Thursday 17 May 2012

May Inventions


The 25th May 1948 saw the patent (No 2, 423, 873) granted to Andrew Moyer for a method of mass production if penicillin.[1] Penicillin is one of the earliest discovered and widely used antibiotic agents and it was Alexander Flemming in 1928 discovered its importance.  By 1941 Moyer has succeeded in increasing the yields of penicillin ten times, it was not until 1948 when the patent was granted. This new production lay in the ‘cultivation of molds, whereby the yield of penicillin is substantially increased’.[2]

Patent for Penicillin Production. [2]

More recently, the 28th May 1996 saw Theo and Wayne Hart received a patent for a ponytail hair clasp.[3] Patent No 5, 520, 201 is the design for a pony tail clasp which ‘substantially departs from the conventional concepts and designs of the prior’, the result of this clasp that ‘allows a user to readily and fixedly clasp his or her hair in a pony tail type configuration’.[4]


Patent for pny tail hair clasp. [4]

Very importantly, the 5th May 1809 saw the first patent granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office to a woman. This was granted to Mary Kies for the process of weaving straw with silk or thread, mainly for the purpose of creating women’s hats and bonnets.
There are no images of this patent, as the original file was destroyed in a fire in 1836, in which ‘approximately 10,000 patent records were lost’.[5] By 1840 approximately 20 U.S patents had been issued to women and this number had continued to grow and grow.[6] By 2004 18% of all patents issued to U.S inventors were from women, double the amount granted in 1990.[7]


[1] Google Patents, ‘No 2, 423, 873’, 2011. [Online] Available from: www.google.com/patents?id=cYtVAAAAEBAJ&printsec=abstract#v=onepage&q&f=false. (Accessed 12/05/12).
[2] Google Patents, ‘No 2, 423, 873’, 2011. [Online] Available from: www.google.com/patents?id=cYtVAAAAEBAJ&printsec=abstract#v=onepage&q&f=false. (Accessed 12/05/12).
[5] Inventor of the Week, ‘Mary Kies’, 2004. [Online] Available from: www.web.mit.edu/invent/iow/kies.html. (Accessed 12/05/2012).
[6] Inventor of the Week, ‘Mary Kies’, 2004. [Online] Available from: www.web.mit.edu/invent/iow/kies.html. (Accessed 12/05/2012).
[7] Business Week, ‘Women Inventors Double their Share of Patents’, 2012. [Online] Available from: www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-03-01/women-inventors-double-their-share-of-patents. (Accessed 12/05/12).

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