We live in a fertile valley of innovation and invention. Whether the inventor was born here or came to the area to work, some of the following inventors and their inventions have changed the world. Listed below are just a few of the inventors and inventions that are connected to the Miami Valley either by birth, education, workplace, or development. Many of these inventions are the first of their kind.

Vincent G. Apple (1874-1932)

Isolated Home/Farm Electric Lighting System

Pat. No. 1,540,237

Filed: September 15, 1919

Issued: June 2, 1925

Title: Electric-Power-Plant System

Vincent G. Apple was Dayton's most prolific inventor. He was born in Miamisburg, Ohio on January 26, 1874. Apple founded his first company when he was 18 years old. It would later become the Dayton Electric and Manufacturing Company. He would go on and found two more companies, the Apple Electric Company and Apple Laboratories, all based in Dayton, Ohio. In 1902, he introduced what is thought to be the first electric self-starter for an automobile. In 1903, Apple built a magneto ignition system which was used by the Wright Brothers in their "Wright Flyer." He was a pioneer in automobile electric lighting systems, introducing his tungsten bulbs in 1907. He served as chairman of the SAE, Society of Automotive Engineers, Dayton Section, from 1923-1924. Vincent G. Apple received more than 350 patents during his lifetime. At the time of his death, he had another 130 applications pending at the Patent Office. He was also working on another 265 inventions which his legal heirs would be able to file for patents.

John H. Balsley (1823-1895)

Safety Stepladder

Pat. No. 34,100

Filed: (not stated on patent)

Issued: January 7, 1862

Title: Improved Step Ladder

Safety Stepladder

Pat. No. 99,621

Filed: (not stated on patent)

Issued: February 8, 1870

Title: Improvement in Step-Ladder

Adjustable Table Leg

Pat. No. 169,613

Filed: August 27, 1875

Issued: November 9, 1875

Title: Adjustable Table Leg

John H. Balsley became a wealthy Dayton carpentry businessman after inventing a practical wooden stepladder; the first U.S. patent issued for a safety stepladder. Balsley's home in the Oregon Historic District, ca. 1877, 419 East Sixth Street, still stands as a reminder of his success.

John Harlan Birden (1918-)

Kenneth C. Jordan

Radio isotope Thermoelectric Generator for Spacecraft

Pat. No. 2,913,510

Filed: April 5, 1955

Issued: November 17, 1959

Title: Radioactive Battery

Patent Assignee: United States Government

Kenneth C. Jordan

Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator for Spacecraft

Pat. No. 2,844,639

Filed: October 20, 1955

Issued: July 22, 1958

Title: Thermo-Electric Generator

Patent Assignee: United States Government

John H. Birden, research chemist 1944-1981, and Kenneth C. Jordan worked for the Monsanto Research Laboratory that was based at the Mound Plant, Miamisburg, Ohio. Both of these patents were co-pending applications as described in Kenneth C. Jordan's application for the "Thermo-Electric Generator." Radio isotope thermoelectric generators have powered most of the deep space exploration vehicles launched by the United States.

Frank Walker Caldwell (1889-1974)

Adjustable Pitch Propeller

Pat. No. 1,404,269

Filed: May 5, 1921

Issued: January 24, 1922

Title: Variable-pitch or Reversible Propeller

Hydraulic Propeller

Pat. No. 1,893,612

Filed: May 25, 1929

Issued: January 10, 1933

Title: Propeller

Patent Assignee: Hamilton Standard Propeller Company

During the aeronautical design revolution, the name Frank W. Caldwell is synonymous with improvements in propeller construction and design. Caldwell received his mechanical engineering degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1912. He began his engineering career with Curtiss Aeroplane Motor Company. In 1917, Caldwell joined, as chief engineer, the Propeller Research Department of the Airplane Design Section, Aviation Section of the Signal Corps based at McCook Field, Dayton, Ohio. Caldwell oversaw the invention, development, and innovation of ground adjustable pitch propellers at McCook Field. To ensure that new propeller designs were efficient and structurally sound, Caldwell developed the propeller whirl test. He designed the whirl-testing facilities at McCook Field. In the 1930s, he would go on to develop the hydraulically-actuated two position controllable-pitch and constant speed propeller during his tenure as Engineering Manager for Hamilton Standard. The Hamilton Standard Hydromatic Propeller in 1990 was named an International Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. Caldwell's pioneering testing procedures were an integral part in the development of all high performance propellers in the twentieth century. Caldwell and Ernest G. McCauley (see below) hold three joint patents on propeller improvements and controls.

Carl O. Carlson

Microfiche

Pat. No. 3,185,026

Filed: May 22, 1961

Issued: May 25, 1965

Title: Method and Apparatus Employing Metachromatic Materials for Forming A Plurality of Individual Micro-Images

Patent Assignee: National Cash Register Co. (NCR), Dayton, Ohio

Carl Carlson invented "microfiche" in 1961 while working for Dayton's National Cash Register Company. Many libraries are indebted to Carlson for this space saving invention.

William Hale Charch, Ph.D (1898-1958)

Moisture-Proof Cellophane

Pat. No. 1,737,187

Filed: January 3, 1927

Issued: November 26, 1929

Title: Moistureproof Material

Patent Assignee: DuPont Cellophane Co., New York, New York

Daytonian William Hale Charch is a graduate of Miami University, Oxford, Ohio. He joined the DuPont Cellophane Company in the 1920s. The company was formed in 1923 after DuPont acquired the rights to cellophane from a French company. Four years later, DuPont researcher William Hale Charch invented waterproof cellophane. This product revolutionized the food packaging industry and, eventually led to the development of cellophane tape. Charch is buried, along with his wife Anne, in Woodland Cemetery, Dayton, Ohio.

