Patent of the Day: December 8, 1891, US Patent No. 464,676 - Electrode for Secondary Batteries, to William Morrison, of Des Moines, IA, assignor to The Hess Storage Battery Company, of same place; Filed: October 27, 1890.

This month, General Motors will start the delivery of its 2011 model of the Chevrolet Volt. The Volt is a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle with several novel features including a 16 kW·h (10.4 kW·h usable) lithium-ion battery battery pack which can be charged by plugging the car into a 120-240VAC residential electrical outlet. It also has a small 4-cylinder internal combustion engine to power a 55 kW (74 hp) generator to extend the Volt's range when the battery is depleted. 

The credit for building the first successful, four-wheeled electric vehicle in the US goes to the Scottish-born chemist, William Morrison of Des Moines, Iowa. He built his car in 1887 which had its first public appearance a year later in Des Moines' "Seni-Om-Sed" parade. By 1893 his electric car was creating sensation at the Chicago World's Fair. At the heart of Morrison's electric car was an improved battery. Morrison was issued US Patent 464,676 entitled "Electrode for Secondary Batteries" exactly 119 years ago today. 

In his patent, Morrison claimed that the storage batteries of his day were defective because the materials used in their plates are "breaking away" and are deposited on the  "insulating strips or the bottom of the cell, forming a conductor between the anodes thus short-circuiting" the battery. Morrison addressed this problem by covering the battery plates with "glass-wool," (an early type of fiberglass,) since this particular material, while  "practicably indestructible, not being subject to the action of the acid" is of "such porosity as to freely permit the circulation of the gases and the solution." 

                                                  1890 Morrison Electric

To power his 6-passenger car, Morrison used 24 batteries (that had a combined output of 112 amperes at 58 volts,) which were mounted under the car seat. It required 10 hours to recharge the batteries to power the car's 4 hp motor. Morrison sold his 1891 battery patent to the American Battery Company for $21,000.00. He also moved to Chicago where the company was located and continued making improvements to his battery for which he obtained scores of additional patents. 

As for his electric car, however, Morrison did not bother to obtain a patent. It is difficult to say whether he sensed early on the uphill competition it faces vis-a-vis cars powered by internal-combustion engines. In the meantime, the technology for gasoline-powered automobiles began to overtake battery-powered electric cars. By 1908, in Detroit, Michigan, Henry Ford started the mass production of his Model T automobiles. 

It almost took a century to revive people's interest in the electric car. Thanks to the unrelenting awareness-raising campaigns that environmentally-conscious people mounted, present-day electric hybrid cars are gaining popularity once again. The price for this technology is still prohibitive. It will take the innovating drive of a William Morrison to make these cars affordable.

Links with useful information are:
Morrison, William: http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/99999999/FAMOUSIOWANS/41217016/Morrison-William   
The Morrison Electric Automobile & The William Morrison Co.: http://www.american-automobiles.com/Electric-Cars/Morrison-Electric.html 
Early Electric Car Timeline: http://www.earlyelectric.com/timeline.html 

Patent of the Day: US Patent No. 942,699 - Method of Making Insoluble Product of Phenol and Formaldehyde, to Leo Hendrik Baekeland of Yonkers, NY; Filed: 07/13/1907.

If we are to establish a specific day to mark the beginning of "The Age of Plastic,"* it should be December 7. On this day 101 years ago, US Patent 942,699 entitled "Method of Making Insoluble Product of Phenol and Formaldehyde" was issued to Leo Hendrik Baekeland of Yonkers, NY. 

What Leo H. Baekeland (1863 - 1944) did at his Yonkers laboratory in 1907 was mix the disinfectant carbolic acid (phenol) with the preservative formaldehyde to produce a synthetic substance he decided to call "Bakelite," somewhat immodestly, after himself. The claim in his patent sounds esoteric though, "the production of hard, insoluble and infusible condensation products of phenols and formaldehyde." 

The Belgian-born Baekeland was a true chemical genius. By the 1890s, he already earned fame by inventing an improved photographic paper wherein images can be developed by means of artificial light. He called his invention that freed photographers from relying solely on sunlight Velox. At age 35, Baekeland sold his Velox photographic paper to Kodak founder, George Eastman, for $1,000,000 thereby setting a trend that has been emulated by young innovators of today.

What prompted Baekeland to pursue Bakelite was the search for a synthetic substitute to shellac, a secretion that Laccifer lacca beetles deposited on certain Southeast Asian trees. At the advent of electrification during the early years of the 20th century, the use of shellac as insulator for wires and coils became widespread driving its market price to rise exponentially.

