thomas A. (Thomas Alva), 1847-1931.

(Electric Light), Ronald W. Clark (1977). Edison: The Man Who Made the Future. (London, UK: Macdonald and Jane's, 256 p.). Edison, Thomas A. (Thomas Alva), 1847-1931; Electric engineers -- United States -- Biography; Inventors -- United States -- Biography.

(Electric Light), Robert Conot (1979). A Streak of Luck. (New York, NY: Seaview Books, 565 p.). Edison, Thomas A. (Thomas Alva), 1847-1931; Inventors -- United States -- Biography; Electric engineers -- United States -- Biography.

(Electric Light), Wyn Wachhorst (1981). Thomas Alva Edison, an American Myth. (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 328 p.). Edison, Thomas A. (Thomas Alva), 1847-1931; Inventors -- United States -- Biography.

(Electric Light), Robert Friedel & Paul Israel with Bernard S. Finn (1986). Edison's Electric Light: Biography of an Invention. (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 263 p.). Edison, Thomas A. (Thomas Alva), 1847-1931; Incandescent lamps.

(Edison), editors Reese V. Jenkins ... [et al.] (1989). The Papers of Thomas A. Edison: The Making of an Inventor : February 1847-June 1873. (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 4 vols.). Edison, Thomas A. (Thomas Alva), 1847-1931; Edison, Thomas A. (Thomas Alva), 1847-1931 --Archives; Inventors--United States--Biography.

(Electric Light), Andre Millard (1990). Edison and the Business of Innovation. (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 387 p.). Edison, Thomas A. (Thomas Alva), 1847-1931; Inventors--United States--Biography; Businesspeople--United States--Biography. Series: Johns Hopkins studies in the history of technology.

(Electric Light), Neil Baldwin (1995). Edison, Inventing the Century. (New York, NY: Hyperion, 531 p.). Edison, Thomas A. (Thomas Alva), 1847-1931; Inventors -- United States -- Biography; Electric engineering -- United States -- History.

(Electric Light), Paul Israel (1998). Edison A Life of Invention. (New York, NY: Wiley, 552 p.). Edison, Thomas A. (Thomas Alva) 1847-1931; Inventors--United States--Biography.

(TV), David E. Fisher and Marshall Jon Fisher (1996). Tube: The Invention of Television. (Washington, DC: Counterpoint, 427 p.). Television--Receivers and reception--History.

(TV), R. W. Burns (1998). Television: An International History of the Formative Years. (London, UK: Institution of Electrical Engineers, 661 p.). Television--History; Television--Receivers and reception--History; Television broadcasting--History.

(TV), Evan I. Schwartz (2002). The Last Lone Inventor: Tale of Genius, Deceit, and the Birth of Television. (New York, NY: HarperCollins, 322 p.). Farnsworth, Philo Taylor, 1906-1971; Television--Biography; Inventors--United States--Biography; Electric engineers--United States--Biography; Television--History.

(TV), Daniel Stashower (2002). The Boy Genius and the Mogul: The Untold Story of Television. (New York, NY: Broadway Books, 277 p.). Farnsworth, Philo Taylor, 1906-1971; Sarnoff, David, 1891-1971; Television--History. Farnsworth against Sarnoff (RCA) - ultimatley loses.

Mark Bernstein (1996). Grand Eccentrics: Turning the Century: Dayton and the Inventing of America. (Wilmington, OH: Orange Frazer Press, 271 p.). Cox, James M. (James Middleton), 1870-1957; Kettering, Charles Franklin, 1876-1958; Patterson, John Henry, 1844-1922; Morgan, Arthur Ernest, 1878-1975; Wright, Wilbur, 1867-1912.; Wright, Orville, 1871-1948; Antioch College; Dayton (Ohio)--Biography; Dayton (Ohio)--History.

David E. Brown; foreword by Lester C. Thurow; introductions by James Burke (2002). Inventing Modern America: From the Microwave to the Mouse. (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 209 p.). Inventions--United States--History--20th century; Inventors--United States--Biography. 

James Burke; with a new introduction by the author (1995). Connections. (Boston, MA: Little, Brown, 304 p.). Inventions--History; Technology--History.