Ralph H. Chilton

Ice Maker

Pat. No. 2,026,214

Filed: November 25, 1931

Issued: December 31, 1935

Title: Freezing Device

Patent Assignee: General Motors Corp., Detroit, Michigan

Ernest R. Churchwell

Portable Crib

Pat. No. 2,487,636

Filed: June 11, 1947

Issued: November 8, 1949

Title: Folding Crib

Assignee: One-half to Miriam J. Rosenthal, Dayton, Ohio

Paul H. Creswell

Robert A. Kelly

Highway/Road Marking

Pat. No. 2,220,316

Filed: September 23, 1938

Issued: November 5, 1940

Title: Highway Marking

Patent Assignee: Kelly-Creswell Company, Xenia, Ohio

Both Paul H. Creswell and Robert A. Kelly were from Xenia, Ohio and owned the Kelly-Creswell Company in Xenia. Creswell and Kelly's invention was an improvement in painting lines on streets and highways. Their device is still the basis for current road marking machines.

Levitt Luzern Custer (1888-1962)

Aneroid Barometer - "Statoscope"

Pat. No. 1,023,132

Filed: December 15, 1909

Issued: April 16, 1912

Title: Indicators for Indicating the Ascending and Descending Movements of Aerial Vehicles

Electric Motorized Wheelchair

Pat. No. D53,891

Filed: February 24, 1919

Issued: October 7, 1919

Title: Juvenile Automobile

Gasoline Motorized Wheelchair

Pat. No. 2,306,042

Filed: April 29, 1939

Issued: December 22, 1942

Title: Motor Vehicle

Levitt Luzern Custer was born in Dayton, Ohio. He graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1913. His first patented invention was a device that showed whether a balloon or dirigible was ascending or descending in flight. Custer produced his statoscope for the U.S. Navy at his factory, Custer Specialty Company, on North Ludlow Street in Dayton. After World War I, Custer saw a need for a device to help injured and disabled soldiers to get around. Luzern Custer invented the "Custer Invalid Chair" or "Custer Car" in 1919, which was battery powered. The apparatus was a three-wheeled vehicle and was operated entirely by hand. He invented a gasoline version of the car in 1939. Dr. Levitt Ellsworth Custer, a prominent local dentist and Luzern's father, invented an aerial torpedo, pat. no. 913,814, in 1909 for dirigibles.

Thomas L. Edwards

Walker Attachment for Wheelchairs

Pat. No. 3,398,974

Filed: June 1, 1966

Issued: August 27, 1968

Title: Walker Attachment for Wheel Chair

Ermal "Ernie" Cleon Fraze (1913-1989)

Pull Tab

Pat. Nos. 3,191,797

Filed: March 4, 1963

Issued: June 29, 1965

Title: Sheet Metal Joint

Pop-Top Beverage Cans

Pat. No. 3,291,336

Filed: January 22, 1965

Issued: December 13, 1966

Title: Can Top

During the summer of 1959, a hot and thirsty Ernie Fraze decided that there had to be a quicker and easier way to open a beverage can. He went on to invent the pop-top can opener in 1962. The first commercial use of the pop-top was by Iron City Brewery, a Pennsylvania company. Time magazine in 1998 described the pop-top can as one of the "one hundred great things." Fraze was the founder of Dayton Reliable Tool and Manufacturing Company in 1949.

Alfred Henry Free (1913-2000)

Helen Mae Free (1923-)

Dip Test for Glucose (Diabetes)

Pat. Nos. 2,848,308

Filed: December 5, 1955

Issued: August 19, 1958

Title: Composition of Matter

Patent Assignee: Miles Laboratories, Elkhart, Indiana

Dip Test for Glucose (Diabetes)

Pat. No. 2,912,309

Filed: February 6, 1956

Issued: November 10, 1959

Title: Indicator for Detecting Glucose

Patent Assignee: Miles Laboratories, Elkhart, Indiana

Inductees National Inventors Hall of Fame, 2000

Alfred H. Free was born southeast of Dayton in Bainbridge, Ohio and received an A.B. from Miami University, Oxford, Ohio. Free revolutionized urinalysis by devising a dip-and-read test, Clinistix ®, for detecting glucose in urine. The Clinistix test, developed with his wife and fellow chemist Helen Free, was easier to use than previous tests. It was an especially important breakthrough in glucose testing because it made diabetes detection more convenient.

Arthur J. Frei

Ice Cube Tray with Lever Ejector Mechanism

Pat. No. 2,642,726

Filed: August 31, 1950

Issued: June 23, 1953

Title: Freezing Tray

Patent Assignee: General Motors Corp., Detroit, Michigan

Harvey Dunn Geyer (1891-1952)

Ice Cube Tray (soft rubber)

Pat. No. 1,820,134

Filed: May 12, 1930

Issued: August 25, 1931

Title: Freezing Container

Patent Assignee: Inland Manufacturing Co., Dayton, Ohio

Upon the death of Orville Wright in 1948, Harvey D. Geyer was appointed the technical advisor to the Wright Estate.

