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.
PatentStorm News
Make the Most of Our Site
See this month's Top Inventors and Most Cited Patents.
Stay on top of the latest innovations by subscribing to an RSS feed.
Registered users: Manage your profile.
| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 5662205 | Coin detection device A device for sensing predetermined characteristics of an object such as a coin in order to determine the validity or genuineness of the coin and in some cases also the size and/or denomination of the coin, the device including a combination of optical sen... | 09/02/1997 |
| 4629051 | Coin sorting device A coin sorting device is designed to inhibit tampering with a coin operated machine by means of a wire, metal tape or the like, and to further prevent non-acceptable coins from being accepted by the coin-operated machine. The various embodiments of the de... | 12/16/1986 |
| 4483431 | Device for detecting and rejecting invalid coins utilizing a verticle coin chute and multiple coin tests A coin testing device having a substantially vertical coin chute with facility for testing coin size, central opening, topography and metal content while the coin is substantially traveling in free fall. Testing elements are located on the same side of th... | 11/20/1984 |
| 3977507 | Coin testing arrangement for parking meters Coins inserted into a parking meter are tested as to diameter, the presence of one or more holes and the content of ferromagnetic material. In the latter test, the coins are transported through a coin transport channel extending intermediate a coin-insert... | 08/31/1976 |
| 3970181 | Two-coin-operated dispensing mechanism Conversion mechanism is disclosed for converting a coin-operated dispensing apparatus including an actuating means and a coin-receiving wheel coupled thereto for movement thereof in response to receipt of a single coin, to a mode of operation only in resp... | 07/20/1976 |
| 3946849 | Coin-chute for testing the ferrous content, weight, and presence of an aperture in coins An inclined coin chute includes devices for testing the ferrous content of, the weight of, and the presence or lack of a central aperture in coin-tokens which are present in and advancing through the coin-receptive chutes of the inclined coin-chute, where... | 03/30/1976 |
