Patent Bending

Abraham Lincoln called the creation of patent law one of the three most important events in world history, along with the discovery of America and the invention of printing. And it is no coincidence, since Lincoln himself is the only US president who has a patent for an invention. From his own inventive experience, he remarked: “The patent system adds fuel to the flame of genius.”

The authors of the series decided to go through the documents of the US Patent and Trademark Office in search of the most ridiculous inventions of the last hundred years. Many of them have not received practical implementation and continue to exist only on paper.

Is it fair that these strange, at first glance, inventions are consigned to oblivion, and why did they suffer a similar fate? Science expert Russell Zeid, inventor Tom Stewart, and engineer Rick Mink are trying to answer this question with practical research. This resourceful and creative team unearths forgotten blueprints from dusty archives to make the bizarre fantasies of the inventors a reality.