Invention Help

Author: admin

  • Invention Of The Barcode

    The bar code is a really a brilliant invention. It has simplified the entire shopping experience, making it quick and easy to add shopping items to a bill. But it didn’t fall out of the sky, someone had to invent it first.

    The invention of the bar code came out of a very real and pressing need to speed up the shopping check out process. As is often the case with innovations, the invention of the bar code happened serendipitously.

    It started in 1948, Bernard Silver was a graduate student at the Drexel Institute of Technology was listening to the president of Food Fair, a Pennsylvanian food chain, talk to the dean of the Institute about the need for a system to quickly add up product information at the check out counter. He quickly saw the opportunity to develop the technology, spoke to a friend of his, Norman Joseph Woodland, about the idea, and they soon started working on a system.

    Silver and Woodland’s original plan for the bar code invention was to use ultraviolet ink, but this proved too costly. So like all successful inventors, they continued to work at the idea. Woodland then moved to Florida, and decided to try out something that involved morse codes, by simply extending the lines of the morse code downward to create lines. The invention of the bar code started taking shape.

    But it was one thing to generate what would later be known as the bar code, and another thing to read them. Woodland started working on technology to read bar codes, modifying technology from optical soundtracks. Eventually the two friends had developed enough proprietary technology to file a patent application, which they entitled “Classifying Apparatus and Method”.

    It was many more years, and several developments later, until a useable technology was implemented in stores in the US. A trial system was implemented in 1972 in a store chain in Cincinnati. But it took another two years for the bar code technology to get more widespread exposure, and the cumbersome process and minimal cost savings had some predicting the death of the bar code technology.

    Yet here we are in the 21st century, and the invention of the bar code has stood the test of time. Even though the original inventors probably didn’t make much money out of their invention, they certainly helped contribute towards a minor revolution in the entire shopping process.

     

  • Who Invented Velcro

    Some things are so commonplace, so part of our everyday lives, that we don’t think twice about them. Velcro is such a thing. We use it every day on our clothes, shoes, surfboards and around the house in carpets, notebooks, suitcases and other products. Velcro has become quite normal and everyday.

    And it is even used by NASA on space shuttles, and also by the US army who use it on military and combat uniforms. Velcro’s even been used to create a whole new sport, known as velcro jumping, where you where a special suit, and run and jump as high as possible onto a Velcro wall. What an amazing invention velcro is!

    But the big question you’re wondering is who invented velcro? Well before we answer that, consider that Velcro is made up of two parts: a hook part and a loop part. The hook part gets attached to the loop part through the ‘hook’ fabrics getting intertwined with the ‘loop’ fabrics. So the person who invented velcro actually invented this system of hooks and loops using different kinds of fabrics and materials.

    The inventor of velcro was a Swiss Engineer named George de Mestra who was born in 1907 and died just over 20 years ago in 1990. George de Mestra was a remarkable person, who was an inventor from a very young age. At the age of 12 he even patented his design for a toy airplane. After school, he attended a polytechnic university in Lausanne, Switzerland and qualified as an engineer.

    Interestingly, the Swiss engineer who invented velcro actually started dreaming and conceiving about it many years before he started working on it. In 1941, he went hunting in the Alps with his dog, and noticed how Burdock seeds were sticking to his clothes and dog’s coat. This made him fascinated with the concept of a material attaching itself to another, and he looked at it through a microscope and ‘discovered’ this concept of ‘hooks’ which attach themselves to the ‘loops’ of other materials. This gave him the notion of trying to replicate nature’s genius for other purposes.

    In 1948 he started working seriously at the Velcro invention, and in 1955 he patented it, and turned it into a multimillion dollar company, which made him an absolute fortune!

    So the man who invented velcro story has a happy ending and a few morals:

    1. Observe and learn from nature

    2. Be incredibly persistent

    3. Patent your ideas and inventions so that you can profit from them

  • Who Invented The Microscope

    The question of who invented the microscope is a matter of historical debate. There isn’t 100% certainty on the microscope invention, because it was not that well documented during its time, but we know for certainty that it occured around the turn of the 17th century.

    Furhermore, we are certain that that the first type of microscope invented was the most common one: the optical microscope (which contains a lens that greatly magnifies objects).

    A few names regularly crop up of potential inventors who invented the microscope. There is a Dutch spectacle maker named Hans Janssen who, together with his son, was said to have originated the concept of the microscope back in 1590. Another name is Hans Lippershey who is credited with inventing the telescope (which is designed to make objects in the far distance much easier to see), and some people suggest he had a role to play in microscopics as well. But the link is not that strong.

