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Internal combustion engine

United States Patent 1840521
Inventors: Moorhouse, Alfred
Register Date: 10/07/1925
Publication Date: 01/12/1932


[source: www.freepatentsonline.com]

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Gusha, is your post a subliminal nudge at at trying to get me off dead center and start my next article on Packard patents? I have what I believe to be all 1737 U.S. Patents assigned to Packard Motor Car Co. (no Studebaker-Packard patents in the mix) and a few prior to that assigned to J. W. Packard, Hatcher and a few others. I've been procrastinating for a while about this article, trying to think of an approach that will be interesting without getting bogged down in technical stuff. One thought was to follow the inventors more than the inventions, for example who were the top 5 inventors, what inventors had patents over 4 decades, which inventors had specialized areas of endeavor, how many of the patents related to non-automotive work (a lot, on aircraft and marine engines, no surprise there!), etc. Just looking at the number of granted patents by decade, it pretty much parallels Packard's image as a luxury supplier with peak reached in the late 20s, and early 30s and dropping off quite dramatically after that.

I'd appreciate suggestions from readers here what would be an interesting approach for this research and publication.

I'd be careful of that conclusion - the Patent Office's criteria for what they would approve also varies over time (industrial design patents used to be very common, much less so later, for example). While I think the levelof invention may have gone done, the % that was patented may have also

Thanks for your thoughts, I do appreciate them - though I don't know how to try to factor such things into an analysis. I know this data has somewhere within it the basis for an interesting article, but I'm still grappling with it. And I did exclude design patents from the search. I may talk to Robert Neal or Dick Langworth about it, they've both got lots of experience in how to analyze and present data in a way that makes it interesting to the most readers.

Dave, my dear fellow, like you I always try to vitalize the forum with new aspects. Well, to rummage through the next article on Packard patents and especially to read your conclusions and cross connections would be great. Please don't wait another 13 years!

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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.