--- (1996). The Pinball Effect: How Renaissance Water Gardens Made the Carburetor Possible, and Other Journeys Through Knowledge. (Boston, MA: Little, Brown and Co., 310 p.). Inventions--History.

Roger Burlingame (1938). March of the Iron Men; A Social History of Union Through Invention. (New York, NY: Scribner, 500 p.). Inventions--United States; Inventors, American; United States--Civilization; United States--Economic conditions.

--- (1953). Machines That Built America. (New York, NY: Harcourt, Brace, 214 p.). Inventions--History; Inventors--United States; United States--Civilization.

Harold Evans, with Gail Buckland and David Lefer (2004). They Made America: Two Centuries of Innovators from the Steam Engine to the Search Engine. (Boston, MA: Little, Brown, 496 p.). Inventors--United States--History; Inventions--United States--History. Men, women who made America over two centuries, set America on course to attain standard of living unprecedented in history of world.

Allyn Freeman, Bob Golden (1997). Why Didn't I Think of That?: Bizarre Origins of Ingenious Inventions We Couldn't Live Without. (New York, NY: Wiley, 240 p.). Writer and business consultant, writer and composer. Inventions--History.  

Edmund Fuller (1955). Tinkers and Genius, the Story of the Yankee Inventors. (New York, NY: Hastings House, 308 p.). Inventors--United States; Inventions--History. 

Thomas P. Hughes (1990). American Genesis: A Century of Invention and Technological Enthusiasm, 1870-1970. (New York, NY: Viking, 529 p.). Technology--United States--History.

B. Zorina Khan (2005). The Democratization of Invention: Patents and Copyrights in American Economic Development, 1790-1920. (New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 336 p.). Professor of Economics (Bowdoin College). Intellectual property--Economic aspects--United States--History; Copyright--Economic aspects--United States--History; Patents--Economic aspects--United States--History; Inventions--Economic aspects--United States--History; Democracy--United States--History. Economic history of American patent and copyright institutions.

John H. Lienhard (2006). How Invention Begins: Echoes of Old Voices in the Rise of New Machines. (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 288 p.). Retired Professor. Inventors--United States; Inventions--History. Technology--United States--History. Nature of invention. Author reconciles ends of invention with individual leaps on which they are built, illuminates vast web of individual inspirations that lie behind whole technologies; traces way in which thousands of people applied their combined inventive genius.

David Lindsay (2000). House of Invention The Secret Life of Everyday Products. (New York, NY: Lyons Press, 179 p.). Inventions--History; Inventors--History.

Henry Petroski (1992). The Evolution of Useful Things: How Everyday Artifacts-From Forks and Pins to Paper Clips and Zippers-Came to be as They Are. (New York, NY: Knopf, 288 p.). Professor of Civil Engineering, History (Duke Univ.). Inventions, Patents, Industrial Design. Inventors sought opportunity in things the public didn't need.

Richard Ross (2005). Patently Ridiculous: Scuba-Diving Dogs, Beerbrellas, Musical Toothpaste, and Other Patented Strokes of Genius. (New York, NY: Plume, 160 p.). Professor of Art (University of California, Santa Barbara). Inventions--United States; Patents--United States.  

Holland Thompson (1921). The Age of Invention; a Chronicle of Mechanical Conquest. (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 267 p.). Inventions--History; Inventors--United States.

Abbott Payson Usher (1929). A History of Mechanical Inventions. (New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 401 p.). Inventions--History; Machinery--History.

Stephen van Dulken (2001). Inventing the 19th Century: 100 Inventions That Shaped the Victorian Age from Aspirin to the Zeppelin. (New York, NY: New York University Press, 218 p.). Expert Curator in the Patents Information Service of The British Library. Inventions--History--19th century. Victorian age (1837-1901) history of one hundred most important, innovative,  memorable inventions of 19th century.

--- (2004). American Inventions: A History of Curious, Extraordinary, and Just Plain Useful Patents. (New York, NY: New York University Press, 241 p.). Expert Curator in the Patents Information Service of The British Library. Inventions--United States--History; Patents--United States--History.  1911- 1999: number of registered U.S. patents rose from 1 million to 6 million; how patent records reflect trends in history of United States

Stephen Van Dulken; with an introduction by Andrew Phillips (2000). Inventing the Twentieth Century: 100 Inventions That Shaped the World: From the Airplane to the Zipper. (Washington Square, NY: New York University Press, 246 p.). Expert Curator in the Patents Information Service of The British Library. Inventions--History--20th century. History of 100 of the most significant inventions of the century, decade by decade.

