Samuel Clemens, known throughout the world as the writer and journalist Mark Twain, was also a talented inventor. He invented and patented, for example, the technique of scrapbooking, which is very popular in our time. His love for ladies was also manifested in the invention of an elastic strap, which allows you to fasten your bra so that it does not hinder your movements. In addition to women's underwear, this strap was used in vests, trousers and other fashionable clothing of the time. Twain spoke very succinctly about his invention: “The advantages of the elastic strap are so obvious that they do not require explanation at all.”
Robocats, hunting drones, talking trash cans: 10 gadgets and inventions changing cities
25 best inventions of 2014 You Can Climb Walls With These Incredible Gloves The Soviet “Setun” is the only computer in the world based on a ternary code Belgian designers have come up with edible tableware Frozen stool tablets may cure stomach infection The new battery charges to 70% in two minutes At the Amsterdam airport, there is a replica of a fly in every urinal. A 16-year-old schoolgirl has created a flashlight that runs solely on body heat.
Every person has some kind of talent. And for some - not even one. Many of our world's greatest minds have been musicians and mathematicians, theologians and writers, artists and actors, politicians and athletes. However, some of them, in addition to their main occupation, came up with things that we still use every day. And we don’t even always know who exactly invented them.
Isaac Newton
Isaac Newton is known as a great physicist, the discoverer of the laws of gravity, thermodynamics and celestial mechanics. But few people know that he was a great animal lover. Some believe that it was Newton who invented the first cat door.
Presumably, this happened when the scientist was busy researching the physical properties of light, and his cat kept trying to get into the room to spend a little time with its owner. But the scientist could not leave the door open - additional daylight disrupted the course of the experiment. Newton liked having his pet around, so he cut a hole in the bottom of the door and covered it with a piece of thick fabric. Thus, the cat was able to come and go without disturbing the lighting conditions in the laboratory. When she had kittens, Newton cut out tiny doors for them too.
Mark Twain
What does Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens in the world) have in common with young mothers and housewives of the 21st century? Like them, the famous writer was seriously interested in scrapbooking - he saved newspaper clippings with descriptions of all his trips and travels, supplementing them with handwritten notes, notes and photographs. He created interesting and fascinating albums with his own hands. Back in the mid-19th century, Twain discovered that the usual glue he used to attach the clippings to the pages of the album had many disadvantages - it stained his hands, the clippings, and the pages themselves. The writer came up with the idea of making a thin strip of adhesive on each page of the album to make it easier to add and replace elements. He received a patent for his "self-adhesive" album in 1872, and his idea immediately became popular. This was Mark Twain's only invention that brought him a monetary reward. Even today, self-adhesive inserts are used on the pages of photo and scrapbooking albums. However, we can thank Mark Twain for another very useful invention - it was the young journalist Clemens who invented and made the world's first notebook with tear-off pages.
Discoveries of American presidents
One of the founders of the United States of America, the great diplomat Benjamin Franklin, was also a prolific inventor, and in addition, was fond of medicine. In addition to such famous and useful items as the Franklin stove and bifocal lenses, he created a flexible catheter for urine output. In principle, similar devices were used as early as 1000 BC, but they consisted of hard metal tubes and caused severe pain in patients. Franklin's beloved brother, John, suffered from chronic bladder disease and kidney stones, and the future US President designed a catheter for him that was more convenient to use and caused less pain. In 1752, Benjamin created a device with his own hands from a flexible silver tube covered with a sheath of animal intestines.
Another American president, Abraham Lincoln, also distinguished himself. One day in 1849 he was traveling on a steamboat. Unfortunately, the ship hit rocks and began to sink. But the crew and passengers, using empty barrels, saved it from sinking. This incident inspired Lincoln to create a model steamboat, the hull of which was covered with an inflatable rubber “skirt” that protected against collisions. True, in those days the project was never implemented - it remained on paper. Only fifty years later hydrofoil ships appeared, and a hundred years later - hovercraft. Their design is very similar to the Lincoln Steamship.
Heidi Lamarr
The luxurious actress, who at the beginning of the twentieth century was called “the most beautiful woman in the world,” can rightfully be considered a scientist. Her first husband, Austrian Friedrich Mandl, a weapons manufacturer, was very jealous of his wife and interfered with her film career. In addition, he forced her to take part in all of his company's meetings on military technology. Lamarr (born Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler) was undoubtedly a very smart woman and listened carefully to the engineers in meetings.
