Steve van Dulken's Patent blog

Anti skimming devices

A story by me on anti skimming devices for use at ATMs/ cashpoints has been published on the Ideas21 web site as my patent of the month for May. The idea is to prevent "skimming" by criminals of the PIN number and of the magnetic strip details on the card.

Raising chairs for children at table

A new product which raises chairs for children when sitted at dining tables is apparently becoming very popular in the United States.

It is called Kaboost® and is by Amir Levin, who runs a company called Kabo Inc., based in Atlanta. It came about when he realised that his young cousins refused to sit in normal "booster chairs" meant for children. They wanted to be like the others at the table in normal chairs. A simple method of lifting a normal chair so that they were at the same height as others was, he thought, needed.

His Portable Device and Method for Raising the Height of Furniture explains the idea. Spring-loaded arms in the shape of an X are fitted to the chair's legs. They also make the chair more stable if knocked.

There is a website for the company, which I notice uses a mixture of the ™ symbol (which means that it's not a registered trade mark) and nothing at all for the brand name. As the mark is in fact registered they should always use the ® symbol at the end of the word on the site and in their advertising, packaging and so on to avoid possible legal problems.

The Dam Busters and patents

Today marks the 65th anniversary of the "Dambuster Raid" on dams in the Ruhr in 1943, as noted by a BBC article.

Many will have seen the 1955 film The Dam Busters, with Richard Todd playing Wing Commander Guy Gibson and Michael Redgrave as Barnes Wallis, the inventor of the "bouncing bomb". The film left out some details that were still considered secret at the time.

All was revealed, however, when in 1963 the patent was published for the "bomb" (actually a mine), Improvements in Explosive Missiles and Means for their Discharge . Here are the main drawings.

 

Helping people on and off airplanes

I’ve been travelling recently in Peru and Ecuador, and in my 12 airplane takeoffs (and, mercifully, landings) experienced a great amount of checking, form filling, monitoring (and tax paying), all in the name of airport security. There were also endless delays in getting on and off planes.

I looked for patents that suggest ways of improving passenger safety, and found something else. It is an intriguing invention by a Texan private inventor, the Airport system for operations, safety, and security. Here is its main drawing.

 

The nose section of the aircraft would tilt upwards or to the side so that the entire passenger compartment would be removed from the aircraft. A new passenger compartment, "fully loaded", would be placed into the plane. Baggage would in the same way be removed through the tail and the next baggage compartment would be put in place.

l'm not sure about the safety angle, but it would certainly ease the current system of passengers fighting their way off the airplane, as well as the delays in getting on. Passengers seated at the windows could simply walk off at the margins of the compartment.

Putting the luggage in a compartment that would also be easily removed would save time and reduce damage and pilfering. The lavatories, too, would be removeable. The patent contains a vast amount of detail as Mr Allison has thought thought through everything, it seems -- except, perhaps, the cost of building such airplanes, building new facilities for accomodating the new airplanes, and scraping existing facilities.