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Ancient US patent invalid over prior public use?

By Lawrence B. Ebert, Esq.

The Chicago Tribune re-reported a story from the Freeport Standard about LeBaron & Miller Interiors taking over a store once occupied by E & W Clothing House, which had a a "cash railway" or "cash carrier system." In this system, customers paid the clerk for their merchandise at the counter, after which the clerk grasped a small metal box or tube from a wire over his head, deposited the ticket and cash inside, pulled a cord that sent it sailing up a wire to a cashier on a balcony. The device bears the name the "Baldwin Flyer."

The story notes inventor James Baldwin took out a patent on a flyer for a wire system able to travel vertically in 1931. An illustration is labeled US patent No. 1,784,776 of 1930. Notwithstanding, the Indianapolis installation predates that patent.

Full post as published by IPBiz on November 30, 2008 (boomark / email).