After a few years, the marriage died out for a long time. After the divorce, in August 1942, Lamarr and her friend, composer George Antheil, received a patent for a unique radio frequency hopping system for controlling torpedoes, which made it possible to “deceive” the locator. The device was made by analogy with a mechanical piano. The system used a set of 88 radio frequencies - the number of piano keys. The co-authors presented their patent to the US government, but, despite the wartime and relevance of the invention, the US military department was skeptical about the project of the musician and actress and shelved it. The idea was realized only in 1962.
Napoleon III
In 1950, a wave of oilphobia swept the world. The cause was saturated fat, which is found in butter and can lead to heart disease. Consumers switched to margarine in droves. But today, few people remember that this popular product owes its appearance to Napoleon III.
The emperor, caring about the combat effectiveness of his own army, believed that the soldiers should be well-fed and healthy. The oil they were given as part of their diet spoiled too quickly. Therefore, Napoleon III offered a special prize to anyone who could come up with a worthy substitute. And it did not go unclaimed - in 1869, the chemist Hippolyte Mege-Mourier created margarine from beef fat, water and milk fats. Of course, the emperor did not personally invent the product, but his concern for the nutrition of the soldiers of the French army did its job.
Florence Nightingale
The legendary nurse Florence Nightingale completely changed the approach to nursing and hospital sanitation. However, not everyone knows that she became an innovator in another area - in statistics and infographics. One day, in her presentation, Florence used for the first time a pie chart she had invented. This helped her clearly demonstrate to her listeners what percentage of the deaths of soldiers in the Crimean War due to unsanitary conditions and diseases could have been prevented. As a result, this active woman was able to achieve reforms.
Florence Nightingale's achievements were especially surprising given that most Victorian women did not attend university or work. But her father, William Nightingale, believed that his daughters should definitely receive an education. Thanks to his efforts, Florence and her sister could boast of knowledge of Italian, Latin, Greek, as well as history and mathematics. In 1854, after a year of volunteer work as the manager of a small women's hospital in London, Nightingale and 38 other nurses were invited by Secretary of War Sidney Herbert to work in a field hospital in the Turkish town of Scutari during the Crimean War.
Florence Nightingale became a Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society in 1858 and an Honorary Fellow of the American Statistical Association in 1874. The founder of mathematical statistics, Karl Pearson, called her the prophetess of applied statistics.
Margaret Thatcher
Who doesn't love ice cream? Humanity has been familiar with this delicacy since the time of Marco Polo. But it is constantly being improved, new varieties and exotic flavors appear. After all, as you know, there is no arguing about tastes - they try to please them. Some people like the feeling of a cold piece of ice that gradually melts on the tongue, while others enjoy a soft and sweet “fluffy cloud” in their mouth.
Many specialists are working on the invention of new varieties of ice cream, and at the same time technologies for their production. The “Iron Lady” of English politics, the first and so far only woman to head the British Cabinet of Ministers, Margaret Thatcher, also contributed to this. Even before entering politics, Thatcher successfully graduated from the Faculty of Chemistry at Oxford University and worked in her specialty for some time. Namely, she was part of a group of researchers who developed new types of everyone’s favorite dessert commissioned by the J. Lyons and Co." It was they who invented a delicacy that is still very popular - soft ice cream. By experimenting, trialling (literally!) and failing, and varying different ingredients, scientists have found a way to double the amount of air in formula. This airy delicacy immediately gained many fans.
However, it is not enough to simply invent a product - a new technology immediately emerged, equipment was developed for its production and packaging. Using special machines, the soft milk mass, reminiscent of whipped cream, was placed in the form of balls into cone-shaped waffle cups right in front of the customers. Vans appeared on the streets of London, and then other cities around the world, selling soft ice cream for 80 pence (99 cents).
Prince Charles
It seems that just recently the whole world was watching the wedding ceremony of Prince William and Kate Middleton. The car, a 1969 Aston Martin convertible, in which the prince drove out with his young wife, the newly minted Duchess of Cambridge, did not go unnoticed. There are only 38 of these DB6 Volante MKIIs in existence worldwide. The car originally belonged to William's father, Prince Charles, who received it as a gift from the Queen for his 21st birthday.
This attractive blue car has an interesting history. Prince Charles is known as an ardent fighter for the environment and a lover of expensive, not very fuel-efficient cars. He spent a lot of time and money trying to find a compromise between his principles and his passion. The result was a car that consumes not gasoline, but wine, that is, bioethanol - the most environmentally friendly type of fuel.
Of course, Prince Charles did not have to dig into the six-cylinder engine with a screwdriver and wrench himself, but the idea belonged to him. The Prince of Wales did not rest on this and rebuilt his entire fleet of vehicles - Jaguar, Audi and Range Rover - to run on biodiesel fuel.
