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Patents

The compound eyes of a robber fly

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These New Solar Cells Are Modeled After a Fly’s Eye

Stanford University researchers may have found a way for perovskites to compete with silicon in the solar panel market

Unlike Samuel Morse's one-key telegraph, Baudot's used five keys.

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The Roots of Computer Code Lie in Telegraph Code

Émile Baudot, born a year after the first long-distance telegraph message was sent, helped advance the technology

Rebecca Richards-Kortum was named a MacArthur Foundation Fellow of 2016.

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The Professor With a Genius For Global Health

Rebecca Richards-Kortum and her students at Rice University are designing low-cost devices that can help mothers and babies in a big way

A Piggly Wiggly in 1939.

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The Bizarre Story of Piggly Wiggly, the First Self-Service Grocery Store

What’s in a name?

The familiar home vacuum was immediately predated by the carpet sweeper.

The Vacuum Cleaner Was Harder to Invent Than You Might Think

The original vacuum cleaner required a number of improvements before becoming the household staple it is today

And you thought your alarm clock was rough.

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11 Cool, Funny or Just Plain Strange Patents for Back to School

From alarm clocks that pummel you in the head to ingenious devices to save your crayon nubs, a peek into the patent archives for back to school season

Philo T. Farnsworth got his big idea while plowing a field. He was 14, by the way.

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The Farmboy Who Invented Television

The inventor of television’s career presages many of the good and bad things about Silicon Valley

The first can opener was a blade that sawed around the can's edge, leaving a jagged rim.

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Why the Can Opener Wasn’t Invented Until Almost 50 Years After the Can

The first ‘can opener’ was a hammer and chisel

An early adding machine, c. 1890, invented by William Seward Burroughs, grandfather of the beat writer.

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How America’s First Adding Machine is Connected to ‘Naked Lunch’

William Seward Burroughs (no, not that one) was the first man to invent a commercially practical calculator

Four in five adults will experience back pain in their lifetimes, often from overusing their lower back muscles. A new smart garment aims to help.

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News Brief: Underwear of the Future Could Help Prevent Back Pain

The wearable device reduces strain on the back during lifting or leaning, which can help stop the pain before it starts

Alexander Graham Bell used the money from his telephone patent to fund Volta Laboratories, which later became Bell Laboratories.

Telephones Were Silenced for One Minute After Alexander Graham Bell Died

By the time Bell died, he had moved on to other inventions. But the telephone made a huge mark on American society

Candles were an important source of after-dark light in the early United States, so it makes sense that one of the first patents would be related to improving them.

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What the First Three Patents Say About Early America

Gunpowder, fertilizer, soap, candles and flour were all important to Americans

If you've eaten an avocado lately, chances are it was a Hass.

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Holy Guacamole: How the Hass Avocado Conquered the World

Why one California postman’s delicious mistake now graces toast and tacos from California to New Zealand

Frances Gabe's 1984 patent shows the floor plan of her self-cleaning home

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The First Self-Cleaning Home Was Essentially a ‘Floor-to-Ceiling Dishwasher’

Frances Gabe, who died late last year, channeled her frustration with housework into a futuristic design to end the drudgery of cleaning

Engineer Mark Rober posing with his Super Soaker creation

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Ex-NASA Engineer Builds World’s Largest Super Soaker

More than a mere toy, this water gun can slice through glass and watermelons

The July 14, 1868 patent for a tape measure included these two drawings.

How Hoop Skirts Led to Tape Measures

Eighteenth-century ladies would recognize some things about the modern contractor’s tool

Even though the idea of sliced bread took off like a shot, it took the inventor of the bread-slicing machine years to convince bakers to try his invention.

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Take a Look at the Patents Behind Sliced Bread

It took a surprising amount of technological know-how to make the bread that birthed the expression

For the times that licking an ice cream cone is too difficult, this patented motorized ice cream cone does the work for you. Happy summer.

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Motorized Ice Cream Cones and Floating Campgrounds: 14 of the Wackiest Summer Fun Patents

Inventors never stop thinking of new ways to have fun, as these 14 patents show.

This workout shirt has vents that start closed (left) but open when the wearer begins to sweat (right).

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This Biofabric From MIT Uses Bacteria to Automatically Ventilate Workout Clothes

Would you wear microbes on your back?

Meet Pedro the “Voder,” the First Electronic Machine to Talk

Pedro was an experiment in reproducing speech electronically, but took on a kind of life of its own

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