
Show HN: Print iconic patents for your walls - AlexMuir
https://www.howacarworks.com/blog/iconic-patent-posters
======
amelius
I would prefer to put "silly" patents on my wall instead, such as [1], [2],
[3].

[1]
[http://www.google.nl/patents/US4320756](http://www.google.nl/patents/US4320756)

[2]
[http://www.google.com/patents/US4022227](http://www.google.com/patents/US4022227)

[3]
[https://www.google.nl/patents/US1106495](https://www.google.nl/patents/US1106495)

~~~
ThePhysicist
This is hilarious! The "toilet breathing tube" [1] actually had a prominent
appearance in this year's movie "Kingsman - The Secret Service"
([http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2802144/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2802144/)),
where a group of trainees used shower tubes to breathe through the toilets
when their dorm was flooded with water. I guess they were lucky that the
patent on this has already expired, otherwise they would have drowned for
certain...

~~~
pavel_lishin
I had a problem with that scene. That works for a fire. I would not expect it
to work when the entire room, toilets included, are filled with water.
Wouldn't the toilets just continuously "flush" due to the water pressure, the
same way as they flush if you manually dump a bucket of water into a regular
toilet?

~~~
pmorici
If you could get the breathing tube to the vent pipe part of the plumbing
there might be air in that part of the piping even while the toilet is
draining the water from the flooded room. You would need to get the tube
pushed past the toilet and into the main drain pipe though to have a chance at
hitting the vent which would be difficult. I would be concerted about the
gases that come out of a waste pipe though in either case I would think that
can't be good for you.

------
radiorental
Wish we had seen these when we were decorating our office. The architects, who
happened to be involved in decorating as well, had picked out some 'iconic
patent images'. The only problem was they were from an Etsy store and the
artist just collected random, but plausible, image from the web.

We had a patent for Sputnik, that might have been ok until I spotted this
[https://s-media-cache-
ak0.pinimg.com/originals/c7/4f/06/c74f...](https://s-media-cache-
ak0.pinimg.com/originals/c7/4f/06/c74f064bd6e2f98f2feeace8685ad56f.jpg)

Its a V2 rocket.

~~~
jotm
The Allies really put the V2 to good use, though.

[http://www.airspacemag.com/space/the-first-photo-from-
space-...](http://www.airspacemag.com/space/the-first-photo-from-
space-13721411/?no-ist)

~~~
radiorental
Does that mean copyright infringement?

------
jbuzbee
These do look cool and perhaps are examples of inventions that should be
patented, but unfortunately for me, patent abuses have turned me off to the
whole patent system. I wouldn't want reminders of this broken system staring
me in the face every day.

~~~
rayiner
I think that view is a bit short sighted. For example, Xerox PARC was
bankrolled by Xerox's monopoly on copier patents. In an environment where the
company didn't have to worry about counting pennies in cut throat competition,
it was able to fund fundamental research into technologies we take for granted
today (dynamic languages, the GUI, networking). After Japanese companies
successfully sued Xerox and got a consent decree to force licensing of the
patents, the company, and PARC, quickly declined.

Monopolies are often good for fundamental innovation. How much of modern
computing traces back to either Bell Labs (built on the AT&T monopoly, which
traces back to the Bell patent) or PARC (built on the Xerox patent monopoly)?

------
ddddddddq
I think I would have to go with this one:
[https://i.imgur.com/4t5xWq2.png](https://i.imgur.com/4t5xWq2.png)

~~~
CamperBob2
What patent is that from?

~~~
graedus
A Sony patent for mid-videogame advertising:

[http://www.google.com/patents/US8246454](http://www.google.com/patents/US8246454)

It's really quite a gem.

------
geon
How about printing software patents on toilet paper?

~~~
mycelium
I've been discouraged from looking at software patents by lawyers because
apparently knowledge that you're infringing can be bad news bears even if the
patent is frivolous.

If you actually read the toilet paper it could put you in a legally precarious
situation. Funny as hell.

~~~
rgbrenner
they could use frivolous, but already defeated, software patents. No harm in
reading them anymore.. and a reminder to what the USPTO thinks is innovation.

