10 Really Great American Patents
Published on March 31, 2008 - 95 Comments
The US patent office contains a trove of documentation of technological progress. Searching this data has never been easier. Here are 10 great American patents that made a great difference. In selecting these I stopped about 50 years ago for two reasons (1) historical perspective – it takes time to see the shifts happen and (2) to minimize the inevitable “where is the ___”.
Here, then, are ten really great patents that made a difference. In order of appearance and not importance.
No, the ‘Gin’ has nothing to do with drinking. It is a shortened form of ‘engine’ . This device, that separates the cotton from embedded seeds, was instrumental in the explosion of wealth of the United States.
At the heart of the industrial revolution is the ability to take electric power and convert it to mechanical energy. Developed based on the discoveries of Faraday in 1821 and Sturgeon in 1832, Thomas Davenport patented the first commercial electric motor. Unfortunately, because there was no practical electric distribution system in place, Davenport’s invention did not sell and he went bankrupt.
Modern life would be vastly different without refrigeration and air conditioning. The patent that started it all was issued to John Gorrie, a doctor in Florida looking to keep his patients cool. Unable to commercialize his ice making machine, he died four year later at age 54, a ruined man.
By the early 1870’s the telegraph was in widespread use. Many inventors worked on the problem of sending multiple signals over one wire, increasing the scalability of the systems in place. Alexander Bell took the path of sending multiple tones on a wire which evolved into the transmission of human voice. Teamed with Tom Watson he was issued patent 1764465 – the first telephone.
The ability to store information is so pervasive today that it is hard to remember that the whole concept of ‘a media storage device’ is only 130 years old. Mr. Edison didn’t call it that, but the path from his phonograph to you multi-gig thumb drive is fairly impressive. This meme was developed at the first industrial research facility – Menlo Park, New Jersey, USA. The patent was one of the few inventions of Edison that did not describe an improvement of ‘prior art’, but a new and unique way to record, save and reproduce sounds on demand.
Contrary to popular knowledge, Thomas Edison did not actually invent the light bulb. The patent is for ‘an improvement in Electrical Lamps, and in the method for manufacturing the same’. It was part of the genius of Edison that also created the Edison Electric Light Company (with the backing of some of the most famous financiers of the day) to market not only the light bulb itself, but also the electric power needed by all those bulbs.
In a certain way, this started the whole computer thing going. An operator would handle about 50-80 cards per minute (say 1 per second). Hollerith electric tabulating system, including tabulating machine, card reader, pantograph punching machine, and sorting machine, 1890, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC.
Of all of the dreams of humanity throughout the ages, the thought of traveling though the air seemed the most fantastical. Truly a multitude of people spent countless years thinking, building, testing and ultimately failing in the efforts to create a heaver-than-air flying machine.
This is the Main American Standard against which all other inventions are based. To say something is “the best thing since sliced bread”, is high praise indeed. With this in mind, the first “Machine for slicing an entire loaf of bread at a single operation” must be the most important invention on this list.
The tenth item is currently pending - tell us what you think should be here.
Contributor: stevenh
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1. KMac - March 31st, 2008 at 4:38 am
i dont know where i would be without sliced bread
2. dangorironhide - March 31st, 2008 at 4:43 am
Is this a list of things invented in America, by Americans or just things that have, at one point, been patented in America?
Quite a good list though, you can’t really argue that any of these don’t belong on the list.
3. lola - March 31st, 2008 at 4:54 am
I read that a Swiss fellow discovered Velcro.
http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mvelcro.html
4. DiscHuker - March 31st, 2008 at 5:18 am
i just finished making a sandwich. sliced bread is very important indeed.
very interesting to look at the exponential growth of patents on the list. if i am reading it right, and i like to think that i am, there was 43 years and only a difference in the patent number of 60. but for the last two, a 23 year difference, there is a gap of over 850,000.
i wonder if the ginsu knife or the pocket fisherman is in there somewhere.
5. jfrater - March 31st, 2008 at 5:40 am
lola: thanks - you are right - I have removed velcro and am now taking suggestions for a replacement
6. Ginger Lee - March 31st, 2008 at 5:47 am
The sewing machine by Elias Howe.
7. Randall - March 31st, 2008 at 5:48 am
jfrater:
Telephone? Turnstile? Typewriter? Twizzlers?
