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 |
| 7280439 | Sunlight simulating microprocessor alarm clock The present invention relates to an improved countermeasure for circadian and sleep disruption as caused by a traditional alarm clock. It incorporates a lighting system at the alarm clock that, prior to the preset waking time, will emit a light that gradually increa... | 10/09/2007 |
| 6672742 | Candle shade A candle shade includes a sleeve adapted to receive a top end of a candle and a shade element coupled to the sleeve and surrounding the candle adjacent the top end. The sleeve has at least one spacing element on its interior surface to space the sleeve fr... | 01/06/2004 |
| 5327331 | Arising aid A method of reducing the resistance of a sleeping mammal to arising at a preselected wake up time by exposing the mammal to at least one source of artificial light for a period of exposure of at least about 0.5 hour and no longer than about 8 hours before... | 07/05/1994 |
| 4566055 | Candle holder An improved candle holder in which the lens is trapped within elastic elongated bars that space the lens from the rigid metallic cover and frictionally hold the lens in an extended and retracted position. Viewing windows are provided for seeing the height... | 01/21/1986 |
