29 replies to this topic

[Steph]

Of course I have lots of patents bookmarked in different places to add as I come across them again. I intended to do something like this here, Legal Documents Pertaining To Marbles, but I'm starting over with this.







The first two topics are going to be a little offbeat and might end up getting relegated to a post further down. They're first because they are two of my most recent searches so they're fresh on my mind.



Marbles or other glass balls used in reflectors:


Listed in order of filing date but that wasn't sufficient. In process of adding more date info.

Note 1: list has "too many" non-spherical ones -- and even a non-glass example. might keep, might not. they show some of the "competition".

Note 2: no idea if I've found the best, earliest solid glass sphere examples. There are so many different ways they might have been described. So far I've only searched at google patents. I don't know if they have all the patents.

Note 3: there are later uses of glass spheres in reflector devices than what I've included. My search was mostly for info related to early automobile and highway reflectors.

Note 4: reminder to look for "glass balls" or "spheres" or whatnot in different contexts after the reflector search is over.

Note 5: it's possible that what I am looking for wouldn't have been called a "reflector". Maybe a "signal"? I need to approach this another way. Maybe read the patents. LOL. That way I can learn some more about the language, and maybe get some other leads.


[indent]
1883: Patent #276428, Signal for Locomotive Head-Lights (this is a hollow glass ball filled with liquid)

Nov. 18, 1912: Patent #1054274, Sign (the Burleigh patent referred to below, "lens" are used, not marbles, refers to the casing structure in patent #1,030,499)
(awarded Feb. 25, 1913)

1925: Patent #1624300, Reflector-Jewel Mounting (not a marble, faceted)

Aug. 18, 1927: Patent #1785422, Highway Signal (uses translucent "red glass balls")
(awarded Dec. 16, 1930)

April 16, 1930: Patent #1817646, Highway Sign ("spherical balls which may be of red glass")
(awarded Aug. 4, 1931)

[indent]Reissued: Re. 18438
(April 26, 1932)[/indent] May 28, 1930: Patent #1933633, Reflector (something about mounting reflectors, might not specify shape of reflector buttons)
(awarded Nov. 7, 1933)


Oct. 8, 1930: Patent #1881588, Light Reflecting Unit (uses "a simple transparent glass sphere, as for example a glass marble")
(awarded Oct. 11, 1932)

1930: Patent #1858382, Reflector Button and Holding Means Therefor (not a marble, something molded to a special shape)

Mar 9, 1932: Patent #1955179, Illuminated Sign (uses buttons of some sort)
(awarded Apr 17, 1934)

July 30, 1932: Patent #2014558, Street Sign (This appears to be the patent "co-pending application" referred to in #1993595 below.)
(awarded Sept. 17, 1935)

Jan. 3, 1933: Patent #1993595, Light Reflecting Device (The language suggests this might be first item of this type to use ordinary toy marbles but see #1,881,588 above. #1,881,588 hadn't been awarded yet, so perhaps the inventor here was unaware the other had been filed. The inventor had a "co-pending application filed July 20, 1932". This patent refers to Burleigh Patent No. 1,054,274)
(awarded March 5, 1935)

1933: Patent #1974575, Reflecting Sign (not yet sure what the reflecting "unit" is here)

1935: Patent #2095932, Reflector Button (specially shaped)

June 24, 1935: Patent #2086314, Light Reflecting Device
(awarded July 6, 1937)

1937: Patent #2177920, Reflector (Resin, not glass)

1938: Patent #2242382, Reflector Button ("hemispherical" "lens")

1939: Patent #2200339, Translucent Display (uses "spherical translucent inserts")

1940: Patent #2314566, Reflector

1941: Patent #2294930, Reflex Light Reflector (starting to get complicated)

1942: Patent #2345644, Light Reflecting Sign or Marker

1942: Patent #2367154, Reflector Element[/indent]






Marble shooters:

many patents coming soon (edit: well, obviously they didn't come "soon" -- but there sure have been a lot of 'em patented)






Others for later lists:

[indent]Aug. 12, 1890: Design #20104, Shipping and Exhibiting Case



[/indent]

[Steph]

Well, that list of reflector patents started getting superlong, with lots of extra notes, because I never found THE patent I was looking for.



