About this item

An inventor is a person who gets an idea and acts upon it. Are you curious, creative, determined and a doer? You may be an inventor too! In this book, Joynson looks at the lives of the inventors of Monmouth County, New Jersey. It didn't take very long for a Monmouth County resident to get in on the US Patent Act of 1790. In 1792, Obadiah Herbert, of Pleasant Valley, met with Thomas Jefferson, the first Patent Board examiner, who approved Herbert's patent for "Spinning and twisting thread." In the 1930s, a Fair Haven inventor, called the "Father of Radio Astronomy," was also a champion ping pong player. A colonel at Fort Monmouth waited twelve years for his patent on radar to be approved. You'll find stories like this, some famous, some not-so-famous, with in-depth background information, pictures never seen before, and much more inside. Patent research is a much overlooked genealogy resource. The US Patent Office database contains over 9.5 million patents. Many descendants contacted during this project were unaware of their ancestor's patent. If you haven't checked, you may be surprised to find your ancestor listed among them. An appendix, a bibliography and an index to full-names, places and subjects add to the value of this work.