Did You Know...
...that the inventor of the electric motor was a blacksmith named Thomas Davenport? Described as "a brilliantly unsuccessful inventor", Davenport invented the first rotary electric motor. In 1836 he headed out -- on foot -- from his Vermont home to file a patent application at the Patent Office in Washington, D.C. By the time he got there, he had squandered away his money and couldn't afford the $30 filing fee so he turned around and went home. When he later mailed in his application with money he'd raised, the Patent office was destroyed in a fire. He did finally get credit for his invention on Feb. 5, 1837.
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 4708182 | Reedmaking system, methodology, and component tools A reedmaking system is disclosed that includes a device for thickness sizing by sliding a cane segment along a guide surface past a cutting edge that is spaced apart from the guide surface a distance slightly greater than the thickness of a conventional f... | 11/24/1987 |
| 4502358 | Knife holder for sliding microtomes A knife holder having two cylinders journaled for axial and rotatable movement are supported by two spaced-apart clamp blocks. The cylinders are axially and rotatably movable in the clamp blocks. Each cylinder has a continuous longitudinal slot of a cross... | 03/05/1985 |
| 4175599 | Balsawood stripper A strip cutting device for wood or the like having a plurality of parallel slots of different depths with a cutter disposed above the slots and means for holding the cutter across a plurality of the slots and at an angle to said slots and intermediate the... | 11/27/1979 |
| 4083390 | Grooving of sheet material A machine for cutting grooves in workpieces, particularly in sheet form, having at least one fixed cutter, support means for supporting the workpiece against the cutter and means for moving the workpiece relative to the cutter and support means. The cutte... | 04/11/1978 |