The goal of my original search was to find the originator(s) of reflecting devices using marbles.

However, I now realize I had a preconceived notion of what sort of device I wanted to see. I still haven't found a patent for such a device. Well, not a single patent.



But I did remember seeing patent information on a reflector sold on ebay, so I checked that out and found three dates. It appears that multiple patents were involved.

So far I have one match from above:

[indent]May 28, 1930: Patent #1933633, Reflector (something about mounting reflectors, might not specify shape of reflector buttons)
(awarded Nov. 7, 1933)[/indent]

.... oops, have to go, I'll finish this later.






I don't know if this is a match for the 3rd patent, but it's cute:

[indent]July 20, 1933: Patent #1946424, Direction Indicator (check out the picture of the signal)
(awarded Feb. 6, 1934)[/indent] (not totallly sure what the 3rd date on the reflector is)






The June 18, 1929 patent might be tough to be sure about. It looks like an unusually large number of patents were awarded on this date. My experience isn't much so I don't know what's typical, but some of the patents awarded this day had been applied for in the 1830's.

possibilities for the June 18, 1929 patent:

[indent]Sept. 19, 1924: Patent #1717544, Vehicle Lamp Signal (bright idea of having headlights on both sides of the car instead of just in the middle, where you wouldn't be able to tell if an oncoming vehicle was a car or a motorcycle)

Jan. 7, 1924: Patent #1717873, Journal Bearing (don't know what this is, and don't recognize it in the photo but ... I could easily have missed something, and maybe the item in the photo is only one part of a larger item)


[/indent]

[Steph]

Results of a Peltier search. Haven't read them in detail yet.

Patent number: 508748
Filing date: Jun 10, 1892
Issue date: Nov 14, 1893
Inventor: PETER V. PELTIER
Machinery for rolling glass



Patent number: 787588
Filing date: Aug 18, 1904
Issue date: Apr 18, 1905
Inventor: SELLERS H. PELTIER
Art of working glass and mechanism therefor


Patent number: 1927650
Filing date: Jul 21, 1928
Issue date: Sep 19, 1933
Inventor: Sellers H. Peltier
Assignee: The Peltier Glass Company
Method of and device for making vitreous objects (Is this the NLR maker?)


Patent number: 1865787
Filing date: Aug 8, 1929
Issue date: Jul 5, 1932
Inventor: SELLERS H. PELTIER
Assignee: THE PELTIER GLASS COM
Device for making vitreous like objects


Patent number: 1946879
Filing date: Feb 6, 1931
Issue date: Feb 1934
Inventor: Sellers H. Peltier
Means for and method of making agatized bodies (Is this a regular rainbo maker? - discusses color markings on the surface of the marble)


Patent number: 1972854
Filing date: Oct 13, 1933
Issue date: Sep 11, 1934
Inventor: George W. Angerstein
Method of applying indicia to rounded surfaces of small radius (This is the patent for picture marbles.)

Patent number: 2302886
Filing date: Sep 18, 1940
Issue date: Nov 24, 1942
Inventor: Sellers H. Peltier
Assignee: The Peltier Glass Company
Means for molding glass articles

[Steph]

Patents with Berry Pink connections (mosty not marbles)


Patent number: 1872640
Filing date: Apr 22, 1931
Issue date: Aug 1932
Inventor: Berry Pink
Assignee: The Rosenthal Co.
Compartment bag for marbles or the like


Patent number: 1945216
Filing date: Jan 10, 1933
Issue date: Jan 30, 1934
Inventor: Charles L. Dunham
Assignee: one-half to Berry Pink
Nut Lock


Patent number: D113878
Filing date: Dec 10, 1938
Issue date: Mar 21, 1939
Inventor: Berry Pink
Design for a pocket calendar


Patent number: D125354
Filing date: Oct 21, 1940
Issue date: Feb 18, 1941
Inventor: Berry Pink
Design for a display stand

[Steph]

Morris Rosenthal patent(s)


Of course, Berry Pink's compartment bag patent belonged to the Rosenthal company. And then Morris Rosenthal is the inventor on this one. This is a cellophane package.


