Patents Archives - Renaissance Granddad

E.J. de Smedt Patents Asphalt Pavement

Edward J de Smedt Patented Asphalt Pavement – May 31, 1870 On May 31, 1870 Belgian immigrant Edward J de Smedt who was at Columbia University in New York City patented asphalt pavement. So we all know what asphalt is, as we all drive on it, and have all felt that heat rising off of it in the summer! But do you know how it is made? I didn’t until I started to deal with it at my job. From Wikipedia: Asphalt concrete (commonly called asphalt,[1] blacktop, or pavement in North America, and tarmac in Great Britain and Ireland) is a composite material commonly used to surface roads, parking lots, and airports. It consists of mineral aggregate bound together with asphalt, laid in layers, and compacted. The process was refined and enhanced by Belgian inventor and U.S. immigrant Edward de Smedt.[2] It is increasingly being used as the core of embankment dams.Read More More about the mineral aggregate in asphalt pavement….. Asphalt concrete pavement material is commonly composed of 5% asphalt/bitumen cement and 95% aggregates (stone, sand, and gravel). Due to its highly viscous nature, asphalt/bitumen cement must be heated so it can be mixed with the aggregates at the asphalt mixing plant. There are about 4,000 asphalt concrete mixing plants in the U.S., and a similar number in Europe Read More E.J. de Smedt’s well-graded” maximum-density road asphalt was first used in 1872 in Battery Park and on Fifth Avenue in New York City. In 1877 it was used…

On this Date in History – August 11, 1942 – US Patent granted to Hedy Lamarr for “Secret Communication System”!

On August 11, 1942, U.S. Patent 2,292,387 for the “Secret Communications System” was granted to George Anthiel and his neighbor Hedy Kiesler Markey who was better known as actress Hedy Lamarr. Lamarr was once called the “most beautiful woman in Europe,” and often referred to as the most gorgeous and exotic of Hollywood’s leading ladies! The patent was for a device which would use frequency-hopping to avoid jamming of a things like radio controlled torpedoes. The device used a piano roll to unpredictably chnge the signal sent between a control center and the torpedo at short bursts within a range of 88 frequencies in the radio-frequency spectrum. the specific code for the sequence of frequencies would be held identically by the controlling ship and the torpedo. It would be practically impossible for the enemy to scan and jam all 88 frequencies, as this would require too much power or complexity. The frequency-hopping sequence was controlled by a player-piano mechanism, which Anthiel had earlier used to score his Ballet Mécanique The design of the device was considered so vital to national defense that government officials would not allow publication of its details. However, the device soon met with opposition from the Navy and was never adopted. The idea of the device was implemented though in 1962 by US military ships during the blockade of Cuba, after the patent had expired. The frequency hopping system designed by Anthiel and Lamarr was an important step in the development of technology to maintain the security of both military communications and cellular phones. In…