Stellar discoveries
Movie, pop and show business stars also sometimes show remarkable ingenuity and ingenuity. Looking at Michael Jackson's dance moves, many wondered: where did the earth's gravity disappear when the singer went on stage? And the whole secret was in the artist’s special shoes. The patent for the “magic” shoes was received in 1992. The unique design made it possible to hook their soles at the right time to special hooks built into the stage, and allowed Jackson to bend at an angle of 45 degrees without losing balance, and delight the audience with his signature dance steps. Michael not only took an active part in the development and testing of wonderful shoes - he was the only one who wore them.
The release of a three-dimensional version of the popular film “Titanic” is timed to coincide with the centenary of the tragedy of the giant liner. Director James Cameron approached the matter, as always, thoroughly. Existing designs for 3D shooting did not satisfy his needs - they turned out to be too bulky, and this reduced mobility and maneuverability. Therefore, Cameron invented and patented the Fusion 3D camera, designed specifically for underwater filming of a 3D film. Its lens is mounted on a movable console equipped with two motors that allow both the camera and the operator to move underwater. The main thing is not to hit an iceberg!
Francis Ford Coppola, who directed The Godfather, suffered from polio as a child. He was very familiar with the unpleasant sensation of itching in a hard-to-reach place. And Coppola came up with a T-shirt for comfortable back scratching. True, an assistant is necessary in any case, but his task is greatly facilitated. The back of the jersey is lined with large squares marked with numbers. And its owner has a diagram of their location. So all he has to do is check this cheat sheet and tell his friend the number of the required sector.
Why does the clock have one dial and not five? This question was once asked by the famous American artist Andy Warhol. In the 60s of the last century, he decided to correct this injustice and invented a watch without a strap, simply connecting five dials. All pairs of hands showed the time of different countries, which was very convenient for travel enthusiast Andy. True, the world learned about the invention only two years after the artist’s death. Only in 1987 the watch was patented by his heirs.
We know actor Marlon Brando well from his roles in films. But besides this, he was also involved in music - he played bongo drums. This hobby made Marlon an inventor. In 2002, he created an electronic device that allows the tension of the drum surface to be adjusted for better sound. The drum tuner controls the tension of the instrument's playing surface through four equally spaced points at the touch of a button. This device is used in many drum designs today.
Today is Friday, March 10, 2017, and the next episode of the capital show “Field of Miracles” and a review of the Sprint-Answer website with questions and answers in this game are on air. Today we will dedicate the program to the great writers about whom almost everything is known. We will fill in this “almost” a little.
The first three players: Daria Dmitrievna Bulgakova (St. Petersburg), Oleg Sergeevich Sukhodolsky (Tula) and Anastasia Vyacheslavovna (Moldova, Balti). The question is for the first round, and the Sprint-Answer site below will answer it.
Answers in the game "Field of Miracles" for 03/10/2017
1. In 1871, Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy wrote a letter to his friend, the poet Fet. Fet read this letter and suddenly discovered with surprise that Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy called his novel “War and Peace”... what did Tolstoy call his novel in his correspondence with Fet? (Word of 9 letters).
The second three players: Yana Aleksandrovna Luneva (Arkhangelsk region, Konosha city), Daniil Yurievich Balakhtin (Krasnodar city) and Elena Viktorovna Midina (Moscow city) The question for the second round is as follows:
2. They say that the writer Alexandre Dumas discovered the first...what? What was the first to discover in Paris by Alexandre Dumas? (Word of 9 letters).
The third three players: Irina Evgenievna Shevchenko (Moscow), Yuri Nikolaevich Pavlov (Ryazan) and Karina Akopyan (Yerevan). The task is for the third round, and the Sprint-Answer website at the bottom of the article will give all the correct answers in the game “Field of Miracles” for March 10, 2017.
3. Mark Twain's friendship with the famous inventor Nikola Tesla had a great influence on the writer. In 1871, Twain also invented and patented adjustable...what? What did Mark Twain invent in 1871? (Word of 8 letters).
Assignment for the final round: the writer Arthur Conan Doyle turned out to be the author of some methods of searching for criminals that the police had not yet used at that time. Among them are the identification of typewriters, looking at traces with a magnifying glass and collecting... what? What did Conan Doyle come up with that the police had not used before? (6 letter word)
2. They say that these 4 friends constantly followed Byron endlessly, and even accompanied him at public meetings. Who are we talking about? Which 4 friends always accompanied Byron? (4 letter word).
