Aug.6, 2013
The patent office archives contain many expired patents for beautiful items, such as a hat-holder, a flower stand, a pen holder, all from last century.
And now New York lawyer Martin Galese (31) has converted drawings from some of the expired patents into design files for 3D printers.
"If you look at the figures in older patents, the 19th century patents are really beautiful. They're really works of art," said Galese to New York Times. Now with 3D printing these items can be brought to life showing the brilliant ideas of the past.
Galese has posted some of these forgotten inventions on Tumblr, called "Patent-able", with drawings and CAD models of objects. He has also uploaded them to Thingiverse community where you can download them and print your own.
A 3D model of U.S. Pat. No. 985,969 — cutting-edge 1910 screw
"I'm a lawyer who does a lot of work with patents. I'm fascinated by the potential impact of generative technologies like 3D printing." said Galese."So when I was thinking about what to model, the answer seemed obvious. Old patents!"
Mr. Galese said he wishes more people saw the patent archives as a rich repository, or as the "original Thingiverse" with thousands of freely available designs.
Here are a few nice examples:
A 3D model of U.S. Pat. No. 985,969 — cutting-edge 1907 hat holder
A 3D model of U.S. Pat. No. 163,918. Cutting edge 1875 pot scraper
A 3D model of U.S. Pat. No. 3,501,191. Cutting edge 1967 chopstick holder
A 3D model of U.S. Pat. No. 2,454,693. Cutting edge 1948 portable-chess board
A 3D model of U.S. Pat. No. 165,456, cutting-edge 1875 flower stand
A 3D model of U.S. Pat. No. 165,456. Cutting edge 1989 bookmark / pen holder
From the office's founding in 1790 until 1880, the patent office required a physical model of every patent. Many of the samples from that period were beautifully crafted with fine details. Now with 3D printing, you can again bring these charming objects which link to the past back to life. It might inspire us to come up with more creative ideas.
Posted in 3D Printing Applications
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Full power to you.
Joey1058 wrote at 8/6/2013 9:41:08 PM:
Wow, you're talking about hundreds of thousands of designs!! This is ingenious!
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