Patent number: 1983499
Filing date: Jan 20, 1934
Issue date: Dec 1934
Inventor: Rosenthal
Marble Package




Rosenthal trivia: As a jobber, Morris Rosenthal apparently had his foot solidly in the door of the marble business of the USA. For at least a few years. Not sure how long he stayed at the door or whether he really committed to walking over the threshhold. His brother Benjamin was HUGE in the playing card business though. Benjamin was even more of a king in cards than Pink was with marbles.

LOL ... yes, that's totally off topic. I just happen to find the Rosenthals intriguing. I can't help suspecting that their success was a challenge to Berry.

[Steph]

Marble Shooters:

just a start ... going to keep going until I recognize one like Pinx posted at Marble Mental ... or until I wander away ;-)

Most of the information is copied from the main Google Patents page for each patent. I've caught a few typos, and a couple of places where the info on the main page was incomplete. For example, there might have been more inventors than were credited on the main page. I haven't checked all of those.



Patent number: 146563
Filing date: Oct 18, 1873
Issue date: Jan 20, 1874
Inventor: JOHN ALEXANDER


Patent number: 174780
Filing date: Jan 2, 1876
Issue date: Mar 14, 1876
Inventor: ROBERT W. CHURCHILL
Assignee: Albert D. Laws


Patent number: 184717
Filing date: Apr 25, 1876
Issue date: 1876
Inventor: ALBERT D. LAWS


Patent number: 262644
Filing date: Mar 31, 1882
Issue date: Aug 1882
Inventor: JAMES F. CONNELLY


Patent number: 379913
Filing date: Jan 19, 1888
Issue date: Mar 1888
Inventor: ROBERT N. STOCKTON
Assignee: William F. Cramer


Patent number: 464407
Filing date: Apr 22, 1891
Issue date: Dec 1, 1891
Inventor: Charles E. Wilkinson and Gustav O. Wendell


Patent number: 472608
Filing date: Oct 29, 1891
Issue date: Apr 12, 1892
Inventor: WILLIAM W. RAND


Patent number: 496539
Filing date: Jul 2, 1892
Issue date: May 2, 1893
Inventor: JOSEPH REINERT


Patent number: 518295
Filing date: Mar 16, 1893
Issue date: Apr 17, 1894
Inventor: ELIZABETH M. VELSOR


Patent number: 552634
Filing date: Oct 14, 1895
Issue date: Jan 7, 1896
Inventor: Walter E. Everitt


Patent number: 582474
Filing date: Nov 10, 1896
Issue date: May 11, 1897
Inventor: GEORGE P. HOFMEISTER
Gameboard, with a marble shooter in it.


Patent number: 1302378
Filing date: Oct 23, 1916
Issue date: Apr 1919
Inventor: Kennedy


Patent number: 1337934
Filing date: Jan 14, 1919
Issue date: Apr 1920
Inventor: Madison


Patent number: 1543144
Filing date: Apr 9, 1925
Issue date: Jun 1925
Inventor: Wurm


Patent number: 2129461
Filing date: Jan 19, 1933
Issue date: Sep 1938
Inventor: Earl A. Boerger


Patent number: 1988191
Filing date: May 2, 1934
Issue date: Jan 1935
Inventor: Donato


Patent number: 2279766
Filing date: Jun 6, 1940
Issue date: Apr 1942
Inventor: Truesdell


Patent number: 2600883
Filing date: Dec 23, 1947
Issue date: Jun 1952
Inventor: Frederick H. King
(plunger guide for marble shooters)


Patent number: 2601070
Filing date: Oct 16, 1950
Issue date: Jun 1952
Inventor: Teschel et al.


Patent number: 2791210
Filing date: Jan 4, 1955
Issue date: May 1957
Inventor: Vog et al.