3. Writers Ilya Ilf and Evgeny Petrov claimed that if some thought came into their heads at the same time as someone else, they immediately discarded it because they wanted to avoid... what? What did Ilf and Petrov want to avoid if the same thought came to them? (5 letter word).
- 1. Rubbish
- 2. Barbecue shop.
- 3. Suspenders.
- 4. Cigarette butt.
- 1. Non-existent.
- 2. Geese.
- 3. Stamp.
And here is the winner herself singing, found on YouTube - Yana Luneva
That's all for today, the review of the game turned out to be interesting, as was the game itself.
Who doesn't know Mark Twain? Everyone knows the author of the world-famous adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. So, interesting facts about Mark Twain will impress everyone! Ten-year-old boys sighed over the kids’ crazy exploits, girls dreamed of Becky Thatcher’s golden curls. But not every reader knows about some of the nuances of Mark Twain’s life, even the most elementary one - Samuel Clemens (his real name) was the author of many satirical, fantastic, fairy-tale works that deserve your attention.
Mark Twain funny
Mark Twain wrote a pornographic story about Elizabethan times called "1601", this raunchy tale was written in 1876, and first published in 1880 under the title "Talk at a Fireside in the Time of Queen Elizabeth". Represents an excerpt from a diary written by Queen Elizabeth I's cupbearer. Elizabeth converses with numerous prominent people of the era (William Shakespeare and Sir Walter Raleigh). At first the conversations are erotic in nature, then everything goes into a religious direction and smoothly flows into poetry. Twain used medieval English in the story as a way to express his disdain for the modern literary community.
It is surprising that none of the books that are now considered the quintessence of Twain's work - Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn did not become bestsellers during Twain's lifetime: instead, his first work, Innocents Abroad, received that honor. There is an opinion that his success was helped by an enthusiastic review of the book, which Twain himself wrote anonymously. Eugene O'Neill noted: "Twain was the true father of all American literature." Ernest Hemingway stated: "All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain - called Huckleberry Finn." Which is surprising, because Twain himself believed that his best book was not “Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer” or “Simp Wilson” (an 1894 novel about the hardships of an African-American man born during the era of slavery in the United States), but his last work, “Personal Memoirs” about Joan of Arc (1896).
Amazing inventor
An interesting fact is that Twain patented three inventions, without which it is difficult to imagine life in the modern world. He could not come to terms with the inconvenient fastenings on the suspenders and had no choice but to improve them. By the way, Twain’s invention is considered one of the first examples of a modern bra clasp.
From a young age, Samuel loved to collect all kinds of newspaper clippings and various photographs. But gluing them into a regular album was completely inconvenient, so it was then that Twain came up with the idea of placing adhesive strips on sheets that would hold the photograph without damaging it. In 1872, a scrapbooking album was patented.
Friendship with Nikola Tesla
It is not surprising that the tireless experimenters Twain and Tesla became friends, but under a strange circumstance. Twain developed a severe form of constipation and could not restore his health; Nikolai Tesla helped him with this (history is silent about how he succeeded). After which the two brilliant people began to conduct experiments together. For example, we were testing an X-ray gun. The goal was to pierce a paper sheet with X-rays, but it failed.
Stargazer and mystic
The famous writer calculated that he was born two weeks after Halley's comet flew near the Earth in 1835. The writer was interested in this fact, and he predicted that he would die with her. Of course, no one took this seriously, but Mark Twain actually died in 1910, when the comet approached the Earth again.
Lecturer and sexologist
Students retold Mark Twain's lectures to each other because they created a sensation! For example, one of the lectures was called “The First Watermelon I Stole,” which surprisingly, the father of psychoanalysis, Sigmunt Freud, was present during the broadcast. And in 1879 he gave a lecture entitled “Some Reflections on Onanism.”
Pseudonym - the writer's veil
Mark Twain plays with his cats.
Before choosing a pen name, Samuel published under the names Josh, Thomas Jefferson Snodgrass, and Rambler. And the name “Mark Twain” chosen in the end means “two fathoms to the bottom” - the depth at which the ship can sail without running aground. Twain also came up with several beautiful names for cats: Beelzebub, Buffalo Bill, Satan, Sour Mash and Zoroaster.
Loser businessman
This is exactly what you can call a person who made incredible profits from his talent, but invested it in useless enterprises that only brought bankruptcy. For example, Twain was offered to invest in the development of a communication device - the telephone, he said that this stupid invention would not be popular, but if he moved to the present time, he would understand how greatly he was mistaken.