Barrett K. Green

Carbon-less paper

Pat. No. 2,299,693

Filed: February 23, 1940

Issued: October 20, 1942

Title: Coating for Paper

Patent Assignee: National Cash Register Co. (NCR), Dayton, Ohio

Micro-encapsulation

Pat. No. 2,712,507

Filed: June 30, 1953

Issued: July 5, 1955

Title: Pressure Sensitive Record Material

Patent Assignee: National Cash Register Co. (NCR), Dayton, Ohio

Micro-encapsulation

Pat. No. 2,800,458

Filed: June 30, 1953

Issued: July 23, 1957

Title: Oil-Containing Microscopic Capsules and Method of Making Them

Patent Assignee: National Cash Register Co. (NCR), Dayton, Ohio

Improvements in Photocopiers

Pat. No. 2,953,470

Filed: June 27, 1957

Issued: September 20, 1960

Title: Method for Electrostatic Printing

Patent Assignee: National Cash Register Co. (NCR), Dayton, Ohio

Colloid chemist Barrett K. Green of NCR developed a process of controlled chemical release that led to time-released medication, improvements in photocopier machines, mood rings, scratch-and-sniff cards, and carbon-less paper.

Wayne Hardy

Surgical Goniometer

Pat. No. 3,262,452

Filed: April 17, 1963

Issued: July 26, 1966

Title: Goniometer Apparatus for Brain Surgery

Max Isaacson

Manually Operated External Heart Machine

Pat. No. 3,425,409

Filed: November 8, 1965

Issued: February 4, 1969

Title: Resuscitator

John Louis Janning (1928-)

Liquid Crystal Alignment Methodology (LCD)

Pat. No. 3,834,792

Filed: August 7, 1973

Issued: September 10, 1974

Title: Alignment Film for a Liquid Crystal Display Cell

Patent Assignee: National Cash Register Co. (NCR), Dayton, Ohio

Known as the "John Janning Oblique Alignment," Janning developed a liquid crystal alignment technology that resulted in the manufacture of inexpensive digital watches, calculators, and other devices.

Charles Francis Jenkins (1867-1934)

Projector

Pat. No. 536,569

Filed: November 24, 1894

Issued: March 26, 1895

Title: Phantoscope

Movie Projector

Pat. No. 1,302,800

Filed: October 17, 1916

Issued: May 6, 1919

Title: Picture Projecting Machine

Patent Assignee: Graphoscope Co., Washington, D.C.

Television (not adopted as standard)

Pat. No. 1,544,156

Filed: March 13, 1922

Issued: June 30, 1925

Title: Transmitting Pictures by Wireless

Charles Francis Jenkins was born in Dayton, Ohio, and spent his boyhood on a farm near Eaton, Ohio. In 1892, he projected a moving picture before an astonished group of friends, using a silk handkerchief as a screen. A year later he added an arc light, and this machine was the forerunner of the motion picture projector. A pioneer cinematographer, Jenkins was granted a patent for his first cinema apparatus in 1895 (the Phantascope). He was issued the patent while living in Richmond, Indiana. He joined forces with Thomas Armat, with whom he made improvements in the projector. Armat would sell the projector without Jenkins consent to Thomas A. Edison. Jenkins also claimed to have transmitted, via radio waves, the earliest moving silhouette images on June 14, 1923, but his first public demonstration of this did not take place until June 1925. His mechanical television system was simple, cheap to produce, and was the most popular in the U.S. well into the 1930s. Charles F. Jenkins received over 400 patents during his lifetime.

Charles F. Kettering (1876-1958)

Electric Cash Register

Pat. No. 924,616

Filed: June 11, 1906

Issued: June 8, 1909

Title: Driving Mechanism for Cash Registers

Patent Assignee: National Cash Register Co. (NCR), Dayton, Ohio

Automobile Starter

Pat. No. 1,150,523

Filed: June 15, 1911

Issued: August 17, 1915

Title: Engine Starting Device

Patent Assignee: Dayton Engineering Laboratories Co. (Delco), Dayton, Ohio

Automobile Ignition System

Pat. No. 1,171,055

Filed: April 17, 1911

Issued: February 8, 1916

Title: Engine Starting, Lighting, and Ignition System

Patent Assignee: Dayton Engineering Laboratories Co. (Delco), Dayton, Ohio

Spark Plug

Pat. No. 1,501,491

Filed: January 11, 1918

Issued: July 15, 1924

Title: Spark Plug

Patent Assignee: Dayton Engineering Laboratories Co. (Delco), Dayton, Ohio

Automatic Transmission for Automobiles

Pat. No. 1,710,991

Filed: August 6, 1925

Issued: April 30, 1929

Title: Automatically Controlled Transmission for Motor Vehicles

Patent Assignee: General Motors Research Corp., Dayton, Ohio

Inductee National Inventors Hall of Fame, 1980
Inductee National Aviation Hall of Fame, 1979

Born on a farm near Loudenville, Ohio, Charles Franklin Kettering graduated from Ohio State University and afterwards obtained a job at the National Cash Register Co. (NCR) in Dayton. In Deeds' Barn he built a small electric motor that made it possible to operate a cash register with electricity. In 1909, Kettering, in association with Edward A. Deeds, organized the Dayton Engineering Laboratories Company (Delco). Kettering began work on a new ignition system for automobiles in 1910 that resulted in the first self-starter in a 1912. Within two years, most cars were equipped with this new device. Kettering went on to become head of General Motors research laboratories and Vice President of the Corporation. "Boss Ket" would eventually receive over 160 U.S. patents for his ideas.

