Inventions Invented By Clever (Though Little Known) Inventors

   Phillip Sharpe of Massachusetts needed a large hand-held tape dispenser that could simultaneously hold a large roll of strapping tape, allow the tape to be drawn across the box or bag being taped shut, and then cut the tape where desired. He couldn't find one so he created one. U.S. patent 3,112,051 was granted to him for that solution to a sticky problem. 

   There was a time when all luggage was carried, usually by a single attached handle. Charles Leavell of Illinois wasn't too keen on toting his heavy suitcase around, so he created a suitcase with recessed wheels at one end and a handle on the other. U.S. patent 3,163,268 was issued to him for that brainstorm.    

   Standing around with a head of soaking wet hair was not for George Kazanjian. U.S. patent 994,259 was issued to him for the first portable, hand-held hair dryer, way back in 1911.

   Up until the mid-1960's bottlecaps required a bottle-opener - that annoyed California resident Don Brockhage. He invented a bottle cap that could be removed by hand which was issued U.S, patent 3,121,506.

   George Runkel and Gilbert Sheets, both of Ohio, cared about the safety of school children. They collaborated on the design of that little stop sign that the driver of the school bus swings out from the front and rear of the school bus when the bus has stopped to allow school children on or off. They share U.S. patent 3,153,398 for that. 

   At one time farmers had to manually move large irrigation sprinklers from one field of crops to another. Farmer Hadley Kern of Texas figured that was just not a pragmatic way to go about waterin', so he designed and built large, raised sprinkler systems with wheels for easy mobility. That got him U.S. patent 3,166,088.

   In 1913, Fred Wolf, then living in Illinois, was issued U.S. patent 1,126,605 for development of the first electric refrigerator for use in the home. Mr. Wolf was a refrigeration engineer and figured that if meat packing plants and other large industries could make use of refrigeration, so could the average home owner. His invention was known as the DOMELRE (Domestic Electric Refrigerator) and was the beginning of the end of the block ice delivery business.

   On the subject of refrigeration, a resident of one of the colder lower 48 states, Cecil True of South Dakota got fed up with frozen water pipes in the winter. Unlike everyone else who had to deal with the same issue, Mr. True did something about it. He developed easy to use fiberglass insulation tape that incorporated a heating element and included a thermostat. Plugged (or directly wired) into a homes electrical supply, the heating element warmed the pipes when the temperature dropped below freezing. He holds U.S. patent 3,120,600 for that invention.  

   U.S. patent 528,671 was granted to William Hooker of Illinois in 1894. It was for the first lethal spring-loaded bar mousetrap. It wasn't the first patent issued for a lethal mouse trap - that distinction belongs to New York resident James Keep, who was granted patent 221,320 in 1879 for his mousetrap, which was a spring-loaded set of jaws much like the common bear trap, only really, really small. People keep trying to build better mousetraps - glue traps, live-catch mousetraps, cage traps, etc. Rodenticide is a perpetually booming business.