------
Moter8
There are also these
[https://i.imgur.com/z2wHuvM.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/z2wHuvM.jpg) [Cherry MX
Switch pictured] prints by Inked and Screened. Sometimes available @ Massdrop
for a way cheaper price.

~~~
hallman76
[http://inkedandscreened.com/](http://inkedandscreened.com/)

------
soundsop
I created a page at
[https://society6.com/constantchaos](https://society6.com/constantchaos) where
these can be ordered as prints.

I was so intrigued with the drawings that I started to look for additional
patent drawings to add. My favorite new ones are the Gameboy patent drawing
and 3 drawings related to Curta mechanical calculators.

I developed my own vectorization and re-rasterization process that I believe
offers a slight improvement in faithfulness to the original drawing (took a
few tries to get the Curta ones right).

------
Facens
We created a page at Unixstickers where you can purchase the posters for each
of these patent arts and have them conveniently delivered to your home or
office: [http://www.unixstickers.com/posters/iconic-patent-
posters](http://www.unixstickers.com/posters/iconic-patent-posters)

Check it out : )

~~~
mattwad
I wish Unixstickers offered framing, otherwise I would have gotten my print
here!

The terminal catalog is cool:
[https://www.unixstickers.com/terminal](https://www.unixstickers.com/terminal)

------
hallman76
The blog post mentions "the images are too low resolution for a good print.
We've made the high resolution versions available below for you to download."

Does this mean higher res versions came from another source or that these were
somehow enhanced/cleaned up?

~~~
AlexMuir
We converted the original PNGs to vector using Illustrator's image trace, then
cleaned up some noise and removed some bits of pixelation before scaling them
up and resaving them as raster.

------
teachingaway
For a great collection of weird old patents, check out
[https://www.flickr.com/groups/1478617@N25/pool/](https://www.flickr.com/groups/1478617@N25/pool/)

A flickr collection by LisaGenius.

------
Animats
As for "remastering" the patent images, here's how to do it.

Patent images are stored by the USPTO in TIFF form, which is a lossless
compression. For years, they were delivered to users from the USPTO site in
TIFF form, and you had to have a TIFF plug-in to view them. Last year, the
USPTO switched to displaying PDF files instead. Those are harder to process in
programs.

You can still download the TIFF files, but only in bulk.[1] They're available
in blocks of about 10GB, each covering a range of patent numbers. You need
about 10TB to store the whole set.

[1]
[http://patents.reedtech.com/pgyb.php](http://patents.reedtech.com/pgyb.php)

------
brador
What's the copyright on patents? Could this be done as an actual business?

~~~
iDemonix
As someone who is fairly good at this (I spend a fair bit of time creating
vectors of old motorcycles for livery design), I'm also intrigued to know.

------
hoopism
I want this one on my office wall
[http://totallyabsurd.com/dadsaddle.htm](http://totallyabsurd.com/dadsaddle.htm)

------
donpdonp
I would really like to see the patent expiration date on the diagrams. To give
an idea of how long the screwdriver, for example, was patented.

------
kejaed
While not a patent, I have always thought this schematic for the Appoe I,
signed by Woz himself, would look great in the office.

[http://signedbywoz.com/products-
schematic.php](http://signedbywoz.com/products-schematic.php)

------
branchless
First couple just made me think "how does that get a patent". Philips
screwdriver - a flat screwdriver with another blade across it. Lego - a brick.

Nice illustrations but maddening.

~~~
falcolas
Well, one of the novelties of the Phillips screwdriver is its ability cam out
of the screw head if it encounters too much resistance.

While frustrating to many who use it, it does prevent the all too easy case of
sheering off the screw head because the screw met resistance (something I've
done a few times with hexagonal heads and flat screwdrivers).

Lego - completely novel for its time. Just because it's not novel now, doesn't
mean it wasn't novel when it was invented.

------
qtrain
Awesome! What are the specific sizes for the prints and the frames?

~~~
AlexMuir
29x39cm

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CmonDev
Can you add the best of Nikola Tesla section?

------
girfan
This is beautiful!