Frederick C. Kohnle (1860-1944)

Price Tag

Pat. No. 457,783

Filed: August 9, 1890

Issued: August 18, 1891

Title: Marking Tag

Frederick Kohnle was born in Germantown, Ohio, a small town fifteen miles southwest of Dayton. In 1890, Kohnle came up with a machine that would print a price tag and affix it to an object. Suddenly, it was quick to label hundreds of items with a single price, thereby eliminating confusion, guesswork and haggling. He organized a series of partnerships and small companies to pursue and support his development of marking systems. He eventually established The Monarch Marking System Company in 1920. He owned a total of 63 patents, two of which were issued after his death. Fixed prices are largely Kohnle's legacy.

Geoffrey Gottlieb Kruesi

Radio Direction Finder

Pat. No. 2,142,133

Filed: November 25, 1933

Issued: January 3, 1939

Title: Radio Direction Finder

Patent Assignee: United States Government

Geoffrey G. Kruesi designed the first radio direction finder, pat. no. 1,820,004 in 1928, while working for the Federal Telegraph Company in San Francisco, California. Fairchild Company manufactured the radio direction finder. The radio direction finder became widely used in planes of the period and was referred to by pilots as the "Kruesi." Kruesi also worked for the Bendix Aviation Corporation in the early 1930s before joining the research team at Wright Field, Dayton, Ohio in 1933. While working at Wright Field, Kruesi began work on a radio compass and directional finder, pat. no. 2,393,643. Kruesi wrote an angry letter to Newsweek Magazine regarding William Powell Lear, Sr. and the work on the radio compass at Wright Field. Lear told Newsweek that he had actually worked on the Army Air Corps' radio compass at Wright Field and that he had quit because military pilots had ostracized him for his criticism of their radio technique. "The fact is," Kruesi said, "Lear never was employed at Wright Field so he could not have 'left.' Nor did he ever work on the army radio compass. His sole connection with Wright Field was that he built a compass at the order of the government, the exact value of which has not yet been determined." See also William Powell Lear, Sr. below. In 1961, Kruesi invented an airplane instrument approach and landing system, pat. no. 3,007,162, while living in San Francisco. This device enabled airplanes to land, without assistance from pilots, in zero visibility weather.

Benjamin G. Lamme (1864-1924)

Speed Control

Pat. No. 1,387,496

Filed: October 21, 1916

Issued: August 16, 1921

Title: Speed Control for Induction Motors

Patent Assignee: Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Electrical Ship Propulsion for Warships

Pat. No. 1,390,624

Filed: June 29, 1918

Issued: September 13, 1921

Title: System of Electrical Ship Propulsion

Patent Assignee: Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Benjamin G. Lamme was born on a farm near Springfield, Ohio. He graduated from Ohio State University. Lamme was the Chief Engineer for Westinghouse Electric Company and during his career received 162 electrical patents.

Lorenzo Lorraine Langstroth (1810-1895)

Movable-Comb Hive

Pat. No. 9,300

Filed: (not stated on patent)

Issued: October 5, 1852

Title: Bee Hive

The first U.S. patent for a practical and successful movable frame beehive was granted to Lorenzo Lorraine Langstroth. His invention revolutionized not only hives but also methods for bee keeping. Langstroth was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1810. He became pastor of the South Congregational Church in Andover, Massachusetts in May of 1836. In 1852, he moved to Oxford, Ohio, and took up the work of bee keeping for which he is best known. Langstroth's invention of the movable-comb hive was based on his discovery of the bee space. He observed that if a small space, 1/4 of an inch, was left open between the hive and the frame and between the frames themselves, the bees would not fill these spaces with bee glue or combs. Langstroth died in Dayton, Ohio at the home of his daughter.

Samuel Spahr Laws (1824-1921)

Stock Market Ticker

Pat. No. 72,742

Filed: (not stated on patent)

Issued: December 31, 1867

Title: Electrical Indicator

Samuel Spahr Laws graduated and was the valedictorian of the class of 1848 at Miami University, Oxford. He was also a one time resident of Troy, Ohio. Laws invented the tickertape machine used by the New York Stock Exchange in 1867. Laws hired a promising young inventor, Thomas A. Edison when Edison was only 22 years old. Laws as an inventor, educator, physician, theologian, left a record of achievement in diverse fields. He was admitted to the New York bar in 1869, awarded a law degree from Columbia College in 1870 and a M.D. from Bellevue Hospital Medical College in 1875. In 1876, he was elected president of the University of Missouri, where he served for thirteen years. In 1893, he became professor of apologetics at the Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Columbia, South Carolina. He kept up his scientific and medical pursuits, writing pioneering works on neuro-psychology. Laws Hall on the Oxford campus of Miami University was named in his honor.

William Powell Lear, Sr. (1902-1978)

Learmatic Electrostatic Gyroscope

Pat. No. 2,392,329

Filed: January 19, 1940

Issued: January 8, 1946

Title: Gyromatic Radio Compass

Patent Assignee: Lear Inc., Grand Rapids, Michigan

Inductee National Aviation Hall of Fame, 1978

One of the outstanding pioneers of aviation, William Powell Lear, Sr., only finished the eighth grade. Born in Hannibal, Missouri in 1902, Lear turned his boyhood fascination with radios into radio sales and service. Before long, Lear begins his work on a revolutionary idea, radios for automobiles. It was a success and he calls it "Motorola." From 1930 through 1950, William P. Lear was granted more than 100 patents for aircraft radios, communications and navigation equipment, which had worldwide application in commercial and military aviation. The most notable among these inventions was the first practical radio compass for aircraft, the Learmatic. The Learmatic was manufactured at Lear Avia, Inc., Dayton, Ohio. When he lived in Dayton in 1939, Lear invented a radio tuning mechanism, pat. no. 2,288,722. Two other notable inventions by Lear, the first car radio, pat. no. 1,944,139 and the eight-track tape system, pat. no. 3,350,025. Lear is probably best known for his Learjet company, 1963, the manufacturer of corporate jets.