8. Ginger Lee - March 31st, 2008 at 5:50 am
From wikipedia:
Contrary to popular belief, he did not invent the sewing machine. Many other people, including Walter Hunt, had worked on the idea of such a machine before him. However, Howe refined these ideas into a functional machine and on September 10, 1846, he was awarded the first United States patent (#4750) for a sewing machine using a lockstitch design.
9. SoCalJeff - March 31st, 2008 at 6:04 am
Air Conditioning.
I think patent is owned by Carrier Corp. Without Air Conditioning much of the Southern and West expansion in the USA would not have occurred (or at least occurred to the degree it did during the 70s, 80s, 90s). In fact, Air Conditioning is given as one reason for Florida’s rapid growth.
10. Pops28 - March 31st, 2008 at 6:05 am
I would have to go with the transistor. This is the heart of all modern electronics. Not sure if the patents on it are too murky for this list or not but Bell Labs is credited with creating the first practical transistor.
11. Theodore - March 31st, 2008 at 6:28 am
This patent is pure genius, by a 5-year old no less:
Method of swinging on a swing
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/6368227.html
“The user may even choose to produce a Tarzan-type yell while swinging in the manner described, which more accurately replicates swinging on vines in a dense jungle forest. Actual jungle forestry is not required.”
12. kiwiboi - March 31st, 2008 at 6:28 am
“I read that a Swiss fellow discovered Velcro.”
“I have removed velcro”
jfrater - Velcro is patented in the USA so - strictly speaking - it does qualify here (even though it seems to have a prior Swiss patent).
I think the title and description of this list are, therefore, a little confusing/imprecise.
13. babygirl2882 - March 31st, 2008 at 6:29 am
I don’t really have anything to add! Very interesting list I love learning things at 6:30am
14. DanOhh - March 31st, 2008 at 6:40 am
Number Ten should either be the Propiel Pocket Fisherman or “We’ll be back to pick you up later” Mr. Microphone.
15. john doan - March 31st, 2008 at 6:40 am
knowledge is power
16. SlickWilly - March 31st, 2008 at 7:27 am
Hmm…interesting list. I’m not sure what number 10 should be, seeing as how I’m a bit sketchy on the whole “patent” thing. I guess I would say the telephone? Or the internet? Does that even have a patent? What about the atomic bomb? Hehe…I kid.
17. chris - March 31st, 2008 at 7:34 am
how about the iPod? ……….lol
18. Yaji - March 31st, 2008 at 8:23 am
microwave oven
19. Erin - March 31st, 2008 at 8:29 am
Printing Press !!! 15th or 16th century I believe
20. bachell55 - March 31st, 2008 at 8:29 am
10th item hot water shower
21. Erin - March 31st, 2008 at 8:30 am
Oh wait this is American… I’m Canadian I have no idea.
22. chillipacker - March 31st, 2008 at 8:32 am
global warming
23. Yaji - March 31st, 2008 at 8:40 am
Defibrillator!
24. mr_evilmonkey - March 31st, 2008 at 8:48 am
my vote for number ten the Harley-Davidson V-twin motorcycle
25. Blogball - March 31st, 2008 at 9:29 am
Erin, I think the printing press was invented in Germany.
By Gutenberg I think. I payed attention in school that day.
(Very unusual for me)Maybe that’s why I remember.
26. mike - March 31st, 2008 at 9:29 am
What about the modern tamper resistant twist off bottle cap. Which just so happened to be invented by my wife’s grandfather
27. 666 - March 31st, 2008 at 9:39 am
I will second post #24
28. stevenh - March 31st, 2008 at 9:47 am
Dear ListVersers,
To clarify the criteria I used:
1) The patent must have been approved by the USPO (United States Patent Office)
2) The approval was more than 50 years ago.
3) The patent had to have ‘made a difference’
/Stevenh
ps I agree that the transistor meets all of these tests. I did not include it because by itself, a transistor is not that much fun. All the items chosen are ’stand alone’ products.
29. stevenh - March 31st, 2008 at 9:53 am
oops type
it is USPTO not USPO
30. jfrater - March 31st, 2008 at 10:17 am
Wikipedia seems to suggest that the first transistor patent was filed in Canada by Austrian-Hungarian physicist Julius Edgar Lilienfeld on October 22, 1925 - that would exclude it from this list
31. Blogball - March 31st, 2008 at 10:52 am
OK everybody how about this one. The Zipper!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zipper
32. Sky - March 31st, 2008 at 10:53 am
Also, Sir Alexander Grahame Bell Patented the Telephone in Canada, and registered it with the Halifax, NS branch of OPIC/CIPO (http://patents.ic.gc.ca/cipo/cpd/welcome.html)
He is From Baddeck, Nova Scotia, Canada
33. Randall - March 31st, 2008 at 10:55 am
When do we get around to invading Canada? Is that soon?
