Mankind's greatest inventions...

On April 10, 1790 the federal government of the United States enacted the fist patent statute. It was a concise law defining the subject matter of a U.S. patent as "any useful art, manufacture, engine, machine, or device, or any improvement there on not known or used. It granted the applicant 'sole and exclusive right and liberty of making, constructing and vending to others to be used' of his inventions.
Simply put... if you invented something unique and had it patented, no one could legally copy, sell or infringe on your patent rights.

History records inventor Thomas A. Edison had a few thousand patents to his credit. You can also find that many claim some of his patents were stolen from his workers and colleagues. That's the case with many scientists and engineers who work for large corporations and are required to sign contracts, especially ones with non-compete agreements.

I met a man who claimed to have been working for General Electric and invented the rheostat... it's common name was a light dimmer. They got the patent, he got a paycheck.

Someone told me a story of the the guy who invented the intermittent windshield wiper control. He went around to a few car manufacturers looking for someone to buy his idea. He couldn't afford the patent. None of them showed any interest and a few months later, one manufacturer had a similar yet improved device was added to their newest model.

Jonas Salk was a medical researcher who discovered and developed one of the first successful polio vaccines in 1953. He never patented his discovery believing, like the sun, a vaccine for polio belonged to the people.

Some 200 years of patents and long ago it was recorded by one of the clerks in the patent office, that everything that could be patented already was!
laugh
I could see he was a man of vision... less than two feet from his nose.

I've always been impressed with some of the more simple inventions...
Amazed how the 2 liter bottle that Coke-a-Cola is made and more impressed who designed the slots on the threads so a pressurized cap doesn't harm someone when when unscrew it!
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Comments (14)

"History records inventor Thomas A. Edison had a few thousand patents to his credit"

He claimed to have invented the entire idea of motion pictures. Anybody who released a commercial movie within a day's train ride could expect a lawsuit. So the new industry moved as far away as they could, to what is now Hollywood. "Westerns" happened to be a popular literature class, and the outdoor scenery was already there.
Quite an impressive operation. thumbs up
If only they instead dedicated that effort into a much more healthy beverage.
I'm still amazed by the zipper! I might have a bit of catching up to do.
I can't get over that curved piece of wire that holds papers together. Totally amazing!

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How they make these things is probably more amazing than the product itself...

I put the wheel near the top of the list.

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Door stop. Great invention..

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Bluetooth earphone so I can write with one hand, use a calculator with the other hand and not have to squeeze a phone between my cheek and shoulder where the pain was so great I needed to visit a Chiropractor.

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My Son has over 50 patent.....but still he protect them in some other way too, as big companies don't care , if there is a patent, they know, that if you don't have real big money at hand, you can not start a case against them....so patents make you secure only if you are a big company or a big account.
The method of preserving food in tin canisters or cans dates to at least 1772, and came into general use in the 1810s.

The 1st can openers were patented in Britain in 1855 & in the U.S. in 1858.

confused

Instruction on early cans read "Cut round the top near the outer edge with a chisel and hammer."

cowboy
The self-contained firearms cartridge is simplicity itself, consisting of...

1) A bullet
2) Propellant (gunpowder)
3) A device for igniting the powder
4) A metal case to hold items 1, 2 & 3.

Explosive powder was invented circa A.D. 850, and the 1st guns circa 1000.
Self-contained firearms cartridges date to about the mid 1800s
confused

cowboy
This needs no explanation: flux capacitor
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