James Leffel (1806-1866)

Water Wheel

Pat. No. 4,056

Filed: (not stated on patent)

Issued: May 21, 1845

Title: Water Wheel

Double Turbine Water Wheel - "The American Double Turbine"

Pat. No. 34,150

Filed: (not stated on patent)

Issued: January 14, 1862

Title: Improved Water-Wheel

James Leffel was born in Botetourt County, Virginia. His family settled outside of Springfield, Ohio, on Donnel's Creek when he was one year old. His father built a sawmill and gristmill on the creek. In the 1820s James Leffel built a sawmill on Mad River and installed a water wheel of his own design. Leffel decided to diversify and built his first foundry and machine shops in 1838 in Springfield. In 1849, he patented, pat. no. 6,775, an improved "double oven" stove and in 1850 he patented, pat. no. 7,820, a lever jack. The oven sold well regionally. As the foundry and machine shop continued to prosper, Leffel turned to waterpower experiments. On the basis of the experiments, Leffel, in 1862, applied for his second water wheel patent, the "American Double Turbine." It is this design that Leffel's fame is largely based on. The wheel was sold in the west, as far as Canada, and regionally. The James Leffel and Company continues today to manufacture water turbines in Springfield, Ohio. James Leffel was one of Ohio's great pioneer inventors and manufacturers.

George H. Leland

Lighted Advertising Signs

Pat. No. 1,980,542

Filed: March 31, 1930

Issued: November 13, 1934

Title: Circuit Controlling Device for Electric Signs and the Like

Patent Assignee: Leland Electric Co., Dayton, Ohio

George C. Lockwood

Semi-Conductor Memory Device

Pat. No. 3,651,492

Filed: November 2, 1970

Issued: March 21, 1972

Title: Nonvolatile Memory Cell

Patent Assignee: National Cash Register, Co. (NCR), Dayton, Ohio

Ernest G. McCauley

Improvement in Steel Propellers

Pat. No. 2,041,849

Filed: July 1, 1932

Issued: May 26, 1936

Title: Propeller

Ernest G. McCauley had a number of propeller patents but his “improved steel propeller” would establish him as a pioneer in the field of aerodynamics. He was employeed at the government's Propeller Research Department of the Airplane Design Section, Aviation Section of the Signal Corps based at McCook Field, Dayton, Ohio. McCauley received his first patent, pat. no. 1,427,830, on September 5, 1922, for a synchronizing mechanism for reversible pitch propellers then under development at McCook Field. There he joined Frank W. Caldwell (see above) in developing improvements in propeller design for the military. McCauley and Caldwell hold three joint patents on propeller improvements and controls. In 1938, Ernest G. McCauley founded the McCauley Aviation Corporation.

Alfred W. Mellowes

Self-Contained Electric Refrigerator

Pat. No. 1,276,612

Filed: June 10, 1916

Issued: August 20, 1918

Title: Cooling Apparatus

Patent Assignee: Guardian Frigerator Company, Detroit, Michigan

Native Daytonian Alfred W. Mellowes, in 1915, engineered and made an electric self-contained refrigerating unit at his home in Ft. Wayne, Indiana. The Guardian Frigerator Company of Detroit, Michigan was formed in 1916, to manufacture and sell Mellowes' refrigerator. In 1918, General Motors purchased the company and renamed it Frigidaire. In 1921, GM moved the company to Dayton, Ohio.

Thomas Midgley, Jr. (1889-1944)

Ethyl Leaded Gasoline

Pat. No. 1,573,846

Filed: April 15, 1922

Issued: February 23, 1926

Title: Method and Means for Using Motor Fuels

Patent Assignee: General Motors Corp., Detroit, Michigan

Refrigerant - Freon®

Pat. No. 1,833,847

Filed: February 8, 1930

Issued: November 24, 1931

Title: Heat Transfer

Patent Assignee: Frigidaire Corp., Dayton, Ohio

Inductee National Inventors Hall of Fame, 2003

In 1916, Thomas Midgely went to work for the Dayton Engineering Laboratories Company (Delco), recently established by Charles F. Kettering, the inventor of the automobile self-starter. His first assignment was to investigate the cause of the knock in gasoline engines. Midgely discovered that the knock was from the gasoline and not from any mechanical defect. Named by Kettering, Ethyl gasoline was first sold on February 2, 1923 in Dayton, Ohio. As a consultant working with Charles F. Kettering, Midgley worked on a safer refrigerant than the highly toxic and flammable refrigerants then in use. Along with Albert Henne, Midgley identified and synthesized dichlorodilfluoromethane, the first in the family of freon refrigerants. Midgley introduced it in 1930 at a meeting of the American Chemical Society. In a bit of theatrics, Midgley inhaled an amount of the freon and slowly exhaled it to put out a candle flame demonstrating both its non-toxicity and non-flammability. General Motors and Du Pont, in 1930, formed the Kinetic Chemicals Inc. for the production of freon. During his lifetime Midgely was awarded 117 patents.