34. Dave - March 31st, 2008 at 10:58 am
I was thinking the AC motor - but you already have the DC motor on there. What about AC current itself? Surely there is a patent for transmission of AC power over long distances… This is the invention that made electrical power useful and practical.
35. marqueemark - March 31st, 2008 at 11:40 am
the fire truck
36. Yogi Barrister - March 31st, 2008 at 12:07 pm
For your consideration:
Typewriter
Steamboat
Reaping machine
Colt Revolver
37. copperdragon - March 31st, 2008 at 12:27 pm
steam engine (used for trains and early cars)
television
radio
38. Randall - March 31st, 2008 at 12:38 pm
copperdragon:
Three strikes and you’re out, I’m afraid….
The steam engine (in modern times) was the invention of James Watt… a Scot. (The ancient Greeks also invented it, but never put it to practical use).
Television was not really the invention of any one man so much as it was a series of parallel projects independent of one another, that arrived at more or less the same destination. For TV, however, we mainly have a Russian and a Brit to thank, in a sense. (Loosely).
Radio is the invention of an Italian… Marconi.
Try again…
39. Csimmons - March 31st, 2008 at 12:48 pm
Great list, I honestly don’t know what to put at #10 though.
40. Marco - March 31st, 2008 at 1:31 pm
I’m not sure if it’s patented, but the Americans have certainly reinvented and boosted unashamed megalomania.
41. CacyeP - March 31st, 2008 at 1:31 pm
The post-it
42. JJ - March 31st, 2008 at 1:41 pm
When i was a kid i asked my grandmother (90 at the time ) what she thought was the greatest invention in her lifetime, You Know what she said ,the mop !!!
43. SlickWilly - March 31st, 2008 at 2:10 pm
Marco: And the Europeans improved upon the original design.
44. SlickWilly - March 31st, 2008 at 2:11 pm
Seriously…what’s wrong with saying that you’re better than everyone else if its true?
45. miller - March 31st, 2008 at 3:20 pm
suprised no one said the condom or birth control.
46. Phillies - March 31st, 2008 at 3:58 pm
the traffic light
47. otay - March 31st, 2008 at 3:58 pm
electric vibrator??? lol
48. otay - March 31st, 2008 at 3:59 pm
er, maybe that wasnt american.
49. frozenmidwest - March 31st, 2008 at 4:12 pm
pop-top cans
plastic wrap
50. fivestring63 - March 31st, 2008 at 4:19 pm
Microwave ovens or cell phones.
51. CRE - March 31st, 2008 at 4:22 pm
Marco-I agre completely, we Americans can put Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Alexander the Great, and any number of Pharoahs to shame in the megalomania department, right? I mean, we’re so bad, we even had to come up with Megalomaniacs Anonymous to deal with. I know it’s true, I saw it on tv. Brain (of Pinky & the Brain fame) goes there. As for American patents, probably the Colt Revolver of Winchester Repeater would be my vote, also, possibly, the Gatlin Gun (which I think was American). Also, although there is no patent for it, Tex-Mex food is our best contribution to the world. MMMMMMM, tacos.
52. chsrocket47 - March 31st, 2008 at 4:36 pm
wasnt the assembly line patented?
53. goof_ball - March 31st, 2008 at 4:39 pm
The 10th should be….. STARBUCKS!!!! I know it’s not patented (SUE ME!) but I didn’t know what else to put.
54. stevenh - March 31st, 2008 at 4:46 pm
Re #47 Otay:
Please refer to US Patent number 2005/0228218
“Double Anchor Strapless Dildo”
Relation to Prior art “…none known to be strapless for female-to-female use…”
From the abstract as published by the United States Patent Office “…having a vaginal anchor and a rectal anchor for reliably rigid and gratifyingly insertion into a first female to support a penal-like dildo for being gratifyingly inserted into the vagina of a second female in a manner taught by this invention…”
I suppose this may, in fact, qualify as a “Really Great American Patent”
I suppose it’s a good thing that I can’t attach a graphic of the patent
55. Nightstalker - March 31st, 2008 at 4:48 pm
How about the A/C generator or the Tesla Coil, both by Nikola Tesla. I’d say to add his lightning machine if it was real, that would be pretty cool.
