A Moment In Time

The Month Of JANUARY

Inventions, Patents, or Registrations

BY » Mickey Dunaway

As I was pondering a unique direction for this month’s “Moment in Time” column, I decided to focus on the feeling of newness essential to January. I know. Most of us never keep—for long—the newness and originality embodied in our New Year resolutions. However, over the centuries, people have seen their ideas and inventions through to completion and to the patent office. Not me. I am usually the type who says, “Damn! I thought of that years ago.” Or “That is so simple. I wish I had thought of that!” So for January 2022, we are looking at inventions, patents, registrations, and the people who kept their resolutions!

6, 1925

Agronomist George Washington Carver was granted patent No. 1,522,176 for cosmetics. If you have never visited GWC’s academic home of Tuskegee Institute, make a trip to east Alabama and pay a visit to Tuskegee Institute and the Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site, too.

9, 1906

Campbell’s soup was trademark registered. Mmm. Mmm. Good—especially the tomato!

13, 1930

Mickey Mouse first appears as a cartoon in newspapers across the U.S. From thoughts as small as acorns, accomplishments as significant as oak trees grow.

17, 1882

The telephone switchboard was patented by Leroy Firman. Can you hear me now?

19, 1915

Doublemint Gum was trademark registered. Double Your Pleasure. Double Your Fun!

20 1929

In Old Arizona, the first full-length “talking motion picture to authentic outdoor locations was made. A Cisco Kid feature. However, in this version he was hombre!

23, 1943

The movie “Casablanca” was copyrighted. Play it again, Sam.

24, 1935

“Krueger Cream Ale,” the first canned beer, was sold by the Kruger Brewing Company of Richmond, VA. Now that is a Moment in Time to celebrate. Heft one for me!

26, 1875

George Green patented the first electric dental drill. And with it, an essential tool of torture in horror movies!

26, 1909

The Milk-Bone dog treat trademark is registered. My Brittanys, Boomer and Chole, are very appreciative, too!

27, 1880

Thomas Edison was granted Patent No. 223,898 for an electric incandescent lamp. Edison was dyslexic, and hyperactivity led his mother to teach him at home.

30, 1883

The cash register was patented by James Ritty and John Birch. What a change in this simple device the modern world has wrought.

31, 1893

The trademark for Coca-Cola was registered for a “nutrient or tonic beverage.” Coca-Cola is the second most widely understood term in the world after ‘OK.’ Now that is some kind of marketing!

31, 1983

Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” was copyrighted. The number one selling album of all time with 49.2 million certified copies sold. The Eagles Greatest Hits was in second place, selling 41.2 million copies. (https:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_bestselling_albums)

What is your most memorable January? For me, it is this January 2022. The Almighty has blessed me with three-quarters of a century on the bigblue-beautiful-ball, so I will celebrate 75 years of having tramped the backroads and fished and hunted the swamps and estuaries, rivers, and lakes of my beautiful Southland.

January is a month of future possibilities. A quote by Saint Augustine says it perfectly:

Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward for this faith is to see what you believe.