Sanford Alexander Moss, Ph.D. (1872-1946)

Airplane Supercharger

Pat. No. 1,413,419

Filed: May 31, 1919

Issued: April 18, 1922

Title: Fuel Feeding System for Internal Combustion Engines

Patent Assignee: General Electric Co., New York

Inductee National Aviation Hall of Fame, 1976

Dr. Sanford A. Moss was a native San Franciscan who went east to earn a Ph.D. in engineering at Cornell University. After graduating he went to work for General Electric. At GE, he began to experiment with gas driven turbines. After World War I he built a turbo-supercharger that was tested by the military at Wright Field (today Wright-Patterson Air Force Base), Dayton, Ohio. It was installed on a LePere airplane with a "Liberty" engine in 1919. By the 1930's, Moss's turbo-supercharger came into wider use setting numerous high altitude and speed records on planes equipped with the device. For perfecting the turbo-supercharger, Dr. Moss and the Army Air Corps received the Collier Trophy in 1941.

Jerrold S. Petrofsky, Ph.D

Electrically Stimulated Ambulatory Motion

Pat. No. 4,580,569

Filed: December 15, 1983

Issued: April 8, 1986

Title: Apparatus and Method for Muscle Stimulation

Patent Assignee: Wright State University, Dayton, Ohio

With the future goal of enabling paralyzed individuals to walk again, Jerrold S. Petrofsky invented a number of pioneering muscle stimulation devices.

Stephen G. Phillips

Mobil Starting Gate for Harness Racing

Pat. No. 2,497,370

Filed: July 18, 1946

Issued: February 14, 1950

Title: Starting Gate for Harness Horses

Inductee Ohio Harness Racing Hall of Fame

Stephen G. Phillips came from Greene County, Ohio. His invention of a starting gate that was attached to an automobile is still in use today.

Percy Pierce (?-1962)

Toy Airplane

Pat. No. 1,348,373

Filed: March 6, 1919

Issued: August 3, 1920

Title: Toy Aeroplane

Percy Pierce was an important early airplane modeler. He constructed a twin pusher type model airplane, the Pierce monoplane, in 1912, which held the American record for longest flights for a period of time. There is no evidence that there was a patent issued for this model airplane. From 1910 to 1915, he was President of the Philadelphia Model Airplane Club and was once champion long distance model flyer of the United States. He became model editor of Aeronautics and then general editor of Fly. He lived in Dayton sometime between the years 1915 and 1919. The above toy airplane patent was filed by Pierce when he lived in Dayton.

Hiram Abial Pitts (1799-1860)

John Avery Pitts (1799-1859)

Threshing Machine

Pat. No. 542

Filed: (not stated on patent)

Issued: December 29, 1837

Title: Machine for Thrashing and Separating Grain

The twin brothers were born in Clinton, Maine. John and Hiram obtained the first patent for a threshing machine. Known as the "Bufflao-Pitts Thresher," John Avery Pitts left Maine and began manufacturing the threshing machine first in Albany, New York, then Rochester, and later in Springfield, Ohio. John later received a gold medal at the Paris Exposition of 1855 for his invention of an attachment for measuring and registering the number of bushels threshed and bagged. He died in Buffalo in 1859. Hiram also invented a number of improvements in threshing machines. He left Maine for Alton, Illinois in 1847. He would later settle in Chicago and died there in 1860.

Roy Joseph Plunkett, Ph.D (1910-1994)

Tetrafluoroethylene Polymers - Teflon®

Pat. No. 2,230,654

Filed: July 1, 1939

Issued: February 4, 1941

Title: Tetrafluoroethylene polymers

Patent Assignee: Kinetic Chemicals, Inc., Wilmington, Delaware

Inductee National Inventors Hall of Fame, 1985

Dr. Roy J. Plunkett was born just north of Dayton in New Carlisle, Ohio. Plunkett earned his Ph.D. at Ohio State University. He serendipitously discovered tetrafluoroethylene resin (Teflon ®) while researching refrigerants for the Du Pont Company.

James Ritty (1837-1918)

John Ritty

Cash Register

Pat. No. 221,360

Filed: March 26, 1879

Issued: November 4, 1879

Title: Cash Register and Indicator

James Ritty owned the Pony House Restaurant. Because of employee theft, James and his brother John developed the first practical cash register, "the Incorruptible Cashier," in Dayton, Ohio. James Ritty later sold his patent to John H. Patterson for $6,500.00 in 1884. Patterson and John F. Heady would improve on Ritty's design and receive their own patent, "Cash Indicator and Register, pat. no. 386,401 on July 17, 1888. John H. Patterson would go on to form the National Cash Register Company.

John J. Rose

Jet Engine Reignition Spark Plug

Pat. No. 2,938,147

Filed: February 17, 1959

Issued: May 24, 1960

Title: Continuous Ignition System for a Turbojet Engine

Patent Assignee: United States Government

John J. Rose was a self-educated engineer and inventor. Rose's innovations focused primarily on aviation engine ignition systems.

Linus E. Russell

Washington Obenchain

Steam Powered Vehicle

Pat. No. 341,858

Filed: March 18, 1886

Issued: May 11, 1886

Title: Self Propelling Vehicle

Linus Russell and Washington Obenchain were from Springfield, Ohio. Today, the boiler section of the "Self Propelling Vehicle" is on display at the Heritage Center of Clark County, Springfield, Ohio.

Henry W. Seeler (1907-?)