56. stevenh - March 31st, 2008 at 4:49 pm
BTW:
I’m not making this up…
See summary [section 0005], page 3.
http://www.google.com/patents?.....05/0228218
57. Bad News - March 31st, 2008 at 5:35 pm
@stevenh, #54:”…to support a penal-like…”
Is someone being punished with this thing??
58. stevenh - March 31st, 2008 at 5:41 pm
Bad News:
Check the link, scroll to page 3, read section 0005.
Oh, did we just come up with a new list - “10 Best Porn in Patents”?
59. Dustfinger - March 31st, 2008 at 5:54 pm
The cotton gin didn’t just cause explosive wealth, it also caused explosive slave trading, as people ‘needed’ more slaves to pick more cotton.
60. sdggrant - March 31st, 2008 at 6:06 pm
Actually Dustfinger…The Cotton Gin required less salves because it was much more efficient than having slaves pick cotton by hand
61. stevenh - March 31st, 2008 at 6:14 pm
Actually sdggrant… The Cotton Gin has nothing to do with the picking of cotton. It was used to clean the cotton from the embedded seeds.
Dustfinger is, in a very real sense, correct. Many slaves that were tasked with cleaning cotton were re-assigned to the fields. As more cotton could be processed during the harvest season, it became more viable to plant more fields.
62. Insaniac - March 31st, 2008 at 6:39 pm
Idk if anyone else has noticed this but in the heading for this list you have “Here are 10 great American parents”. I think a simple typo of course. I just suggest fixing it.
63. TheDragon - March 31st, 2008 at 7:54 pm
So many things could be added here, but this list would be a lot less “crappy” if it included toilet paper…
64. Hannah! - March 31st, 2008 at 8:03 pm
Bubblers, for sure.
Nice list!! =)
65. Cyn - March 31st, 2008 at 8:39 pm
62. Insaniac
oops! fixed. thanx
66. Birdieguy - March 31st, 2008 at 8:50 pm
How about contact lenses? Others I’ve thought of are television, microwave, and of course the Internet.
67. babygirl2882 - March 31st, 2008 at 9:12 pm
35. marqueemark
I agree the fire truck!!
68. GEEK - March 31st, 2008 at 9:13 pm
MICROSOFT………………..imagin PC wdout XP\Vista
69. CRSN - March 31st, 2008 at 9:56 pm
Number 10 should be “Red Necks”, because America is full of them.
70. scaramouche - March 31st, 2008 at 11:07 pm
What processes were there in creating the microchip? Is there one single patent? I would think something computer related would be very important, and I don’t think that hole punching thing counts in the importance of modern computers.
71. Metalwrath - April 1st, 2008 at 3:14 am
Yeah the colt revolver! Cowboys could then kill up to 6 indians without even reloading! ^^ Its the invention which conquered the west!
72. SlickWilly - April 1st, 2008 at 7:00 am
CRSN: Ooh, burn. I mean really, that was not only scathing but witty and clever to boot. The way you took a list of patents and turned it into something having to do with people and how America has a lot of them. Really, that was just brilliant. Really.
73. Lisa - April 1st, 2008 at 12:30 pm
The reaper - excellent tool and the most effective when it was made for cutting grains out of the fields. Plus, it’s pretty cool to look at.
74. Jim - April 1st, 2008 at 1:17 pm
Airplane?
75. juan - April 1st, 2008 at 3:33 pm
jim _ 74·..airplane is already on the list…should read it first
76. Mom424 - April 1st, 2008 at 7:26 pm
I think the electric lightbulb is a fine choice, and it would make Romero happy.:) It was patented by Edison, but I think the actual work was done by a black fellow hired by him. His name was Lewis Latimer.
77. stevenh - April 1st, 2008 at 7:58 pm
Mom424:
You may in fact be correct. It is the name that is on the patent that I listed - the only ‘fair way’, given the many disputes in this field.
78. eltrut - April 2nd, 2008 at 3:26 am
“Radio is the invention of an Italian… Marconi.”
Nope…Nikola Tesla invented it (but I’m not sure if he was a US citizen at the time.