Ethlie Ann Vare, Greg Ptacek (2002). Patently Female: From AZT to TV Dinners: Stories of Women Inventors and Their Breakthrough Ideas. (New York, NY: Wiley, 220 p.). Women inventors; Women inventors--United States--Biography.

Jeffrey S. Young (1998). Forbes Greatest Technology Stories: Inspiring Tales of the Entrepreneurs and Inventors Who Revolutionized Modern Business. (New York, NY: Wiley, 368 p.). Inventions--United States--History; Inventors--United States--History; High technology--United States--History.

________________________________________________

LINKS:

Great Idea Finder                      http://www.ideafinder.com/home.htm                                   Created to promote the progress of science and useful arts by providing a showcase for innovation. Our only mission is to provide inspiration to the "inventor" in all of us.

Greatest Inventions the Evolution of Man through History Http://Library.Thinkquest.Org/C002942/Home.Shtml.     Inventions -- History | Inventors | Biography. This site covers a number of popular inventions through history from the 15th to the 20th century. Inventions include items from aspirin, blue jeans, and the electric battery to Legos, the refrigerator, and the zipper. Users can search by timeline, inventor, or invention.  useful. Topics are cross-linked and linked to related sites and recommended books. There is also an interactive section that allows browsers to further search the site and learn through games, puzzles, facts, and trivia.

Inventing Modern America, from the Microwave to the Mouse                                          http://web.mit.edu/invent/www/ima/

Invention Dimension http://web.mit.edu/afs/athena.mit.edu/org/i/invent/              Excerpts and supplements from Lemelson-MIT Program's 2001 book _Inventing Modern America, from the Microwave to the Mouse_ are housed in this colorful, fun Website. The book celebrates the best of American ingenuity and inventiveness, profiling inventors of everyday objects such as Kevlar (inventor Stephanie Kwolek) and the electronic telephone switchboard (inventor Erna Schneider). The book's Website gives facts about some of these inventors, furnishes color .pdf pages from the book, has invention-related games such as "Which Came First?" (e.g., neon or fluorescent lights?), discusses the Lemelson-MIT Program, and gives links to other sites on innovation. One of these links is to its companion site Invention Dimension, which has refurbished and added content since we last reviewed it in the January 12, 1996 _Scout Report_. The Invention Dimension has an exciting Inventor of the Week section and searchable archive along with an Inventor's Handbook dealing with intellectual property, patents, business plans, etc. If you ever wondered who invented the chocolate chip cookie or wanted to learn more about Frank Zamboni, father of the ice-resurfacer seen at your local skating rink, this resource is for you!

Inventions of Note: Sheet Music Collection http://libraries.mit.edu/music/sheetmusic/                                "This sheet music collection consists of popular songs and piano compositions that portray technologies (old and new alike) as revealed through song texts and/or cover art." Technologies include automobile, airplane, radio, and telephone, and most items date from 1890-1920. A small number of entries include sound files (such as "Kissing Papa through the Telephone"). Browsable by title. From the Lewis Music Library, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

National Inventors Hall of Fame                        http://www.invent.org/                                                                      A not-for-profit organization that aims to recognize inventors and invention everywhere, to promote creativity and to advance the spirit of innovation. The National Inventors Hall of Fame was established in 1973 by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and the National Council of Intellectual Property Law Associations.

Patently Absurd!: Weird Patents, Useless Inventions http://www.patent.freeserve.co.uk/                                                    A collection of weird and strange patents from the United Kingdom patent office. There are links to Serious information about patents, including links to United Kingdom, Japanese, World Intellectual Property Organization, and European patent offices. - dl Subjects: Patents -- Humor.

Smithsonian Visual Timeline of Inventions                             http://j-bradford-delong.net/teaching_folder/Econ_210a_Fall97/inventions.html


KIPnotes.com

We Bring the Library 2 U  
Copyright (c) 2001
 646-229-3439  
kipz@aol.com