Patent number: 3183903
Filing date: May 16, 1963
Issue date: May 1965
Inventor: John O. Thompson


Patent number: D201692
Filing date: Jan 11, 1965
Issue date: Jul 1965
Inventor: Edmund R. Braun


Patent number: 4978124
Filing date: Oct 16, 1989
Issue date: Dec 18, 1990
Inventors: Robert L. Brown, Robert D. Shilen, Robert F. Rosnak
Assignee: The Quaker Oats Company

[Steph]

Samuel C. Dyke


Apparatus for rounding plastic-clay slugs
Patent number: 432127
Filing date: Feb 6, 1890
Issue date: Jul 15, 1890

Machine for molding marbles from plastic material
Patent number: 463418
Filing date: Jun 27, 1891
Issue date: Nov 1891

[Steph]

James Harvey Leighton


Manufacture of solid glass spheres
Patent number: 462083
Filing date: Mar 28, 1891
Issue date: Oct 27, 1891

[Steph]

Martin F. Christensen


Apparatus for producing metallic spheres
Patent number: 632336
Filing date: Mar 7, 1899
Issue date: Sep 5, 1899

Machine for making spherical bodies or balls
Patent number: 802495
Filing date: Dec 19, 1902
Issue date: Oct 24, 1905

[migbar]

Regarding the Peltier patents above, the one that you asked if it was for the NLR's, I believe was used for the "Miller" swirls. The one that you asked if it was for the regular rainbos, was used for the NLR's.

mike b.

[Steph]

thanks

[ann]

migbar, on 16 August 2010 - 08:52 AM, said:

Regarding the Peltier patents above, the one that you asked if it was for the NLR's, I believe was used for the "Miller" swirls. The one that you asked if it was for the regular rainbos, was used for the NLR's.

mike b.

Oh dear. Do we have to go through this again? Sure, why not. Hi Migbar!

Steph, check back through the archived threads for "Idle question for an expert," re the patent Mike thinks was used for the "Miller" swirls . . .

I still respectfully (and fondly) disagree!

[migbar]

Hi to Ann, who is still respectfully wrong about that one making the feathered slags.

[lstmmrbls]

I am wrong also!!!!

[migbar]

Yes, you are, Galen.

[Steph]

Idle Question For An Expert

[Steph]

Patents and other items involving the name "Miller", to be sorted later.


1. Process and apparatus for feeding glass

Inventor: William J. Miller
Assignee: Hartford Empire Company

Patent number: 1717802
Filing date: Jan 31, 1921
Issue date: Jun 18, 1929



2. Machine for Manufacturing Marbles and Similar Articles

Inventor: William J. Miller
Assignee: Victor J. Greene

Patent number: 1601699
Filing date: Dec 12, 1924
Issue date: Sep 28, 1926



3. Was this the one which is called THE Hartford-Empire patent?

Process and Apparatus for Feeding Glass

Inventor: William J. Miller
Assignee: Hartford

Patent number: 1942035
Filing date: Dec 20, 1929
Issue date: Jan 2, 1934







Material still to be sorted:



Some history as told in 1948

Marble making machinery is mentioned in connection with the William J. Miller Company in Golden Progress: History and Official Program of the 50th Anniversary Celebration of Swissvale, Pennsylvania, 1898-1948. I hadn't realized he had his own company. Was he also affiliated with any particular marble manufacturer?

The book online is broken into parts. The marble mention is on p. 81, found in Part 7.

Title page: Part 2

(click to enlarge - it's kinda large, might need to double click to get to full size)




Mr. Miller had many patents on glass. Plugging in the keywords, miller, glass and swissvale at the Google patents page pulls up many entries.

http://www.google.co...glass+swissvale

Leave out the word "glass" and you get bunches more. He apparently did a lot of work with pottery also. And had a "pottery engineering company", also in Swissvale?







Which if any of his other patents might be connected with marble making?








Reminder to self: Did we once have something specific about a Miller machine being used by a lithographer?

[venwood]

Thanks steph!

[Steph]

Sure thing.

If anything in that batch explains the "Miller swirls", I don't know about it. I can't remember seeing anyone explain the Pelts which go so wild that you might not be able to find their seams.

That's where it seems the problem with the Miller legend is, if I understand correctly. Miller made machines ... but did they have anything to do with swirly Pelts?

[venwood]

I guess everyone needs to make there own decisions on that but it looks like miller was designing and modifing machines starting in 1911. I will read all this several time pretty slow going.Thanks again Stacy