Posts Tagged: "National Inventor’s Hall of Fame Inductees"

This year, the National Inventors Hall of Fame will be inducting a new class which includes the inventor of a dental composite material which was revolutionary for its high durability and wear resistance compared to other filling materials at that time. This Friday, May 4th, marks the 14th anniversary of the issue of one of the dental filling material patents held by Dr. Sumita Mitra, a former 3M chemical engineer responsible for the development of Filtek dental restorative material. With this patent anniversary upon us, we return again to our Evolution of Technology series to take a long view at the history of dental implants and the impact of Mitra’s contributions to this field of research.

Thanks to the work of Howard S. Jones, Jr., one of the 2018 inductees into the National Inventors Hall of Fame, the United States was able to advance antenna technology in the latter part of the 20th century. Jones’ innovative work in developing conformal antennas has been crucial for the development of enabled enhanced capabilities for spacecraft, rockets and other aeronautical technologies. This March 1st marks the 41st anniversary of the issuance of the U.S. patent for which Jones has been inducted into the Hall of Fame. Today, we return to our Evolution of Technology series to explore the early development of antennas and see how Jones was able to make a great step forward in improving our nation’s defense systems.

Inventor, Beatrice Hicks, is both a 2017 inductee into the National Inventors Hall of Fame as well as one of America’s truly trailblazing women engineers, one of the first to enter the field of technological development in the mid-20th century. Hicks would go on to become instrumental in the founding of the Society of Women Engineers and her story is a wonderful reminder of the power of both a good education and the ability to believe in one’s self… Hicks’ major innovation in gas sensor tech is outlined by U.S. Patent No. 3046369, titled Device for Sensing Gas Density and issued July 24th, 1962. It claimed, in a density system, a chamber containing gas, a hollow case with an interior cavity in communication with the chamber, a sealed expansible and contractible bellows mounted within the hollow case and in communication with gas contained in the chamber, and an actuating portion to actuate an output means when the bellows moves to a critical position in response to the pressure-versus-temperature function of the gas.

Soldering, the process by which two items are joined together by melting a filler metal with a low melting point and pouring liquid metal onto the joint, is a process which is used in many important metalworking processes today, from manufacturing electronics to installing plumbing pipes. Evidence of primitive soldering techniques, however, extend back thousands of years to sites from ancient Mesopotamia.

Improvements in fuel economy and reduced emissions are largely the result of fuel additives and exhaust catalyst equipment working to clean up the chemicals emitted when fuel is burned. This Friday, April 7th, marks the 25th anniversary of the issue of a seminal patent in the field of automotive exhaust catalyst. The inventor, Indian-born American inventor Haren S. Gandhi, is an inductee this year into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. Today, we’ll take the opportunity to revisit our Evolution of Technology series to look back at the development of technologies which have left us with cleaner breathing air than we would have had thanks to Americans’ heavy reliance on automobiles.

William Sparks and Robert Thomas were inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame earlier this year for inventing butyl rubber, which was patented on August 22, 1944. Starks and Thomas mixed Vistanex with a small amount of butadiene in a washing machine. When the spin cycle concluded they were left with the first batch of butyl rubber which the world has ever seen. Compared to other synthetic rubbers, butyl rubber offered a similar strength and flexibility to natural rubber. It could be used in low-temperature settings without cracking and its high impermeability to air and gases made it a good solution as an airtight sealant.

The use of larger mirrors enabled the creation of more powerful telescopes over time. However, by the 1970s the size of the mirror itself was becoming a limiting factor on building better telescopes as larger mirrors were prone to deforming. To address this, scientists began looking at creating large mirrors for astronomical telescopes by fusing together many smaller mirrors in a honeycomb structure. This year, the National Inventors Hall of Fame inducted a new member for his contributions to the production of large mirrors for astronomical telescopes: British-born astronomer J. Roger P. Angel. This Friday, August 19th marks the 30th anniversary of the issue date of the patent for which Angel was inducted.

The 2016 inductee class for the National Inventors Hall of Fame includes two microbiologists whose contributions to the field of food safety have helped to keep many foodborne pathogens, especially Salmonella, in check: John H. Silliker and Welton I. Taylor. These two scientists worked together to develop more effective monitoring techniques for food products in response to the growing concerns in the mid-20th century regarding Salmonella outbreaks, especially those which hit children the hardest. With the anniversaries for important patents issued to both of these food safety engineers having passed in early March, we thought we’d visit their scientific contributions from in our Evolution of Technology series here on IPWatchdog.

This January 29th marks the 25th anniversary of the issue of a seminal patent in the field of dental implants, one that helped its inventor find a place in this year’s class of inductees to the National Inventors Hall of Fame. Per-Ingvar Branemark did not live to see his induction into the National Inventors Hall of Fame; he passed away in December 2014 at the age of 85. He did, however, live to see his invention implantation system, which was originally so widely derided, become a standard medical procedure.

On Tuesday, May 12, 2015, Gene and I attended the National Hall of Fame 43rd Annual Induction Ceremony at the Smithsonian’s American Art Museum and the National Portrait Gallery, in Washington DC. This year the ceremony included the induction of 14 different Inventor’s whose life-changing achievements have benefited humanity through their groundbreaking work. Master of Ceremonies for the event was CBS Sunday Morning correspondent and Host of the Henry Ford’s Innovation Nation, Mo Rocca.

Over the past week the world lost a major name in video game technology, the man who originally developed the entire concept of playing games through a television screen display. Ralph Baer, a 2010 inductee of the National Inventors Hall of Fame, passed away on Saturday, December 6th at the age of 92. From his mind sprang a wide array…