Posts Tagged: "Byron Q. Jones"

75th Anniversary of the Original Jeep Patent

The government was looking for a multi-purpose four-wheel-drive vehicle. Only American Bantam Car Company responded to the request within the given time, which was just 49 days to produce a working prototype. The government was impressed with Bantam’s design and shared the blueprints with several other companies, which not surprisingly soon followed with their own very similar designs. Adding insult to injury, the government applied for a patent in the name of Colonel Byron Jones as the inventor despite the fact that he did not work on the design of the vehicle.