The Real Huck Finn
Yes, everyone’s favorite Huckleberry had a prototype - a boy with whom Mark Twain interacted as a child. As the writer said, he was always a dirty tomboy, ready for any adventure, but at the same time he was distinguished by amazing kindness. And his brother actually helped the fugitive African American hide. The amazing story about Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn was banned from reading in schools and was called propaganda of racism and immoral behavior.
It is hard to imagine that American patent law predates the current United States itself—the first patent law was passed in the spring of 1790, and the first patent for an important invention, the cotton gin, was issued on March 14, 1794. Over the course of two centuries, humanity has gone from patenting simple mechanisms to patenting bacteria, animals and individual human components. There is only one step left before a patent on people.In the spring of 1793, friends of her late husband, retired majors, visited Katherine Greene's estate in Georgia. After lunch, we discussed the most pressing issue - how to manage the plantations so that they generate income. The guests grew cotton, and they constantly had to choose between two evils: one type of cotton, in which the seeds are easily separated from the fibers, grows only on the coast, and another variety thrives in the highlands - but is not industrially profitable, since the seeds are separated by hand with great difficulty . Now, if it were possible to come up with a way to easily glean mountain cotton, what kind of income could be generated... Mrs. Green, who listened attentively to them, suggested turning to her new mechanic, Ellie Whitney, for help - she believed that his technical genius could solve this problem .
Commissioners for the promotion of crafts
Article 1, Section 8 of the US Constitution states that Congress shall provide "to promote the advancement of the sciences and arts, by granting to authors and inventors for limited periods the exclusive rights in their works and inventions." The Constitution was ratified by nine states in June 1788, and in January 1790, Congress appointed a committee to develop patent law. Two and a half months later, the first patent law was signed into law by the first American President, George Washington. By this time, only 12 states had recognized the constitution.
The first patent law did not provide for the creation of a special patent office. Applications for patents had to be addressed to the Secretary of State. The received applications were considered by a commission of three people who called themselves “authorized to promote the development of crafts”: the Secretary of State, the Minister of Defense and the Prosecutor General. The commissioners had to decide by a majority vote whether they considered the invention or discovery to be “sufficiently useful and important.” The main criteria, of course, were the novelty of the proposed invention and its non-obviousness to a specialist knowledgeable in this field. The applicant was required to provide a detailed written description of the invention accompanied by drawings, technical drawings and a working model. Thus, an inventor who wished to obtain a patent was required to make all the details and secrets of his invention public so that after the patent expired, others could benefit from it.
The first American patent was issued on July 31, 1790 to a certain Samuel Hopkins. The patent, signed by George Washington, certified Hopkins' priority in inventing a method for producing potash from wood ash for further use as an agricultural fertilizer. By the end of 1790, only three patents had been issued. Thomas Jefferson wrote later that he could not have imagined the wave of applications that would fall on the heads of the three commissioners.
 |
And yet, patents (as a kind of transaction between the inventor and the state) were an undoubted step forward and, in general, a sign of a developed civilization. Abraham Lincoln, the only patent-holder president in US history, saw an almost philosophical meaning in patents: “The patent system added fuel of interest to the fire of genius.” The rules of the game are simple: the inventor receives a temporary monopoly on his invention in exchange for full disclosure of information about it. What the lack of patent rights threatens humanity is clearly demonstrated by the history of the invention of obstetric forceps.
Barbers-obstetricians and the Queen of England
In late 16th-century England, physicians and surgeons belonged to two different professions—surgeons were considered a type of barber, and physicians were prohibited from practicing surgery. It so happened that Peter Chamberlain Sr., the court surgeon of Queen Anne of England, invented obstetric forceps, thanks to which he became extremely popular as an obstetrician. The doctors were so jealous of him that they accused him of illegal medical practice, for which he was liable to imprisonment. Only thanks to the personal intervention of the Queen (who already had the opportunity to evaluate the effectiveness of his invention) was Peter Chamberlain released. Until his death in 1631, Chamberlain Sr. kept his secret, saving women in labor in cases where they died with other obstetricians.
The secret of obstetric forceps was inherited first by the discoverer's younger brother, and then by his nephew, who was the first in the family to receive a medical diploma. This doctor, Peter Chamberlain, was not only an excellent obstetrician, but also a good businessman. By that time, it was already known that he helped women in labor with a special instrument and asked for a high fee for this. The monopoly on obstetric forceps continued in the next generation of Chamberlain doctors. In 1670, one of Dr. Peter's three sons offered to sell the family secret to the personal physician of the King of France, but the deal did not take place. The secret was eventually sold to an Amsterdam physician, who maintained a monopoly on obstetric services in Amsterdam for almost 60 years, until another Dutch doctor revealed the secret of obstetric forceps in 1732. So for 130 years, thousands of women in Europe died in childbirth only because the Chamberlain clan knew no other way to profit from their invention other than to keep it secret.