Portable Breathing Resuscitator

Pat. No. 2,581,450

Filed: February 26, 1951

Issued: January 8, 1952

Title: Resuscitator

Patent Assignee: United States Government

Christian R. Shiveley (1845-?)

Steam Tractor

Pat. No. 174,706

Filed: January 11, 1876

Issued: March 14, 1876

Title: Improvement in Traction-Engines

Christian Shiveley grew up on a farm in New Lebanon, Ohio, just eight miles from Dayton. A unique feature of the traction engine was its use of a differential, the first time on a powered vehicle. The differential allowed one wheel to be held in a relatively fixed position while the other wheels continued to move and assisted in turning the vehicle.

James Floyd Smith (1884-1956)

Modern Parachute

Pat. No. 1,340,423

Filed: July 27, 1918

Issued: May 18, 1920

Title: Parachute

Patent Assignee: Floyd Smith Aerial Equipment Co., San Diego, California

Floyd Smith, in conjunction with a parachute research team at McCook Field in Dayton, and Leslie Leroy Irvin, developed a 28-foot backpack parachute. On April 28, 1919, Irvin jumped from a de Havilland biplane traveling at 100 miles per hour at an altitude of 1,500 feet. After Irvin bailed out of the airplane and falling free, he manually reached the ripcord handle and pulled it, and the parachute fully deployed at 1,000 feet. Irvin became the first American to jump from an airplane and manually open a parachute in midair. Floyd Smith was also a test pilot and instructor for Glenn Martin. Smith is buried in Burbank, California under the dome of the "Portal of the Folded Wings" along with Charles E. Taylor, who built the first motor for the Wright Brother's "Flying Machine." Irvin received a British Patent, 138,059 (1920), for "Improvements in safety parachute pack device."

George Robert Stibitz, Ph.D. (1904-1995)

Modern Digital Computer

Pat. No. 2,668,661

Filed: April 19, 1941

Issued: February 9, 1954

Title: Complex Computer

Patent assignee: Bell Telephone Laboratories, N.Y., N.Y.

Inductee National Inventors Hall of Fame, 1983

George R. Stibitz is recognized as the father of the modern digital computer. Stibitz joined Bell Telephone Laboratories as a mechanical engineer in 1930. His work convinced him of the need to develop techniques for handling large amounts of complex mathematical data much more quickly than traditional manual systems. Born in York, Pennsylvania, Stibitz childhood was spent in Dayton, Ohio where his father taught at one of the local colleges. Because of his interest and aptitude for science and engineering his parents enrolled him in Charles Kettering's Moraine Park, an experimental school in Dayton. In 1926, Stibitz graduated from Denison University with a Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics. He also received a Ph.D. from Cornell in 1930.

Reuben B. Swank (1850-1913)

Flying Machine

Pat. No. 1,020,628

Filed: June 1, 1911

Issued: March 19, 1912

Title: Flying Machine

Flying Machine

Pat. No. 1,089,880

Filed: April 17, 1913

Issued: March 10, 1914

Title: Aeroplane

The Wright Brothers were not the only local inventors working on powered flight. Rueben B. Swank filed for two patents for flying machines. Swank operated a carriage and bicycle repair shop in Dayton and was supposedly working on a "flying machine" in the mid-1890s. Of particular interest here is his second patent for the "Aeroplane." The plane was unique in that it included one push propeller and two-fixed horizontal "lifting" propellers at the wing tips.

Roman Szpur

Computerized Health Function Monitors

Pat. No. 3,713,435

Filed: June 5, 1972

Issued: January 30, 1973

Title: Pickup Electrode with Rigid Electrolyte Cup

Patent Assignee: NDM Corporation, Dayton, Ohio

Richard W. Treharne

Water Treatment Process

Pat. No. 3,823,081

Filed: December 18, 1972

Issued: July 9, 1974

Title: Acid Mine Water Treatment Process

Patent Assignee: Kettering Scientific Research, Inc., Yellow Springs, Ohio

Richard W. Treharne, of Dayton, developed a process of turning polluted mine water drainage into drinking water.

John Butler Tytus, Jr. (1875-1944)

Process of Continuous Rolling Strip Steel

Pat. No. 1,581,039

Filed: May 1, 1923

Issued: April 13, 1926

Title: Process in Rolling Hot Metal

Patent Assignee: American Rolling Mill Co. (Armco), Middletown, Ohio

John Butler Tytus, Jr. was born in Middletown, Ohio. In 1904, he applied for work at the American Rolling Mill, or Armco. It was there that he developed a method of continuously rolling sheets of steel (1918) which produced higher quality sheets more economically and in mass quantities primarily for the emerging automobile industry. Tytus's invention of the "continuous hot strip mill" has been listed as one of the ten greatest of modern times. It made possible the fast and cheap production of quality rolled steel sheets, used in the manufacture of appliances, automobiles, airplanes and thousands of other items. John Butler Tytus, Jr. never looked like a steel worker, but his invention of the continuous wide strip mill made the U.S. into a world industrial giant.

Peter N. Van Schaik (? -1989)

Attachment Device for Astronauts

Pat. No. 3,199,626

Filed: June 3, 1964

Issued: August 10, 1965

Title: Instant Bonding Attachment Mechanism

Patent Assignee: United States Government

Peter N. Van Schaik worked at Wright Patterson Air Force Base, Fairborn, Ohio and developed the astronaut-maneuvering unit for the Gemini Space Program. The device enabled astronauts to carry life support and propulsion when they were on a "spacewalk" (extra-vehicular activity). The first Gemini astronaut to leave his vehicle was Edward White, II. White exited from the Gemini 4 space capsule on June 3, 1965. On his spacewalk, White used a small hand-held propulsion gun for maneuvering in space. When he pulled the trigger, the gun released jets of nitrogen that propelled him in the opposite direction. It was the first personal maneuvering unit used in space. Van Schaik got the idea for the Astronaut Maneuvering Unit from the Buck Rogers comic strip. The above patent is one of his other contributions to the United States space program.