    Perhaps the most famous person who invented the microscope, or should we say holds the claim to the invention, is none other than the Italian scientist Galileo Galilei. Galileo is said to be a major force behind the scientific revolution, and is sometimes referred to as the father of observational science and astronomy. In 1609 Galileo invented what he termed the ‘little eye’, which was an apparatus that made use of convex and concave lenses to view objects unseeable by the human eye. A friend of Galileo’s, a German named Giovanni Faber, termed this the ‘compound microscope’ and the name ‘microscope’ has stuck since then.

    But it did not simply end then, as it took a while for the microscope to become part of scientific enquiry, research and culture. There were many more people who invented improvements to the microscope, amongst them Cornelius Drebbel, who used double lenses that were concave, Anton van Leeuwenhoek attunes the apparatus for use on biological organisms, and Ernst Abbe in the mid 1860s drastically improved the design of the microscope. Even today there are still improvements and modifications of the observational apparatus.

  • Trademark Attorney

    A trademark attorney is a qualified legal practitioner that specializes in dealing with all aspects of trademarking, from performing a trademark search to applying for a new trademark, to modifying or deregistering a trademark.

    Trademarks are unique, usually commercial names, slogans, words or signs that distinctively identify a commercial product or service. If you wish to be able to market a product or service with the legal protection that a third-party will not copy, use or even misuse your name (without legal consequences), then it is vital that you find a trademark attorney.

    In many Commonwealth countries, the trademark attorney profession is highly specialized and regulated by a trademark body. For instance, in countries like Australia and England, trademark attorneys are regarded as part of a distinct legal profession in their own right, and they need to have a distinct qualification, over and above a general law degree, in order to practice. In the United States, while there are an increasing amount of trade mark attorney firms, the profession is more open to general law practitioners, and any qualified lawyer is able to work for individuals and corporations in dealing with the United States Patent and Trademark office. However it is not recommended to use a general legal practitioner for trade mark cases, and one should always seek the advice of an experienced and well-versed trademark attorney.

    It is advisable finding a trademark attorney in your area, as the trademarking process is lengthy and time-consuming, and you will want to be in regular contact with your practitioner.

    How to find or verify a trademark attorney in your area or district

    In The United States

    Type ‘trademark attorney’ as well as your city, town or state into the following search box, and you will be provided with a selection of local trade mark lawyers in your area:

    In the United Kingdom

    It is best to verify a trademark attorney through the Institute of Trademark Attorneys, where you can do a search for a qualified practitioner in your county.

    In Australia

    You can contact or do a search at The Institute of Patent and Trade Mark Attorneys of Australia.

    Internationally

    You can contact the International Trademark Association.

    Good luck (and a bit of hard work and effort too!).

  • Innovative Definition

    What is the definition of innovative? What does innovative mean, and how do you define it? Good question.

    There are several definitions or ways to understanding the word innovative and I will go through them below:

    The word ‘innovative’ is an adjective, which means that it describes something else (which is known as a noun). The adjective innovative can describe either a product, idea, service, gadget, widget or ‘thing’, it can describe a brand, company, research lab or university, or it can describe a person or group of people.

    But what is the definition of innovative?

    Innovative definition: Innovative: a quality that describes that something (a person, a service, an idea, etc) is original, unique, cutting-edge, advanced, creative, novel or inventive. It can describe how a service does something differently from other services in the market, how a product does something creatively or solves a problem or need in an original and novel way, or how a person has a new and fresh way of thinking that distinguishes him or her from other people in his or her industry, workplace or school

    Etymology of the word innovative:

    The word ‘innovative’ originates from the word ‘innovate’. Innovate derives from the Latin word innovatus, which is past participle of innovare. ‘Innovare’ means ‘to renew’ or ‘to change’. This explains how the words innovative came to mean what it does today. ‘To renew’ is another way of saying to make something new again. In other words to make it fresh or to breathe new life into something that had gone stale. It implies that there is a traditional and stale way of doing things, and what makes something innovative is how it makes doing that thing or process new again.

    A very simple example is the idea of an electric toothbrush. The toothbrush in various forms has been around since the 13th century in China. For over 700 years it has been used in a similar way. Then suddenly in 1954 a Swiss inventor decided to innovate on the toothbrush invention, and invented the first electric toothbrush. We can safely say that the electric toothbrush is an innovative way of using the toothbrush, because it makes the brushing of the teeth more rapid and effective. The idea to electrify it was incredibly innovative, and ‘renewed’ the way that we use the toothbrush.

    I hope that the innovative definition is more clear to you now. And I hope that you are now inspired to be innovative in whatever you do, and to innnovate or ‘renew’ things that have become stale!