Cat's Paw, Gun Parts, and the Civil War
About 50 patents were issued under the first patent law in the United States. In 1793, the second patent law appeared. This time the pendulum swung from overly strict requirements of the patenting authority to complete freedom for inventors. The commission of three patent commissioners was abolished. The responsibility for registering patents was assigned to the State Department, and applications were now subject to exclusively formal requirements, subject to which the patent was automatically registered, and it was up to the courts to determine its validity.
The first important invention patented under the 1793 Act was Ellie Whitney's cotton gin, which he created at the request of Catherine Greene. It must be said that the miracle mechanic Ellie Whitney and Katherine Green were connected by a romantic story. According to one version that has reached us, Catherine, the widow of Revolutionary War hero General Nathaniel Greene, and Yale College graduate Ellie Whitney met on a ship. Whitney received his education quite late, when he was in his late thirties, and could not find work. One day, together with his Yale classmate Miller, he sailed to Georgia. Miller, who worked as Mrs. Green's manager, introduced Whitney to her. Upon arrival in Georgia, Mrs. Green, on Miller's recommendation, invited Whitney to her place - to teach children, repair equipment and have pleasant conversations.
History is silent about the teaching activities of Ellie Whitney; his love for the charming hostess remained unrequited (she married Miller), but his technical achievements exceeded his wildest expectations - Whitney became famous as the inventor who marked the beginning of the industrial revolution.
Having received the task from Catherine to think about cotton, the first thing Ellie Whitney did (not without difficulty, since it was spring) was to find a specimen of this plant lying somewhere in the barn, which he had never seen before in his life. Legend has it that Whitney had an epiphany when he saw a cat. She tried to grab the chicken with her claws, but since the prey was walking behind a wire fence, the predator only got a tuft of chicken fluff. Another legend gives the main role in the invention of the cotton gin not to a cat, but to a woman. According to this version, Catherine Greene not only brought the problem to Whitney's attention, but also made a major improvement to Whitney's model. When he came to her with a prototype of the future cotton gin, it was a rotating drum with wooden teeth that separated the valuable cotton fluff from the seeds. The cleaned fluff could then be combed from the drum. The problem was that the wooden teeth did not grip the fibers well, leaving a lot of waste. Katherine Green took her wire hair brush out of her drawer and showed it to Whitney. He beamed: “I understood your hint. Now everything should work out.”
Indeed, the results were impressive. With the help of the new device, a worker could manually harvest 50 pounds of ginned cotton in a day—25 times more than before. It was necessary to quickly secure a patent, and Whitney went to the then capital of the United States, Philadelphia, where he paid a patent fee of $30, and on June 20, 1793, filed a patent application with Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson. After an exchange of letters between the Secretary of State and the inventor and the presentation of a working industrial model, on March 14, 1794, Whitney received a patent signed by Jefferson.
Under patent law at the time, the patent holder had exclusive rights to his invention for 14 years. If you want, make new cars yourself and sell them to everyone in need, or if you want, sell the license to someone else for a lot of money. But that was not the case. The invention was so simple and effective that all farmers in the South began to produce their own cotton gins, claiming that they, if not invented them themselves, then at least significantly improved them. The strategy of Miller, who provided the initial capital to Whitney and was responsible for marketing in their partnership, also did not contribute to financial success: Miller decided to produce as many machines as possible, place them on plantations and charge the planters a fee for using the new product in the amount of 40% of the harvest. The planters rebelled: why on earth should they give up their cotton for some kind of roller with teeth that any mechanic can make?
The end result was that the patent for the cotton gin not only failed to enrich Whitney, but also forced him into a mountain of debt to litigate and maintain production. Whitney’s other most important invention, the mass production of weapons and spare parts for them, did not bring any income either. It is not known whether Whitney was the pioneer of the idea of unifying production (so that a broken part did not need to be made specifically for this broken gun, but could take any one mass-produced for this model), but the spread of mass production is undoubtedly Whitney's merit. By the end of his life, Ellie Whitney was quite a wealthy man, but only because he managed to successfully invest his money in stocks.
As for invention, Whitney's activities had literally historical consequences, and not only for technology. Thanks to the cotton gin, labor productivity on plantations increased and slavery in the South became economically profitable. And thanks to the methods of mass production introduced by Whitney, the industry of the North began to rapidly develop. So Whitney, in a sense, had a hand in both the fact that the southern states defended slavery in the Civil War, and the fact that the northerners won this war.