79. eltrut - April 2nd, 2008 at 3:37 am
Yep, Tesla became a US citizen in 1891 and filed his basic radio patent in 1896. This should be #10
80. Randall - April 2nd, 2008 at 5:45 am
eltrut:
Not another Tesla nut. Okay, eltrut… let’s get something straight.
A) Yes, Nikola Tesla deserves to be acknowledged for his ample, if often bizarre and unstable genius. And yes, he *did* do pioneering work with radio. BUT…
B) Marconi is generally acknowledged as the “inventor” of radio for the simple fact that Marconi didn’t merely tinker with the technology–he developed it and commercialized it. It isn’t enough, in other words, to simply do some experiments, do some theoretical work, or even apply for a patent. An inventor must *get his invention out in the world* and make people realize it exists. Tesla had *zero* business sense and almost never managed to accomplish this relatively simple feat–of making a commercial success, even in a minor sense, of his inventions. Alternating current was one of his few high marks where he actually managed it.
C) In any case, Marconi and Tesla were working at exactly the same time. At most we can acknowledge Tesla’s work–in general we can say he was an accomplished engineer and scientist who did a lot of pioneering work with radio, electricity and magnetism. But handing him the title of “inventor of radio” goes a bit too far, when he did none of the things that Marconi did to exploit the new medium.
D) Had Tesla’s work really been substantial and really pre-dated Marconi’s, history would have acknowledged Tesla as the inventor of radio. But it did not and does not. Reasons for this already given.
What we can say is that to *some* extent the history of radio’s development is similar to television’s: a few individuals whose work more or less paralleled, arriving at the same result. But with one major exception: In the end, with radio, there WAS one figure who stands out at as the developer, popularizer, exploiter–and yes, with all this taken into consideration, the *inventor*—and that’s Marconi.
81. heavybison - April 2nd, 2008 at 10:11 am
4. Improvement in Telegraph
The real credit for this lies somewhere else: Check this out..
http://www.qsl.net/vu2msy/JCBOSE.htm
82. Egg - April 3rd, 2008 at 10:54 am
Oh me oh my, the aero-plane! Props to the States for that little bad boy alone. Sliced bread… that’s an invention that smacks of the American dream.
83. Egg - April 3rd, 2008 at 10:57 am
Mom24: It wouldn’t surprise me, Edison was a notorious Kleptomaniac when it came to other people’s inventions
84. Che - April 4th, 2008 at 5:54 am
Digital watches !
85. eltrut - April 4th, 2008 at 6:11 am
“history would have acknowledged Tesla as the inventor of radio.”
History does acknowledge this.
Cheers!
Eltrut AKA “another Tesla nut”
86. Randall - April 4th, 2008 at 12:03 pm
eltrut:
“History does acknowledge this.”
Oh, it does?
How?
Where is this acknowledged? Show me.
87. shortomoney - April 4th, 2008 at 5:59 pm
penicillan
88. sweatyself - April 4th, 2008 at 8:41 pm
John Deere invented the steel moldboard plow didn’t he? and Benjamin Holt invented the tractor? Those revolutionized agriculture, and to me, food is pretty important.
89. DrClifford - April 7th, 2008 at 12:18 pm
What do you mean “The 10th item is currently pending”??
In post #28 you stated the second criteria as “The approval was more than 50 years ago.”
Im seeing some inconsistencies.
90. reerr - April 14th, 2008 at 3:15 pm
In this post have a error
The airplane was created by Santos Dummond, a Brazilian.
So the Airplane patent is from Brazil
91. Aerospace Engineer - April 15th, 2008 at 12:28 am
Hiram Stevens Maxim actually invented the first airplane. Just like Edison is widely known to have invented the light-bulb (as you correctly point out it was just an improvement to a Nikola Tesla invention), Maxim flew a plane in 1889, nearly 15 years before the Wright brothers.
92. ciucinciu - May 8th, 2008 at 6:08 am
Barbed Wire shloud be on the list
93. Mike - May 8th, 2008 at 4:05 pm
#10 Video Games
94. PoorMe - September 15th, 2008 at 3:58 am
Why not nature itself?
Western world just take plants from countries like Nepal, Bhutan etc. and patent them and charge them for using their own natural gifts. Many of crops have been taken and it’s gene been copied and charged. So, why not nature dude. Patent is evil
95. base - October 30th, 2008 at 6:06 pm
I believe you left out Nikola Tesla’s influence whom is responsible for 60% of the list…