Re: United States Patent 1840521

Posted by Joe Santana On 2013/5/13 17:49:46

This following approach is more visual and promotional than an article, but it could help communicate the historical and technical info, and make it more memorable.

I would select some top-of-the-line model from each 10-year period, one likely to incorporate most of the important patents in the prior decade, then use call-outs pointing to the general area where a patent was applied. So the patents would actually be called out when they were applied, not when they were submitted or granted (the call-outs would give the patent date which might be in the previous decade) .

I would title the call-out captions by the improvement, e.g. HYDRAULIC LIFTER, say what it accomplished, why important to owner of vehicle or to the company, who invented it, the date(s) and give the Patent No.(s)... may be a combination for the same part or feature.

I could imagine showing this to a friend. "Look at all the important improvements Packard engineers came up with that improved automobiles, even now!" "What a great car company," he'd say.

Where I could find photos/portraits of the inventors, I'd include one or two on each page in the open space around the vehicle that had several of that person's patents.

So I'd have to write a lot of captions. Research for inventor photos and background. I'd try to stockpile the accumulating patents that carried on beyond the 10-year period when they were initiated, either with a call-out having only the name of the patented part, or a listing by 10-year period in 6-pt type, so you'd know where to look for the original caption and also know it was still in use.

Under the vehicle with call outs, I'd write some narrative that talked about the motivations for innovating in the areas advanced during a given 10-year period which may be economic, political, social, technical. That would give a 10-year set of patents a context. "Higher percentages of women began taking the wheel. A way to make steering easier and seating adjustable was needed."

Once I had the patents and how they were used, I could pretty much make up the rest.

This could make a 6-page to 8-page article, one car per page.