Lincoln, ear protectors and Christmas stocking
“Everything that can be invented has already been invented!” - exclaimed the head of the American patent office, Charles Deuel, in 1899, trying to convince Congress and the president of the need to abolish his own office.
The chief patent officer's feelings are understandable. The list of inventions patented in the 19th century leaves just such an impression - everything has already been invented. Humanity acquired the telegraph, telephone, phonograph, electric light bulb... The patent fever affected everyone - even people who seemed very far from technology: women, children, politicians, writers. In 1809, the first patent was issued to a woman - Mary Keys patented a method of making straw products using threads. In 1849, the future president and then congressman, Abraham Lincoln, distinguished himself by becoming the owner of a patent for a “device for moving ships by swimming across shallows.” In 1871, a patent was issued to Samuel Clemens (better known as Mark Twain) for “an improved form of adjustable detachable clothing strings” (this, by the way, was not his only patent). In 1873, 15-year-old Chester Greenwood invented and patented fur earmuffs that protected him from the cold and wind while skating and later in the trenches of the First World War, thanks to which the owner of Greenwood's ear protector factory became fabulously rich.
Despite the pessimistic predictions of Charles Hughes, the flow of inventions did not dry out in the 20th century. Among the applications that thousands of patent office employees have to study, there are many fantastic ones. Patent law enthusiasts want to patent, for example, "a device for a child's Christmas stocking that provides a visually perceptible light signal at the time of Santa Claus's arrival by igniting an externally visible light source coupled to an energy source located inside said stocking."
An equally serious problem is solved by a complex system of devices, sensors and signals that allows for “non-lethal cockfighting” like fencing matches: “Signals are generated and transmitted to a remote center using transmitters operated by switches and attached to the skin in the bottom area below tail plumage of each of the opposing birds." Against the backdrop of such applications, one cannot help but be touched by the desire to patent a special glove for lovers with two sets of fingers and a common central part - so that lovers can walk in gloves, holding hands and at the same time feeling each other’s palms.
One of the most notorious patents of recent years was awarded to Steven Olsen, who invented “a new and improved method of swinging on a swing,” which involves pulling “first on one chain and then on the other.” The application emphasizes that thanks to this invention, “even the youngest users will be able to swing independently and enjoyably, which will greatly benefit all members of society.” This seemingly unremarkable patent, issued to a seven-year-old boy, dealt a serious blow to the reputation of the patent office. The fact is that the application on behalf of Stephen was drawn up and submitted by 3M patent specialist Peter Olsen in order to clearly explain to his son what he actually does at work. But patent officials are no longer laughing. In order for a patent issued due to oversight to become invalid, they will have to find documentary evidence of the lack of novelty in it. In other words, you will have to prove that from time immemorial children have swung on swings this way - pulling “first on one chain, and then on the other.”
Children's patents are not always the result of a parental joke. Kay-Kay Gregory followed in the footsteps of Chester Greenwood and came up with another piece of winter equipment. “Wrists” that protect the sleeves from snow getting into them bring the patent holder a good income. And the youngest patent holder was Sydney Dittman, who at two years old assembled a device for opening drawers and doors from scrap parts from her toys, and at four years old, through the efforts of her father, received a patent for it as a device useful for people with disabilities. Another inventor, schoolgirl Kellyan, apparently suffered so much from her screaming classmates that she came up with the “sh-sh-sh-machine.” This device measures the noise level in the classroom and gives a signal when the children's hubbub begins to go off scale.
Body armor and other women's secrets
It is not only megalomania, mental disorders and childish curiosity that drive those who dream of becoming a patent holder. Sensible women also do not miss the opportunity to legitimize their rights to various useful devices. An inspiring example comes from divorced single mother and bad secretary Beth Graham, who made so many typing mistakes and was so desperate to keep her job that she came up with a recipe for “liquid paper” to correct typos. Beginning with a makeshift mixing of white paint, thinner and other ingredients in her own kitchen, Beth ended up a millionaire by selling her putty corporation for $47.5 million.
It's no surprise that the secretary's salvation was invented by a secretary. It is also not surprising that it was a woman who came up with the idea of replacing uncomfortable rigid corsets with elegant bras. However, there are at least two women's discoveries that were primarily useful to men. Chemist Stephanie Kwolek created Kevlar, a material used in body armor. And the Hollywood star of the 40s, Hedy Lamarr, revolutionized modern communication systems by coming up with the idea of transmitting signals with frequency hopping. This principle is used in all modern broadband wireless communication systems.