While Bakelite was not the first plastic (John Wesley Hyatt already had a patent on his Celluloid as early as 1869,) Baekeland's plastic was the first 100% synthetic thus very safe and stable. Celluloid on the other hand, since it was nothing more than a solid nitrocellulose, burns (and, in the case of colliding celluloid billiard balls, explodes!)

Needless to say, it was a breeze for Bakelite to gain universal use. Soon, jewelry, ornaments, combs, pens, toys, electrical appliances were all made from this plastic. When restrictions on metal use was imposed during World War II, Bakelite was even proposed as copper substitute in minting US pennies!

However, the ubiquitous applications of plastic that started with Bakelite gave new meaning to the word. Dustin Hoffman's character in the 1960's movie, "The Graduate," described the malaise of the times with the famous line: "I just want to say one word to you. Just one word: plastics." Credit and ATM cards, which, as we all know, are all made of plastic have added a new dimension of its meaning for our time. 

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* Note: It can be argued that a patent's filing date, which, in L. H. Baekeland's case being  July 13, 1907 seems more accurate in tracing the beginning of "The Age of Plastic." If I do  that, however, I foresee some problems it will create in my future patent blogs, say,  in describing an invention that ushered in "The Computer Age," etc., etc.

The US Patent Office's practice of affixing a filing date on patents only started in 1873. Prior to that, patents did not contain this information except in rare cases when inventors wrote in dates in their patents, usually found at the last sentence of the document. Given the importance of both issuance and filing dates, I will make sure to include these information in my blog when available.

Useful links re L. H. Baekeland and Bakelite: The Bakelite Museum http://www.bakelitemuseum.de/ 

Patent of the Day: US Patent No. 487,460 - Sectional Stock Case, to Otto H. L. Wernicke of Minneapolis, MN; Filed: 04/09/1892.

   118 years ago today, US Patent No.487,460 - Sectional Stock Case was issued to Otto H. L. Wernicke of Minneapolis, MN. Wernicke's invention popularly known as the stackable bookcases, was an important innovation in filing system.

   Otto Heinrich Louis Wernicke (1862 - 1930), son of a German immigrant from Vaethen, Germany, was born in Dixville (later Hayton), Wisconsin in 1862. After attending business college in Fond du Lac, WI, Wernicke took several jobs: a druggist bookkeeper; a salesman of wire binders, plows and insurance; a fireman and a brakeman for the Chicago, Burlington, & Quincy Railroad; a corn grower in Topeka, KS; a state and later a general agent for a South Dakota firm. He invented a stackable bookcase for which he applied a patent on April 9, 1892. Two months later, he incorporated Wernicke & Company in Minneapolis to manufacture his invention.
   In 1895, O. H. L. Wernicke resigned from his last job so he can devote full time to his business. In 1897, he  transferred his company to Grand Rapids, MI still retaining the same name. A year later the Globe Company of Cincinnati, OH, a manufacturer of office appliances, (which was founded in 1885 by businessman and inventor, Henry C. Yeiser,) became a licensee of the Wernicke Company to manufacture sectional cases under the trade name "Globe Wernicke." The two companies merged in 1899 and assumed the corporate name The Globe Wernicke Company. O. H. L. Wernicke became its secretary and general manager.
   Even before the merger, Wernecke continued to improve on his stackable bookcases for which he obtained several patents. He became the company's vice president and general manager in 1900. Two years later, O. H. Wernicke resigned from his posts which was followed by a patent litigation involving him and the company.
   Meanwhile The Globe-Wernicke Company continued to expand. It moved its US headquarters from Grand Rapids to Cincinnati, OH with manufacturing plants in Norwood, a suburb of Cincinnati. The Globe-Wernicke Company also expanded to Canada and Europe with branches in  England, France, Belgium and Austria.
   In 1916, O. H. L. Wernicke moved to Gull Point, FL to manage a tar and turpentine company he purchased in 1905. His interest in resin and turpentine manufacture led him to organize the Pine Institute of America in 1927. In Florida, Wernicke continued his inventive activities resulting in numerous wood-related tools and machines of his own designs as well as an improved process for obtaining resin from trees. O. H. L. Wernicke died in Gull Point, FL on August 20, 1930. 
   To this day, his stackable bookcases are much sought as collectibles.
   Sources of information on O. H. L. Wernecke: p. 53 - 54, Volume 25, National Cyclopedia of American Biographies.
   The following links provide additional information on O. H. L. Wernicke, The Globe-Wernicke Company and the stackable bookcases: a) The History of Stackable Bookcases http://news-antique.com/?id=781887
b) Globe Wernicke Company, Norwood Historical Society (Norwood, OH)
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ohnhs2/Globe-Wernicke.html