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 |
| 6279765 | Railcar cushioning device with internal spring A railcar cushioning device with a gas charged cylinder and a piston contained in the cylinder for cushioning buff and draft impacts. A spring assembly is contained in the cylinder between the piston and an end of the cylinder to locate the piston in a ne... | 08/28/2001 |
| 4282979 | Force absorbing arrangement An arrangement for resilient absorption of forces, particularly for an intermediate buffer coupling of rail vehicles, comprises an elongated housing having open and closed ends, a friction element located in the region of the open end of the housing, a re... | 08/11/1981 |
| 4262887 | Friction spring unit A friction spring unit has a friction spring including a plurality of inner rings and outer rings whose conical surfaces cooperate with each other with interposition of a lubricant, and an outer casing element and an inner casing element which shield the ... | 04/21/1981 |