Hedy's dramatic fate serves as the best confirmation of the foresight of the holder of three patents, Mark Twain, who wrote: “I recently became aware of an invention that is guaranteed to bring millions to those who invest in it. I hastened to forward this information to the man whom I hate and whose family I dream of. ruin." Together with her friend, an avant-garde piano player, Hedy Lamarr invented "frequency hopping" and patented it in 1942. Unfortunately, this was a case where the invention was too ahead of its time. The military began actively using the FHS (frequency hopping) system only in 1962, during the Cuban missile crisis, to encrypt messages transmitted between ships. By that time, the patent had already expired. Until the 1980s, SCH was classified and used only by the military, but in 1985, access to it was opened to commercial organizations. Communications companies received huge opportunities and huge profits, but this no longer had anything to do with Hedy Lamarr. She lived for 86 years, was in great need, and was even caught twice for petty theft, but she never even received gratitude from those who took advantage of her invention.
Device, appearance, word
With the development of software, the Internet and new technologies in general, the boundaries of applicability of patent law are increasingly blurred. At the dawn of the patent era, everything was clear: patents were given for something
 |
The most recent expansion of the scope of patent law has occurred in the last 10-15 years. It has become possible to patent completely ephemeral entities - business and computer technologies. One of the most famous examples is Amazon.com's patented one-click ordering technology. As a result, customers of all other e-commerce companies are forced to double-click to avoid violating Amazon's patent rights.
Roses, bacteria, mice
The basic idea of patent law has always been that everything that exists under the sun and is created by man can be patented. The first exception was made in 1930 - for plants. Congress, however, was aware that it was stepping on a slippery slope. But the desire to reward breeders for their work prevailed, and the law on plant patenting was adopted. In 1970, congressmen, apparently sensing the approaching era of biotechnology, decided to close all the loopholes just in case and adopted a special amendment prohibiting the patenting of bacteria.
Just two years later, General Electric (GE) filed an application to patent the bacteria as if nothing had happened. When the application was rejected on apparent legal grounds, GE sued. Whatever the law said, for her the new bacterium grown in the laboratory was no worse than some frost-resistant breeding rose. Even much more useful: the invented bacterium was able to eat oil stains on the surface of salt water, thus cleaning up oil spill areas. In 1980, the court ruled in favor of the company: "The fact that bacteria are living organisms is not legally relevant." GE achieved its goal - the boundary between living and non-living things in patent law disappeared.
The next step came in 1988, when Harvard University received a patent for the mouse. No, of course, the mouse was not a simple one, but an exclusive laboratory cancer mouse, and it was born to get cancer and thereby benefit people. Frightened by the outcome of the case against GE, the patent office employees, as it turned out later, patented not just a certain type of mouse with overexpression of a certain oncogene, but generally unknown something: the wording of the patent gave its owner the right to any non-human mammal with any intensely working oncogene. After much debate, the state managed to persuade the DuPont company, which bought the license for onkomice, to allow the use of animals covered by its patent for scientific purposes. But this permission does not apply to private companies.
Patent against the centaur
At the turn of the 21st century, genes became the most fashionable subject of patenting. No one is bothered anymore by the fact that genes do not meet any of the good old criteria for issuing a patent. Genes are not new, they are not created by humans, and their functions are mostly unknown or poorly known—both public and private companies are rushing to patent hundreds of pieces of DNA in the hope of later discovering something valuable there. Many seriously fear that instead of adding “fuel to the fire of genius,” such patents only create obstacles for doctors and scientists. It turns out that a person suffering from Alzheimer's disease carries a gene that belongs to one of the universities, and women with suspected breast cancer are partly the property of Myriad Genetics, from which they must buy tests for the presence of two specific genes in their bodies.
"We have abolished slavery. Now a human being as a whole cannot be someone's property - but you can have all its component parts separately. Genes, cells, chromosomes, organs, tissues... What if we patented all the building blocks of life? Which Will we leave the role to faith and religion, or at least to the idea of nature as independent of us and primary in relation to us? - this is the reasoning of Jeremy Rifkin, who published a book back in 1977 that predicted the commercialization of the genome. But even this man now fights the enemy with his own weapons. Since 1997, he has been seeking a patent for any organisms with a mixed - human-animal - set of genes. That is, he wants to patent modern centaurs, minotaurs, mermaids, sphinxes and other hybrids, in the genome of which there is something from a person and something from an animal. And if he has such a patent, he will be able to stop science and protect life from the attack of patents. At least he hopes so.
ANASTASIA FROLOVA