George Matthew Verity (1865-1943)

Putting Green Cup

Pat. No. 1,329,732

Filed: January 9, 1919

Issued: February 3, 1920

Title: Putting Green Cup

George M. Verity was the founder of American Rolling Mill Company in Middletown, Ohio. Better known today as AK Steel, ARMCO became known for a number of important innovations. In 1903, it produced the first steel specifically for motors and other magnetic applications. In 1909, Armco received a patent for high-purity iron that became known as ARMCO iron. A year later, the company established the first research department in the steel industry. In 1919, Verity invented the modern putting green cup. In 1915, Verity introduced golf to the Middletown area with the founding of Forest Hills, now called Brown's Run Country Club.

John Virag

Railroad Crossing Gate and Signal

Pat. No. 1,344,525

Filed: November 17, 1917

Issued: June 22, 1920

Title: Signal and Gate-Operating Means for Railroad-Crossings

Ernest Henry Volwiler (1893-1992)

General Anesthetic (Pentothal)

Pat. No. 2,153,729

Filed: April 16, 1934

Issued: April 11, 1939

Title: Thiobarbituric Acid Derivatives

Patent Assignee: Abbott Laboratories, North Chicago, Illinois

Inductee National Inventors Hall of Fame, 1986

Dr. Ernest H. Volwiler was born in Hamilton, Ohio and was a graduate of Miami University (1911). Volwiler discovered the general anesthetic Pentothal with his colleague Dr. Donalee L. Tabern while working at Abbott Laboratories in 1934.

George Walther (1876-1961)

Cast Steel Wheels for Trucks

Pat. No. 1,393,928

Filed: February 25, 1920

Issued: October 18, 1921

Title: Steel Truck-Wheel

Patent Assignee: Dayton Steel Foundry Co., Dayton, Ohio

William Needham Whiteley (Jr.) (1835-1911)

Harvester Attachment

Pat. No. 16,131

Filed: (not stated on patent)

Issued: 25 November 1856

Title: Harvester Rake

The Whiteley family was well known in Clark County, Ohio. They were the founders of an agricultural implement business that made Springfield, Ohio famous. William N. Whiteley patented over 42 types of harvesters and improvements. He also held numerous harvester patents with his father, uncle, and brother, Andrew, Abner, and Amos, respectively. His Champion Machine Company, formerly the Whiteley & Fassler Co. founded 1852, was one of the largest manufacturers of farm machinery in the nineteenth century. Its most famous product was the Champion reaper and mower. McCormick Company purchased Champion Machine Company in 1902. The company eventually became the International Harvester Company.

Orville Wright (1871-1948)

Wilbur Wright (1867-1912)

Wing Warping

Pat. No. 821,393

Filed: March 23, 1903

Issued: May 22, 1906

Title: Flying Machine

Automatic Stabilizer

Pat. No. 1,075,533

Filed: February 10, 1908

Issued: October 14, 1913

Title: Flying Machine

Patent Assignee: Wright Company, Dayton, Ohio

Yaw Control

Pat. No. 987,662

Filed: February 17, 1908

Issued: March 21, 1911

Title: Flying Machine

Patent Assignee: Wright Company, Dayton, Ohio

Vertical Rudders

Pat. No. 1,122,348

Filed: February 17, 1908

Issued: December 29, 1914

Title: Flying Machine

Patent Assignee: Wright Company, Dayton, Ohio

Flexing Horizontal Rudder (elevator)

Pat. No. 908,929

Filed: July 15, 1908

Issued: January 5, 1909

Title: Mechanism for Flexing the Rudder of a Flying Machine

Orville Wright

James M. H. Jacobs

Split Flap

Pat. No. 1,504,663

Filed: May 31, 1921

Issued: August 12, 1924

Title: Airplane

Patent Assignee: Dayton-Wright Company, Dayton, Ohio

Orville Wright

Toy

Pat. No. 1,523,989

Filed: November 10, 1923

Issued: January 20, 1925

Title: Toy

Patent Assignee: The Miami Wood Specialty Company, Dayton, Ohio

Inductees National Inventors Hall of Fame, 1975
Inductees National Aviation Hall of Fame, 1962

Beginning their study of aeronautics in 1896 while building bicycles in Dayton, the Wrights constructed their "flying machine" in 1903. Orville and Wilbur Wright achieved the first powered, sustained, and controlled flight of an airplane at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina on December 17, 1903. This first plane had a 12-horsepower engine running 1,200 rpm and weighed 170 pounds. It also had propellers designed by the Wrights that ended up exceeding their theoretical calculations. After the first flight, the Wright Brothers conducted further experiments at Huffman prairie northeast of Dayton, Ohio. By the end of 1904, they could stay in the air for five minutes, and in 1905, they sustained flight for over 24 miles.

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NOTE: The United States Patent and Trademark (www.uspto.gov) web search engine for patents and the European Patent Office (ep.espacenet.com) web search engine were used to verify particular patents. You can retrieve a copy of the listed patent by doing a patent number search at the USPTO web site.

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