Great Engineer Inventors And Why There Are So Many September 22, - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

September 22, 2016 Robert MacWright, Ph.D., Esq. Director, Technology Transfer Office UMass Amherst

Great Engineer Inventors

And Why There Are So Many

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Famous Inventor Engineers

• Nikola Tesla
• James Watt
• Guglielmo Marconi
• Jan Ernst Matzeliger
• Karl Benz
• Martin Cooper
• Maria Beasley
• Samuel Colt
• Thomas Edison
• Alexander

Graham Bell

• Rudolf Diesel
• The Wright

Brothers

• Samuel Morse
• Igor Sikorsky

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Some Simple Reasons Why

• The Physical Realm is apparent
• Early machines as inspiration
• Commercial value perceptible
• Vast frontiers
• Key discoveries opened doors
• Equipment availability
• Patents to capture value

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Personal Qualities

• Born problem solvers
• Pioneering spirit
• Vision – “seeing around corners”
• Willing to set impossible goals
• Dogged determination
• Belief solutions can be found
• Disdain for mediocrity
• Willing to fail again and again!

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Nicola Tesla

• Studied at Austrian Polytechnic
• Came to work for Edison in 1882
• Edison refused to pay reward
• Started Tesla Electric in 1886
• Patented first AC motor in 1888
• Licensed to George Westinghouse
• Battle between DC and AC
• Powered 1893 World’s fair
• Hydroelectric at Niagra Falls powers Buffalo
• Radio control boat,1898
• Worked 12-21 hours a day

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James Watt

• Self-taught as instrument maker
• Given a workshop at U. Glasgow
• Was asked to repair a Newcomen

engine, a 50-year old design

• Realized 3/ 4ths of energy was lost

cooling the cylinder

• 2 innovations in 1765: a separate

condenser and a steam jacket

• First machine installed in 1776
• Mechanized the Industrial Revolution

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Samuel F.B. Morse

• Charlestown, MA, Yale grad
• Famous painter; Washington, Adams
• England after wife, parents die
• Charles Jackson’s electromagnets
• 1-wire telegraph and code on voyage
• Repeater with Leonard Gale at NYU
• Code expanded to letters by Alfred Vale
• Demo to Congress brings in $30K funding
• Connected DC and Baltimore
• O’Rielly v. Morse, US Supreme Court, declared

Morse the true inventor

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Guglielmo Marconi

• Wireless telegraphy was a dream
• Radio waves were a curiosity
• At age 20, experiments in attic
• Studied the growing literature
• ½ mile at 21; 3.2 mi at 22
• Acclaimed for lectures in 1898
• Sent messages 1550 mi at 28!
• Began regular transatlantic in 1907
• Instrumental in Titanic rescues, 1912
• Began broadcasts in 1922, to become BBC

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Jan Ernst Matzeliger

• Worked in machine shop at 10
• A sailor, came to MA at 22
• Worked at Harvey Bros. Shoe Co.
• “Lasting” of shoes by hand; 50/day
• Lasters went on strike
• Worked long hours for 5 yrs
• 6 patents from 1893-1891
• Could last 150-700 pairs/day!
• Cut cost of shoes in half!

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Karl Benz

• Invented spark ignition, spark plug,

carburetor, clutch, gear shift, radiator

• 1883, formed Benz & Co with bike shop
• Patented first self-propelled vehicle 1886
• Bertha Benz’s famous road trip
• 1909, Blitzen Benz reaches 141mph!
• ME from University of Karlsruhe
• Fiancé buys out partner in

Factory for Machines

• Patents to make money
• 2-cycle engine in 1879

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Martin Cooper

• Illinois Institute of Technology
• Led Motorola communications
• Car phones already available
• Cooper’s idea of a personal phone
• 1973 Motorola approved the project,

team made “the Brick” in 90 days!

• 1973 patent application on the cellular concept:
• verlapping stations and handsets that can switch
• First call to his competitor at AT&T!
• 10 yrs to launch; $100M, 20 yrs before profits!

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Maria Beasley

• Patented the life raft in 1880
• Several patents on barrel

making machines, 1884-1888

• Beasley Standard Barrel Making
• Co. made 100s/day
• Licensed the machine patents to
• il and sugar cos - $20,000/yr!
• Occupation listed as “inventor”
• Displayed her inventions at the

1884 Cotton Centennial Exhibit

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Samuel Colt

• At 15, dreams of the “impossible gun”
• At 18 made a pistol that blew up!
• 1st revolver patent at 23, in 1836
• Cylinder locking bolt, percussion cap
• 1st factory closed in 1843
• Texas Rangers and the Mexican-American War
• 1855 Colt Armory was first assembly line factory
• Fired Rollin White, inventor of the metal cartridge!
• Sold revolvers to the North and the South
• After his death, developed “The Peacemaker”

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Yvonne Brill

• No engineering degree because a woman
• 1940, only woman rocket scientist in U.S.
• Worked on NASA and IMSO Projects
• 1967, invented the hyrdozine resistojet
• Satellites need 2 engines: 1-5 lbs + milipounds
• Solved weight & complexity; one engine, one fuel
• Industry standard for geostationary satellites

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Why Engineers Don’t Patent

• “Only breakthroughs are patentable”
• IPhone patents include rounded corners, finger scrolling
• “My developments are obvious”
• Assume others think like them, apply hindsight
• “Nobody would want it”
• Millions of small-market products make money daily!
• “Patents are un-academic”
• Patents bring new products and services to the public
• “All software should be free as the air”
• Far more Windows users than Linux users

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Don’t Talk Yourself Out of It!

• If you are solving practical problems,

you are inventing!

• Sending a disclosure is easy
• The TTO is there to serve you!
• Some of the best inventions are

elegantly simple, some complex

• Wouldn’t it be exciting to see your

invention make it?

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If in doubt, CALL US!

• We are patentability experts
• We will search patents, markets
• We will make it easy for you
• More often than not there is

something exciting!

• You will learn about patents, and

become an even better inventor

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Bob MacW right Director, Technology Transfer Office UMass Amherst macwright@umass.edu www.umass.edu/ TTO

THANKS!