 |
|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
| HOME | |
ELECTRONIC NEWSLETTER
Abelman, Frayne, &Schwab
This Week in Intellectual Property History for the Week of October 11, 2010
Given the recent events in Chile and the ongoing rescue of 33 trapped miners, this week's TWIPH is a propos:
On October 13, 1914, the U.S. Patent Office issued U.S. Patent No. 1,113,675 entitled, "Breathing Device" to Garrett Augustus Morgan.
Morgan's invention was effectively the first patented a gas mask ... a breathing device consisting of a canvas hood placed over the head. A double tube extended from the hood and merged into a single tube at the back. The open end held a sponge soaked with water to filter out smoke and to cool incoming air.
On July 25, 1916, Morgan and his gas mask made national news when he and a team of volunteers donned the new "gas masks" and went to the rescue of 32 men trapped in a new waterworks tunnel 250 feet beneath Lake Erie in Cleveland, Ohio. After the rescue, sales of Morgan's gas mask took off as his company received requests from fire departments around the country who wished to purchase the new masks. The Morgan gas mask was later refined for use by U.S. Army during World War I.
You may recall Morgan's name from another TWIPH... one of his other inventions was an early traffic signal (patented in 1923).
